Top 70 John Lyly Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Marriages are made in heaven and consummated on Earth.”

— John Lyly

2. “The broken bone, once set together, is stronger than ever.”

— John Lyly

3. “Marriage is destinie, made in heaven.”

— John Lyly

4. “The bee that hath honey in her mouth hath a sting in her tail.”

— John Lyly

5. “As the best wine doth make the sharpest vinegar, so the deepest love turns to the deadliest hate.”

— John Lyly

6. “Beauty – a deceitful bait with a deadly hook.”

— John Lyly

7. “The measure of love is to have no mean, the end to be everlasting.”

— John Lyly

8. “For experience teacheth me that straight trees have crooked roots.”

— John Lyly

9. “The tongue, the ambassador of the heart.”

— John Lyly

10. “Nothing so perilous as procrastination.”

— John Lyly

11. “Lette me stande to the maine chance.”

— John Lyly

12. “The slothful are always ready to engage in idle talk of what will be done tomorrow, and every day after.”

— John Lyly

13. “Love knoweth no laws.”

— John Lyly

14. “The night has a thousand eyes.”

— John Lyly

15. “The true measure of life is not length, but honesty.”

— John Lyly

16. “A merry companion is as good as a wagon, For you shall be sure to ride though ye go a foot.”

— John Lyly

17. “It is a blind goose that cometh to the fox’s sermon.”

— John Lyly

18. “He that loseth his honesty hath nothing else to lose.”

— John Lyly

19. “The finest edge is made with the blunt whetstone.”

— John Lyly

20. “I thank you for nothing, because I understand nothing.”

— John Lyly

21. “Be valyaunt, but not too venturous. Let thy attyre bee comely, but not costly.”

— John Lyly

22. “Far more seemly to have thy study full of books, than thy purse full of money.”

— John Lyly

23. “All fish are not caught with flies.”

— John Lyly

24. “Many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.”

— John Lyly

25. “Time draweth wrinkles in a fair face, but addeth fresh colors to a fast friend, which neither heat, nor cold, nor misery, nor place, nor destiny, can alter or diminish.”

— John Lyly

26. “It is the disposition of the thought that altered the nature of the thing.”

— John Lyly

27. “In misery it is great comfort to have a companion.”

— John Lyly

28. “A heat full of coldness, a sweet full of bitterness, a pain full of pleasantness, which maketh thoughts have eyes and hearts ears, bred by desire, nursed by delight, weaned by jealousy, kill’d by dissembling, buried by ingratitude, and this is love.”

— John Lyly

29. “Gentlemen use books as Gentlewomen handle their flowers, who in the morning stick them in their heads, and at night strawe them at their heeles.”

— John Lyly

30. “A bargain is a bargain.”

— John Lyly

31. “In arguing of the shadow, we forgo the substance.”

— John Lyly

32. “Fish and guests in three days are stale.”

— John Lyly

33. “Where the streame runneth smoothest, the water is deepest.”

— John Lyly

34. “Where the mind is past hope, the heart is past shame.”

— John Lyly

35. “As lyke as one pease is to another.”

— John Lyly

36. “Rather fast then surfette, rather starue then striue to exceede.”

— John Lyly

37. “The empty vessel giveth a greater sound than the full barrel.”

— John Lyly

38. “Where the countenance is fair, there need no colors.”

— John Lyly

39. “Long quaffing maketh a short lyfe.”

— John Lyly

40. “I am of this mind, that might and malice, deceit and treachery perjury and impiety may lawfully be committed in love; which is lawless.”

— John Lyly

41. “The wound that bleedeth inward is most dangerous.”

— John Lyly

42. “Though women have small force to overcome men by reason; yet have they good fortune to undermine them by policy.”

— John Lyly

43. “A new broome sweepeth cleane.”

— John Lyly

44. “Things of greatest profit are set forth with least price. Where the wine is neat there needeth no live blush.”

— John Lyly

45. “The sun shineth upon the dunghill, and is not corrupted.”

— John Lyly

46. “The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble.”

— John Lyly

47. “To love women and never enjoy them, is as much to love wine and never taste it.”

— John Lyly

48. “If thy wealth waste, they wit will give but small warmth.”

— John Lyly

49. “The rattling thunderbolt hath but his clap, the lightning but his flash, and as they both come in a moment, so do they both end in a minute.”

— John Lyly

50. “The greatest harm that you can do unto the envious, is to do well.”

— John Lyly