George Herbert
George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born English poet and orator. Herbert's poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as "a pivotal figure: enormously popular, deeply and broadly influential, and arguably the most skillful and important British devotional lyricist."
Born into an artistic and wealthy family, Herbert received a good education that led to his admission in 1609 as a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in languages, rhetoric and music. He went to university with the intention of becoming a priest, but when eventually he became the University's Public Orator he attracted the attention of King James I and may well have seen himself as a future Secretary of State. In 1624 and briefly in 1625 he served in Parliament. Never a healthy man, he died of consumption at the early age of 39.
“Peace, prattler.”
“For, if I imp my wing on thine,Affliction shall advance the flight in me.”
“The market is the best garden.”
“He begins to die, that quits his desires.”
“Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,The bridal of the earth and sky;The dew shall weep thy fall tonight,For thou must die.”
“A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread.”
“Every mile is two in winter”
“Love and a cough cannot be hid.”
“But I am lost in flesh, whose sugared lies,Still mock me and grow bold:Sure thou didst put a mind there, if I couldFind where it lies.”
“Every path hath a puddle.”
“Wouldst thou both eat thy cake and have it?”
“Love is swift of foot;/Love's a man of war.”
“For if I wimp my wing on thine. Affliction shall advance the flight in me.”
“Having been tenant long to a rich Lord, Not thriving, I resolved to be bold, And make a suit unto him, to affordA new small-rented lease, and cancell th’ old.In heaven at his manour I him sought: They told me there, that he was lately gone About some land, which he had dearly boughtLong since on earth, to take possession.I straight return’d, and knowing his great birth, Sought him accordingly in great resorts; In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts:At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth Of theeves and murderers: there I him espied, Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died. ”
“He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.”
“Who says that fictions only and false hairBecome a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?Is all good structure in a winding stair?”
“Man is no star, but a quick coalOf mortal fire:Who blows it not, nor doth controlA faint desire,”
“Be calm in arguing: for fierceness makes Error a fault, and truth discourtesy.”
“Have I no harvest but a thorn To let me bloud, and not restoreWhat I have lost with cordiall fruit? Sure there was wine Before my sighs did drie it: there was corn Before my tears did drown it. Is the yeare onely lost to me? Have I no bayes to crown it?No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted? All wasted? Not so, my heart: but there is fruit, And thou hast hands. Recover all thy sigh-blown ageOn double pleasures: leave thy cold disputeOf what is fit, and not. Forsake thy cage, Thy rope of sands,Which pettie thoughts have made, and made to thee Good cable, to enforce and draw, And be thy law, While thou didst wink and wouldst not see.”
“Woe be to him that reads but one book.”
“The best mirror is an old friend.”
“Storms make oaks take deeper root.”
“The shortest answer is doing.”
“Living well is the best revenge.”
“Life is half spent before we know what it is.”