Top 70 John Lyly Quotes (2025 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. “Beauty – a deceitful bait with a deadly hook.”

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

11. “Nothing so perilous as procrastination.”

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

14. “Love knoweth no laws.”

— John Lyly

15. “The night has a thousand eyes.”

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

23. “Many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.”

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

27. “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

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. “A bargain is a bargain.”

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

35. “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

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

38. “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

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

41. “Long quaffing maketh a short lyfe.”

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

44. “A new broome sweepeth cleane.”

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

46. “To give reason for fancy were to weigh the fire, and measure the wind.”

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

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

— John Lyly

49. “To love and to live well is wished of many, but incident to few.”

— John Lyly

50. “There can no great smoke arise, but there must be some fire.”

— John Lyly