George Herbert - The Temple (1633)

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Sorrow was all my soul; I scarce believed, Till grief did tell me roundly, that I lived.

George Herbert
Chase brave employment with a naked sword
Throughout the world.

George Herbert
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine:
Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
Makes that and th' action fine.

George Herbert
For thirty pence he did my death devise,
Who at three hundred did the ointment prize.

George Herbert
Rise, heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing His praise Without delays, Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise With Him mayst rise: That, as His death calcined thee to dust, His life may make thee gold, and, much more, just.

George Herbert
Let thy mind's sweetness have its operation upon thy body, clothes, and habitation.

George Herbert
Who is the honest man?
He that doth still and strongly good pursue
To God, his neighbor, and himself most true:
Whom neither force nor fawning can
Unpin, or wrench from giving all their due.

George Herbert
Resort to sermons, but to prayers most: Praying's the end of preaching.

George Herbert
Though you see a Church-man ill, yet continue in the Church still.

George Herbert
The fleet Astronomer can bore, And thred the spheres with his quick-piercing mind: He views their stations, walks from dore to dore, Surveys, as if he had design'd To make a purchase there: hee sees their dances, And knoweth long before, Both their full ey'd aspects, & secret glances.

George Herbert
Who goes to bed, and doth not pray, Maketh two nights to every day!

George Herbert
When once thy foot enters the church, be bare. God is more there than thou: for thou art there Only by his permission. Then beware, That leads from earth to heaven.

George Herbert
In thy discourse, if thou desire to please;
All such is courteous, useful, new, or wittie:
Usefulness comes by labour, wit byease;
Courtesie grows in court; news in the citie.

George Herbert
The harbingers are come. See, see their mark; White is their color, and behold my head.

George Herbert
Wealth is the Conjurer's Devil, Whom, when he thinks he hath, the Devil hath him.

George Herbert
Surely if each one saw another's heart, There would be no commerce, No sale or bargain pass: all would disperse And live apart.

George Herbert
True beauty dwells on high: ours is a flame
But borrowed thence to light us thither.
Beauty and beauteous words should go together.

George Herbert
I envy no man's nightingale or spring;
Nor let them punish me with loss of rhyme,
Who plainly say, My God, My King.

George Herbert
Sink not in spirit; who aimeth at the sky
Shoots higher much than he that means a tree.

George Herbert
If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains. If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains.

George Herbert
Man is all symmetry, Full of proportions, one limb to another.

George Herbert
Trust no friend with that you need fear him if he were your enemy.

George Herbert
Laugh not too much; the witty man laughs least: For wit is news only to ignorance. Lesse at thine own things laugh; lest in the jest Thy person share, and the conceit advance.

George Herbert
Summe up at night what thou hast done by day; And in the morning what thou hast to do. Dresse and undresse thy soul; mark the decay And growth of it; if, with thy watch, that too Be down then winde up both; since we shall be Most surely judg'd, make thy accounts agree.

George Herbert
My body is all symmetry, Full of proportions, one limb to another, And all to all the world besides: Each part may call the farthest, brother: For head with foot hath private smity, And both with moon and tides.

George Herbert
The subtle chymick can devest And strip the creature naked, till he finde The callow principles within their nest: There he imparts to them his minde, Admitted to their bed-chamber before They appeare trim and drest To ordinate suitours at the doore.

George Herbert
Grief melts away Like snow in May,
As if there were no such cold thing.

George Herbert
God's works are wide, and let in future times; His ancient justice overflows our crimes.

George Herbert
Who goes to bed and does not pray,
Maketh two nights to every day.

George Herbert
Dare to be true. Nothing can need a lie:
A fault, which needs it most, grows two thereby.

George Herbert