Davenant Quotes & Sayings

O harmless Death! whom still the valiant brave,
The wise expect, the sorrowful invite,
And all the good embrace, who know the grave
A short dark passage to eternal light. — William Davenant

There is no reason to feel any shame in hiring someone to pick stocks or mutual funds for you. But there's one responsibility that you must never delegate. You, and no one but you, must investigate whether an adviser is trustworthy and charges reasonable fees. — Benjamin Graham

Praise and Prayer PRAISE is devotion fit for mighty minds, The diff'ring world's agreeing sacrifice; Where Heaven divided faiths united finds: But Prayer in various discord upward flies. For Prayer the ocean is where diversely Men steer their course, each to a sev'ral coast; Where all our interests so discordant be That half beg winds by which the rest are lost. By Penitence when we ourselves forsake, 'Tis but in wise design on piteous Heaven; In Praise we nobly give what God may take, And are, without a beggar's blush, forgiven. — William Davenant

What one cannot, another can. — William Davenant

Go! dive into the Southern Sea, and when
Th'ast found, to trouble the nice sight of men,
A swelling pearl, and such whose single worth
Boasts all the wonders which the seas bring forth,
Give it Endymion's love, whose ev'ry tear
Would more enrich the skilful jeweller. — William Davenant

Slow seems their speed whose thoughts before them run. — William Davenant

Be not with honor's gilded baits beguil'd,
Nor think ambition wise, because 'tis brave;
For though we like it, as a forward child,
'Tis so unsound, her cradle is the grave. — William Davenant

I suck in a breath. This is what it feels like when your life starts happening, I think. — Julie Murphy

Aubade THE lark now leaves his wat'ry nest, And climbing shakes his dewy wings. He takes this window for the East, And to implore your light he sings- Awake, awake! the morn will never rise Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes. The merchant bows unto the seaman's star, The ploughman from the sun his season takes, But still the lover wonders what they are Who look for day before his mistress wakes. Awake, awake! break thro' your veils of lawn! Then draw your curtains, and begin the dawn! — William Davenant

The assembled souls of all that men held wise. — William Davenant

Every time we receive, we are given a glimpse of divine love, whoever that love happens to be acting through at that moment. — Deepak Chopra

How much pleasure they lose (and even the pleasures of heroic poesy are not unprofitable) who take away the liberty of a poet, and fetter his feet in the shackles of a historian. — William Davenant

All jealousy must be strangled in its birth ... — William Davenant

We're different, we're the same. You thought you'd never find a word to say to a woman who didn't fly airplanes. I couldn't imagine myself spending time with a man who didn't love music. Could it be it's not as important to be alike as it is to be curious? Because we're different, we can have the fun of exchanging worlds, giving our loves and excitements to each other. You can learn music, I can learn flying. And that's only the beginning. I think it would go on for us as long as we live. — Richard Bach

Often, women who lose babies are blamed for the loss of those children and are ostracised. — Jane Chen

Actions rare and sudden do commonly proceed from fierce necessity, of else from some oblique design, which is ashamed to show itself in the public road. — William Davenant

Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves. — William Davenant

How beautiful is sorrow when it is dressed by virgin innocence! it makes felicity in others seem deformed. — William Davenant

Ambition's monstrous stomach does increase
By eating, and it fears to starve, unless
It still may feed, and all it sees devour;
Ambition is not tir'd with toll nor cloy'd with power. — William Davenant

Had laws not been, we never had been blam'd; For not to know we sinn'd is innocence. — William Davenant

Mr. Elton was the very person fixed on by Emma for driving the young farmer out of Harriet's head. She thought it would be an excellent match; and only too palpably desirable, natural, and probable, for her to have much merit in planning it. She feared it was what every body else must think of and predict. It was not likely, however, that any body should have equalled her in the date of the plan, as it had entered her brain during the very first evening of Harriet's coming to Hartfield. — Jane Austen

Fame, like the river, is narrowest where it is bred, and broadest afar off. — William Davenant

Anger is blood, poured and perplexed into froth; but malice is the wisdom of our wrath. — William Davenant

Generous souls
Are still most subject to credulity. — William Davenant

Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, It is not safe to know. — William Davenant

Have you ever tried doing nothing? It's actually really hard. There are so many distractions. But it's the best feeling in the world. If I could prescribe a bottle of nothing to people, it would make life so much better. — Katie Kacvinsky

One of the most intriguing ideas in the developmental sciences over the past decades is the phenomenon of the "J-shaped curve."19 While observing children learning to master new skills in dozens of domains (math, writing, the arts), psychologists noticed a surprising pattern: as a learner struggles to master difficult new challenges, there is often an initial decline in skill. Errors are made on tasks that previously seemed easy, and the learner feels more "stupid" than ever before. This is the dip that forms the middle part of the "J." But it turns out that the "stupid mistakes," in retrospect, were nothing more than growth errors. Once the learner gets past the dip, performance rises rapidly to new heights. — William Damon

Like most girls, I want a lot. Fame and fortune. Equal rights. Shoes no one else has. But I'd trade all that in for the perfect guy. (Don't tell me there's something wrong with that. I don't know of a single person who doesn't spend most of her time thinking about love.) Anyway, ever since I could think, I have been imagining and reimagining the exact sort of boy I want to love and who would love me back. Basically, I imagine someone who has all the good attributes of the male species and whose bad ones wouldn't ruin my life. — Sarah Miller

Honor is the moral conscience of the great. — William Davenant

Faith lights us through the dark to Deity. — William Davenant

If you'd just learn to do as I say from the beginning, I wouldn't have to follow up your errors with reproving smirks and repeated I-told-you-sos. — Richelle E. Goodrich

It is the wit and policy of sin to hate those we have abused. — William Davenant

Ambition is the mind's immodesty. — William Davenant

To be rich be diligent; move on
Like heav'ns great movers that enrich the earth;
Whose moment's sloth would show the world undone;
And make the spring straight bury all her birth.
Rich are the diligent who can command
Time
nature's stock. — William Davenant

Small are the seeds fate does unheeded sow
Of slight beginnings to important ends. — William Davenant

For in a dearth of comforts, we art taught
To be contented with the least. — William Davenant

Nature is just enough; but men and women must comprehend and accept her suggestions. — Antoinette Brown Blackwell

Think not ambition wise, because 't is brave. — William Davenant

All slander must still be strangled in its birth, or time will soon conspire to make it strong enough to overcome the truth. — William Davenant

On the blank leaf glued to the inner back cover I drew the double curve within the circle, and blacked the yin half of the symbol, then pushed it back to my companion. 'Do you know that sign?'
He looked at it a long time with a strange look, but he said, 'No.'
'It's found on Earth, and on Hain-Davenant, and on Chiffewar. It is yin and yang. Light is the left hand of darkness ... how did it go? Light, dark. Fear, courage. Cold, warmth. Female, male. It is yourself, Therem. Both and one. A shadow on snow.' — Ursula K. Le Guin