Top 50 John Webster Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Cowardly dogs bark loudest.”

— John Webster

2. “Eagles commonly fly alone. They are crows, daws, and starlings that flock together.”

— John Webster

3. “Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust.”

— John Webster

4. “I am Duchess of Malfi still.”

— John Webster

5. “The misery of us, that are born great, We are forced to woo because none dare woo us.”

— John Webster

6. “Lay this unto your breast: Old friends, like old swords, still are trusted best.”

— John Webster

7. “Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle. She died young.”

— John Webster

8. “Ambition, madam, is a great man’s madness.”

— John Webster

9. “Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweethearts, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.”

— John Webster

10. “See, a good habit makes a child a man, Whereas a bad one makes a man a beast.”

— John Webster

11. “Love mixed with fear is sweetness.”

— John Webster

12. “How tedious is a guilty conscience!”

— John Webster

13. “There’s nothing of so infinite vexation as man’s own thoughts.”

— John Webster

14. “The soul was never put in the body to stand still.”

— John Webster

15. “I do love these ancient ruins. We never tread upon them but we set Our foot upon some reverend history.”

— John Webster

16. “A politician is the devil’s quilted anvil; He fashions all sins on him, and the blows are never heard.”

— John Webster

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

— John Webster

18. “Vain the ambition of kings Who seek by trophies and dead things To leave a living name behind, And weave but nets to catch the wind.”

— John Webster

19. “Do you not weep? Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out. The element of water moistens the earth, But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens.”

— John Webster

20. “Though lust do masque in ne’er so strange disguise she’s oft found witty, but is never wise.”

— John Webster

21. “That friend a great man’s ruin strongly checks, who rails into his belief all his defects.”

— John Webster

22. “Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin.”

— John Webster

23. “Through darkness diamonds spread their richest light.”

— John Webster

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

— John Webster

25. “Black-birds fatten best in hard weather.”

— John Webster

26. “Sometimes the Devil doth preach.”

— John Webster

27. “Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue.”

— John Webster

28. “Heaven fashioned us of nothing; and we strive to bring ourselves to nothing.”

— John Webster

29. “Lust carries her sharp whip At her own girdle.”

— John Webster

30. “When a man’s mind rides faster than his horse can gallop they quickly both tire.”

— John Webster

31. “That realm is never long in quiet, where the ruler is a soldier.”

— John Webster

32. “Gold that buys health can never be ill spent, Nor hours laid out in harmless merriment.”

— John Webster

33. “For the subtlest folly proceeds from the subtlest wisdom.”

— John Webster

34. “We are merely the star’s tennis balls, struck and banded Which way please them.”

— John Webster

35. “One thing we might do is to try day by day to grasp something which is the simplest and yet the hardest thing for any of us to grasp: that the gospel is true; that growth in the Christian life is simply growth in seeing that the gospel is true; that Jesus Christ is the preeminent reality of all things.”

— John Webster

36. “Physicians are like kings- They brook no contradiction.”

— John Webster

37. “Were there no heaven nor hell I should be honest.”

— John Webster

38. “Woman to man Is either a God or a wolfe.”

— John Webster

39. “All things do help the unhappy man to fall.”

— John Webster

40. “When we prohibit others from being different, we end up forfeiting our own right to Liberty...”

— John Webster

41. “You have left me heartless; mine is in your bosom.”

— John Webster

42. “For all our wit and reading brings us to a truer sense of sorrow.”

— John Webster

43. “Knowledge Is Power! Train smart and obtain power!”

— John Webster

44. “See, the curse of children! In life they keep us frequently in tears, And in the cold grave leave us in pale fears.”

— John Webster

45. “Imyself haveheard averygood jest, and havescornedto seem to have so sillya wit as to understand it.”

— John Webster

46. “Poor maids have more lovers than husbands.”

— John Webster

47. “All the damnable degrees Of drinking have you staggered through.”

— John Webster

48. “I have long served virtue, And never ta’en wages of her.”

— John Webster

49. “Think’t the best voyage that e’er you made like an irregular crab which, though’t goes backward, thinks that it goes right, because it goes its own way.”

— John Webster

50. “How many ills spring from adultery? First the supreme law that is violated, Nobility oft stain’d with bastardy, Inheritance of land falsely possessed, The husband scorn’d, wife sham’d, and babes unbless’d.”

— John Webster