Top 160 Francis Quarles Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the worst there.”

— Francis Quarles

52. “It is no happiness to live long, nor unhappiness to die soon; happy is he that hath lived long enough to die well.”

— Francis Quarles

53. “Fear nothing but what thy industry may prevent; be confident of nothing but what fortune cannot defeat; it is no less folly to fear what is impossible to be avoided than to be secure when there is a possibility to be deprived.”

— Francis Quarles

54. “And what’s a life? – a weary pilgrimage, Whose glory in one day doth fill the stage With childhood, manhood, and decrepit age.”

— Francis Quarles

55. “They who cannot be induced to fear for love will never be enforced to love for fear. Love opens the heart, fear shuts it; that encourages, this compels; and victory meets encouragement, but flees compulsion.”

— Francis Quarles

56. “Hath fortune dealt thee ill cards? let wisdom make thee a good gamester. In a fair gale, every fool may sail, but wise behavior in a storm commends the wisdom of a pilot; to bear adversity with an equal mind is both the sign and glory of a brave spirit.”

— Francis Quarles

57. “Rather do what is nothing to the purpose than be idle; that the devil may find thee doing. The bird that sits is easily shot, when fliers scape the fowler. Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and the self-made sepulchre of a living man.”

— Francis Quarles

58. “If thou wouldst preserve a sound body, use fasting and walking; if a healthful soul, fasting and praying. Walking exercises the body; praying exercises the soul; fasting cleanses both.”

— Francis Quarles

59. “The world’s an Inn; and I her guest.”

— Francis Quarles

60. “Charity feeds the poor, so does pride; charity builds an hospital, so does pride. In this they differ: charity gives her glory to God; pride takes her glory from man.”

— Francis Quarles

61. “If thou neglectest thy love to thy neighbor, in vain thou professest thy love to God; for by thy love to God, the love to thy neighbor is begotten, and by the love to thy neighbor thy love to God is nourished.”

— Francis Quarles

62. “If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble, for the proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none but itself. Humility enforces where neither virtue, nor strength, nor reason can prevail.”

— Francis Quarles

63. “Knowledge descries; wisdom applies.”

— Francis Quarles

64. “So use prosperity, that adversity may not abuse thee: if in the one, security admits no fears, in the other, despair will afford no hopes; he that in prosperity can foretell a danger can in adversity foresee deliverance.”

— Francis Quarles

65. “Put off thy cares with thy clothes; so shall thy rest strengthen thy labor, and so thy labor sweeten thy rest.”

— Francis Quarles

66. “The world is deceitful; her end is doubtful, her conclusion is horrible, her judge terrible, and her judgment is intolerable.”

— Francis Quarles

67. “Immortal life is something to be earned, By slow self-conquest, comradeship with Pain, And patient seeking after higher truths.”

— Francis Quarles

68. “Whosoever obeyeth the devil, casteth himself down: for the devil may suggest, compel he cannot.”

— Francis Quarles

69. “The birds of the air die to sustain thee; the beasts of the field die to nourish thee; the fishes of the sea die to feed thee. Our stomachs are their common sepulchre. Good God! with how many deaths are our poor lives patched up! how full of death is the life of momentary man!”

— Francis Quarles

70. “The grave is sooner cloy’d than men’s desire.”

— Francis Quarles

71. “The suburbs of folly is vain mirth, and profuseness of laughter is the city of fools.”

— Francis Quarles

72. “Pleasures bring effeminacy, and effeminacy foreruns ruin; such conquests, without blood or sweat, sufficiently do revenge themselves upon their intemperate conquerors.”

— Francis Quarles

73. “If thou seest anything in thyself which may make thee proud, look a little further and thou shalt find enough to humble thee; if thou be wise, view the peacock’s feathers with his feet, and weigh thy best parts with thy imperfections.”

— Francis Quarles

74. “What treasures here do Mammon’s sons behold! Yet know that all that which glitters is not gold.”

— Francis Quarles

75. “Virtue is nothing but an act of loving that which is to be beloved, and that act is prudence, from whence not to be removed by constraint is fortitude; not to be allured by enticements is temperance; not to be diverted by pride is justice.”

— Francis Quarles

76. “The next way home’s the farthest way about.”

— Francis Quarles

77. “After years of research, scientists recently reported that there is, indeed, arroz in Spanish Harlem. A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted.”

— Francis Quarles

78. “In thy apparel avoid singularity, profuseness, and gaudiness. Be not too early in the fashion, nor too late. Decency is half way between affectation and neglect. The body is the shell of the soul, apparel is the husk of that shell; the husk often tells you what the kernel is.”

— Francis Quarles

79. “My soul, the seas are rough, and thou a stranger In these false coasts; O keep aloof; there’s danger; Cast forth thy plummet; see, a rock appears; Thy ships want sea-room; make it with thy tears.”

— Francis Quarles

80. “God’s pleasure is at the end of our prayers.”

— Francis Quarles

81. “What money creates, money preserves: if thy wealth decays, thy honor dies; it is but a slippery happiness which fortunes can give, and frowns can take; and not worth the owning which a night’s fire can melt, or a rough sea can drown.”

— Francis Quarles

82. “Before thy undertaking of any design, weigh the glory of thy action with the danger of the attempt; if the glory outweigh the danger, it is cowardice to neglect it; if the danger exceed the glory, it is rashness to attempt it; if the balances stand poised, let thy own genius cast them.”

— Francis Quarles

83. “Afflictions clarify the soul.”

— Francis Quarles

84. “Let the ground of all thy religious actions be obedience; examine not why it is commanded, but observe it because it is commanded. True obedience neither procrastinates nor questions.”

— Francis Quarles

85. “Before thou reprehend another, take heed thou art not culpable in what thou goest about to reprehend. He that cleanses a blot with blotted fingers makes a greater blur.”

— Francis Quarles

86. “Let the greatest part of the news thou hearest be the least part of what thou believest, lest the greater part of what thou believest be the least part of what is true.”

— Francis Quarles

87. “A despairing heart is the true prophet of approaching evil; his actions may weave the webs of Fortune, but not break them.”

— Francis Quarles

88. “He that hath promised pardon on our repentance hat not promised life till we repent.”

— Francis Quarles

89. “Be not too great a niggard in the commendations of him that professes thy own quality: if he deserve thy praise, thou hast discovered thy judgment; if not, thy modesty: honor either returns or reflects to the giver.”

— Francis Quarles

90. “Nor fire, nor rocks, can stop our furious minds, Nor waves, nor winds.”

— Francis Quarles

91. “That friendship will not continue to the end which is begun for an end.”

— Francis Quarles

92. “Nothing is more pleasing to God than an open hand, and a closed mouth.”

— Francis Quarles

93. “As all things eternal and primordial reappear, so all things mortal return to the earth. Honor, old age, probity, justice, constance, virtue, and gentleness are all gathered into the cold tomb.”

— Francis Quarles

94. “Let all thy joys be as the month of May.”

— Francis Quarles

95. “Make philosophy thy journey, theology thy journey’s end: philosophy is a pleasant way, but dangerous to him that either tires or retires; in this journey it is safe neither to loiter nor to rest, till thou hast attained thy journey’s end; he that sits down a philosopher rises up an atheist.”

— Francis Quarles

96. “Luxury is an enticing pleasure, a bastard mirth, which hath honey in her mouth, gall in her heart, and a sting in her tail.”

— Francis Quarles

97. “Though virtue give a ragged livery, she gives a golden cognizance; if her service make thee poor, blush not. Thy poverty may disadvantage thee, but not dishonor thee.”

— Francis Quarles

98. “Temper your enjoyments with prudence, lest there be written on your heart that fearful word ‘satiety.’”

— Francis Quarles

99. “Be not too rash in the breaking of an inconvenient custom; as it was gotten, so leave it by degrees. Danger attends upon too sudden alterations; he that pulls down a bad building by the great may be ruined by the fall, but he that takes it down brick by brick may live to build a better.”

— Francis Quarles

100. “To fear death is the way to live long; to lie afraid of death is to be long a dying.”

— Francis Quarles