John Davies Quotes

20 Sourced Quotes

Skill comes so slow, and life so fast doth fly,
We learn so little and forget so much.

John Davies
Hence it is that old men do plant young trees, the fruit whereof another age shall take.

John Davies
Behold the world how it is whirled round, And for it is so whirl'd, is named so; In whose large volume many rules are found Of this new Art, which it doth fairly show: For your quick eyes in wandering too and fro From East to West, on no one thing can glance, But if you make it well, it seemes to daunce.

John Davies
This is the slowest, yet the daintiest sense;
For ev'n the ears of such as have no skill,
Perceive a discord, and conceive offence;
And knowing not what's good, yet find the ill.

John Davies
We may conceive an hope that the next generation will in tongue and heart and every way else become English; so as there will be no difference or distinction but the Irish sea betwixt us.

John Davies
This wondrous miracle did Love devise,
For dancing is love's proper exercise.

John Davies
Rudenesse it selfe she doth refine,
Euen like an Alchemist divine,
Grosse times of Iron turning
Into the purest forme of gold:
Not to corrupt, till heaven waxe old,
And be refin'd with burning.

John Davies
I know my life's a pain and but a span,
I know my sense is mocked with everything;
And to conclude, I know myself a man,
Which is a proud and yet a wretched thing.

John Davies
For this, the wisest of all moral men
Said he knew nought, but that he nought did know;
And the great mocking master mocked not then,
When he said, Truth was buried deep below.

John Davies
What makes the vine about the elm to dance
With turnings, windings, and embracements round?
What makes the lodestone to the north advance
His subtle point.

John Davies
Wedlock, indeed, hath oft compared been
To public feasts where meet a public rout,
Where they that are without would fain go in
And they that are within would fain go out.

John Davies
Why did my parents send me to the schools
That I with knowledge might enrich my mind?
Since the desire to know first made men fools,
And did corrupt the root of all mankind.

John Davies
Kind nature first doth cause all things to love;
Love makes them dance, and in just order move.

John Davies
I know my soul hath power to know all things,
Yet is she blind and ignorant of all;
I know I am one of nature's little kings,
Yet to the least and vilest things am thrall.

John Davies
We that acquaint ourselves with every zone,
And pass both tropics and behold the poles,
When we come home, are to ourselves unknown,
And unacquainted still with our own souls.

John Davies
Much like a subtle spider which doth sit
In middle of her web, which spreadeth wide;
If aught do touch the utmost thread of it,
She feels it instantly on every side.

John Davies
What can we know, or what can we discern,
When error chokes the windows of the mind,
The diverse forms of things, how can we learn,
That have been ever from our birthday blind?

John Davies
We seek to know the moving of each sphere,
And the strange cause of th' ebbs and floods of Nile;
But of that clock within our breasts we bear,
The subtle motions we forget the while.

John Davies
Since all the world's great fortune and affairs
Forward and backward rapt and whirled are,
According to the music of the spheres;
And Chance herself her nimble feet upbears
On a round slippery wheel, that rolleth aye.
And turns all states with her imperious sway;

John Davies
As spiders touched seek their webs' inmost part,
As bees in storms unto their hives return,
As blood in danger gathers to the heart,
As men seek towns when foes the country burn.

John Davies