Edmund Waller Quotes

49 Sourced Quotes

The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er; So calm are we when passions are no more!

Edmund Waller
The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made; Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become As they draw near to their eternal home. Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new.

Edmund Waller
Go, lovely rose!
Tell her that wastes her time and me
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.

Edmund Waller
His love at once and dread instruct our thought; As man He suffer'd and as God He taught.

Edmund Waller
A narrow compass! and yet there
Dwelt all that 's good, and all that 's fair;
Give me but what this riband bound,
Take all the rest the sun goes round.

Edmund Waller
Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse,
And every conqueror creates a muse.

Edmund Waller
The lark that shuns on lofty boughs to build, Her humble nest, lies silent in the field.

Edmund Waller
That which her slender waist confined
Shall now my joyful temples bind;
No monarch but would give his crown
His arms might do what this has done.

Edmund Waller
The fear of God is freedom, joy, and peace;
And makes all ills that vex us here to cease.

Edmund Waller
There is a garden in her face
Where roses and white lilies blow;
A heavenly paradise is that place,
Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow:
There cherries grow which none may buy
Till 'Cherry-ripe' themselves do cry.

Edmund Waller
My joy, my grief, my hope, my love,
Did all within this circle move!

Edmund Waller
Rome, though her eagle through the world had flown,
Could never make this island all her own.

Edmund Waller
While we converse with her, we mark
No want of day, nor think it dark.

Edmund Waller
Poets may boast (as safely-vain) Their work shall with the world remain: Both bound together, live, or die, The verses and the prophecy. But who can hope his lines shou'd long Last, in a daily changing tongue? While they are new, envy prevails, And as that dies, our language fails.

Edmund Waller
Happy the innocent whose equal thoughts are free from anguish as they are from faults.

Edmund Waller
All things but one you can restore; the heart you get returns no more.

Edmund Waller
Fade, flowers, fade! Nature will have it so; 'tis but what we in our autumn do.

Edmund Waller
Gods, that never change their state, vary oft their love and hate.

Edmund Waller
What use of oaths, of promise, or of test, where men regard no God but interest?

Edmund Waller
Small is the worth Of beauty from the light retired: Bid her come forth, Suffer herself to be desired, And not blush so to be admired.

Edmund Waller
Happy is she that from the world retires, and carries with her what the world admires.

Edmund Waller
His kingdom come!" For this we pray in vain,
Unless He does in our affections reign.
How fond it were to wish for such a King,
And no obedience to his sceptre bring,
Whose yoke is easy, and His burthen light;
His service freedom, and His judgments right.

Edmund Waller
The rising sun complies with our weak sight, First gilds the clouds, then shows his globe of light At such a distance from our eyes, as though He knew what harm his hasty beams would do.

Edmund Waller
In other things the knowing artist may Judge better than the people; but a play, (Made for delight, and for no other use) If you approve it not, has no excuse.

Edmund Waller
And as pale sickness does invade, Your frailer part, the breaches made, In that fair lodging still more clear, Make the bright guest, your soul, appear.

Edmund Waller
Seeming devotion does but gild a knave,
That's neither faithful, honest, just, nor brave;
But where religion does with virtue join,
It makes a hero like an angel shine.

Edmund Waller
Lampoons, like squibs, may make a present blaze; but time and thunder pay respect to bays.

Edmund Waller
Under the tropic is our language spoke,
And part of Flanders hath received our yoke.

Edmund Waller
Poets lose half the praise they should have got,
Could it be known what they discreetly blot.

Edmund Waller
Could we forbear dispute, and practice love,
We should agree as angels do above.
Where love presides, not vice alone does find
No entrance there, hut virtues stay behind:
Both faith, and hope, and all the meaner train
Of mortal virtues, at the door remain.
Love only enters as a native there,
For born in heav'n, it does but sojourn here.

Edmund Waller