Anne Bradstreet Quotes

38 Sourced Quotes

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

Anne Bradstreet
A prosperous state makes a secure Christian, but adversity makes him Consider.

Anne Bradstreet
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.

Anne Bradstreet
Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending.

Anne Bradstreet
If what I do prove well, it won't advance.
They'll say it's stolen, or else it was by chance.

Anne Bradstreet
Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.

Anne Bradstreet
Wickedness comes to its height by degrees. He that dares say of a less sin, Is it not a little one? will ere long say of a greater, Tush, God regards it not!

Anne Bradstreet
My age I will not once lament,
But sing, my time so near is spent.

Anne Bradstreet
If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none;
And for thy Mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus'd her thus to send thee out of door.

Anne Bradstreet
Fire hath its force abated by water, not by wind; and anger must be allayed by cold words, and not by blustering threats.

Anne Bradstreet
"Sister," quoth Flesh, "what liv'st thou on
Nothing but Meditation?

Anne Bradstreet
Art can do much, but this maxim's most sure/A weak or wounded brain admits no cure.

Anne Bradstreet
Satan, that great angler, hath his sundry baits for sundry tempers of men, which they all catch greedily at, but few perceive the hook till it be too late.

Anne Bradstreet
When I behold the heavens as in their prime,
And then the earth (though old) still clad in green,
The stones and trees, insensible of time,
Nor age nor wrinkle on their front are seen

Anne Bradstreet
Sin and shame ever go together; he that would be freed from the last must be sure to shun the company of the first.

Anne Bradstreet
And time brings down what is both strong and tall.
But plants new set to be eradicate,
And buds new blown, to have so short a date,
Is by his hand alone that guides nature and fate.

Anne Bradstreet
He that would be content with a mean condition must not cast his eye upon one that is in a far better estate than himself, but let him look upon him that is lower than he is, and, if he see that such a one bears poverty comfortably, it will help to quiet him.

Anne Bradstreet
We must, therefore, be here as strangers and pilgrims, that we may plainly declare that we seek a city above.

Anne Bradstreet
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold or all the riches that the East doth hold.

Anne Bradstreet
It is reported of the peacock that priding himself in his gay feathers he ruffles them up; but spying his black feet he soon lets fall his plumes. So he that glories in his gifts and adornings should look upon his corruptions, and that will damp his high thoughts.

Anne Bradstreet
After a short time I changed my condition and was married, and came into this country, where I found a new world and new manners, at which my heart rose. But after I was convinced it was the way of God, I submitted to it and joined the church at Boston.

Anne Bradstreet
To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings/Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun/For my mean Pen are too superior things,

Anne Bradstreet
O Time the fatal wrack of mortal things...

Anne Bradstreet
Let Greeks be Greeks, and Women what they are,
Men have precedency, and still excel.

Anne Bradstreet
Such cold mean flowers the spring puts forth betime,
Before the sun hath thoroughly heat the clime.

Anne Bradstreet
There is no object that we see; no action that we do; no good that we enjoy; no evil that we feel, or fear, but we may make some spiritual advantage of all: and he that makes such improvement is wise, as well as pious.

Anne Bradstreet
This mean and unrefined stuff of mine,
Will make your glistering gold but more to shine.

Anne Bradstreet
Sore laborers have hard hands and old sinners have brawny consciences.

Anne Bradstreet
Leave not thy nest, thy dam and sire,
Fly back and sing amidst this choir.

Anne Bradstreet
I am obnoxious to each carping tongue,
Who says my hand a needle better fits.

Anne Bradstreet