John Webster - The Duchess of Malfi (1623)

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We are merely the stars' tennis-balls, struck and bandied
Which way please them.

John Webster
There is not in nature a thing that makes man so deform'd, so beastly, as doth intemp'rate anger.

John Webster
Other sins only speak, murder shrieks out. The element of water moistens the earth, But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens.

John Webster
O, that it were possible,
We might but hold some two days' conference
With the dead!

John Webster
Lay this unto your breast: Old friends, like old swords, still are trusted best.

John Webster
Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright,
But looked to near, have neither heat nor light.

John Webster
Physicians are like kings,—they brook no contradiction.

John Webster
That realm is never long in quiet, where the ruler is a soldier.

John Webster
In all our quest of greatness, like wanton boys, whose pastime is their care, we follow after bubbles, blown in the air.

John Webster
That friend a great man's ruin strongly checks, who rails into his belief all his defects.

John Webster
The misery of us, that are born great, We are forced to woo because none dare woo us.

John Webster
Bosola: Didst thou never study mathematics? Old Lady: What's that, sir? Bosola: Why, to know the trick how to make many lines met in one centre.

John Webster
I account this world a tedious theater,
For I do play a part in 't 'gainst my will.

John Webster
Are you grown an atheist? Will you turn your body, Which is the goodly palace of the soul, To the soul's slaughter-house? Oh, the curse' d devil, Which doth present us with all other sins Thrice-candied o'er.

John Webster