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Home  »  Dictionary of Quotations  »  Spenser

James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.

Spenser

A stern discipline pervades all Nature, which is a little cruel that it may be very kind.

Be bold, be bold, and everywhere be bold.

Dan Chaucer, well of English undefiled, / On Fame’s eternal bead-roll worthy to be filed.

Discord oft in music makes the sweeter lay.

Eftsoons they heard a most melodious sound.

Entire affection hateth nicer hands.

For lovers’ eyes more sharply sighted be / Than other men’s, and in dear love’s delight / See more than any other eyes can see.

For of the soul the body form doth take, / For soul is form, and doth the body make.

Full little knowest thou that hast not tried / What hell it is in suing long to bide; / To lose good days that might be better spent, / To waste long nights in pensive discontent.

Great Mammon!—greatest god below the sky.

Grief finds some ease by him that like doth bear.

Her angel’s face, / As the great eye of heaven, shined bright, / And made a sunshine in the shady place.

How oft do they their silver bowers leave / To come to succour us that succour want!

Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small.

Love is life’s end—an end, but never ending…. Love is life’s wealth; ne’er spent, but ever spending…. Love’s life’s reward, rewarded in rewarding.

Of the soul, the body form doth take, / For soul is form, and doth the body make.

Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, / Ease after war, death after life, doth greatly please.

The gentle mind by gentle deeds is known.

The noblest mind the best contentment hath.

Vile is the vengeance on the ashes cold, / And envy base to bark at sleeping fame.

Who will not mercy unto others show, / How can he mercy ever hope to have?