Marlowe Christopher Quotes & Sayings

The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike — Christopher Marlowe

The sight of London to my exiled eyes
Is as Elysium to a new-come soul. — Christopher Marlowe

That like I best that flies beyond my reach.
Set me to scale the high pyramids
And thereon set the diadem of France;
I'll either rend it with my nails to nought,
Or mount the top with my aspiring wings,
Although my downfall be the deepest hell. — Christopher Marlowe

FAUSTUS: Bell, book and candle, candle, book and bell,
Forward and backward, to curse Faustus to hell. — Christopher Marlowe

Who hateth me but for my happiness? Or who is honored now but for his wealth? Rather had I, a Jew, be hated thus, Than pitied in a Christian poverty. — Christopher Marlowe

BARABAS: Why, I esteem the injury far less,
To take the lives of miserable men
Than be the causers of their misery. — Christopher Marlowe

Money can't buy love, but it improves your bargaining position. — Christopher Marlowe

Nay, could their numbers countervail the stars,
Or ever-drizzling drops of April showers,
Or wither'd leaves that autumn shaketh down,
Yet would the Soldan by his conquering power
So scatter and consume them in his rage,
That not a man should live to rue their fall. — Christopher Marlowe

Hell is just a frame of mind. — Christopher Marlowe

Virginity, albeit some highly prize it, Compared with marriage, had you tried them both, Differs as much as wine and water doth. — Christopher Marlowe

More childish valorous than manly wise. — Christopher Marlowe

Religion! O Diabole! Fie, I am asham'd, however that I seem, To think a word of such simple sound, Of such great matter should be made the ground. — Christopher Marlowe

Love always makes those eloquent that have it.

---From "Hero and Leander, Sestiad II — Christopher Marlowe

I am Wrath. I had neither father nor mother: I leaped out of a lion's mouth when I was scarce half an hour old, and ever since I have run up and down the world, with this case of rapiers, wounding myself when I had nobody to fight withal. I was born in hell - and look to it, for some of you shall be my father. — Christopher Marlowe

He that loves pleasure must for pleasure fall. — Christopher Marlowe

Now I will show myselfTo have more of the serpent than the dove;That is
more knave than fool. — Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe or Francis Bacon The author of Lear remains unshaken Willie Herbert or Mary Fitton What does it matter? The Sonnets were written. — Noel Coward

Hell strives with grace for conquest in my breast.
What shall I do to shun the snares of death? — Christopher Marlowe

One of the towering figures of the age of Enlightenment was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, known to this day in German-speaking lands as the poet of princes and prince of poets. Unlike Voltaire, he openly practiced esoteric disciplines, particularly alchemy. He wrote a famous verse about the Cathars, which translated says: "There were those who knew the Father. What became of them? Oh, they took them and burned them!" Goethe's chief work, of course, is his Faust. As noted in chapter 8, the figure of Faust was inspired by the image of the early Gnostic teacher Simon Magus, one of whose honorific names was Faustus. While in Christopher Marlowe's sixteenth-century play, — Stephan A. Hoeller

It lies not in our power to love or hate, For will in us is overruled by fate. — Christopher Marlowe

Think'st thou heaven is such a glorious thing?
I tell thee, 'tis not so fair as thou
Or any man that breathes on earth. — Christopher Marlowe

This tottered ensign of my ancestors
Which swept the desert shore of that dead sea
Whereof we got the name of Mortimer,
Will I advance upon these castle-walls.
Drums, strike alarum, raise them from their sport,
And sing aloud the knell of Gaveston! — Christopher Marlowe

TAMBURLAINE. [to BAJAZETH] Soft sir, you must be dieted, too much eating will make you surfeit.
THERIDAMAS. So it would my lord, specially having so smal a walke, and so litle exercise. — Christopher Marlowe

BARABAS: For religion
Hides many mischiefs from suspicion. — Christopher Marlowe

FAUSTUS: Where are you damn'd?
MEPHISTOPHILIS: In hell.
FAUSTUS: How comes it, then, that thou art out of hell?
MEPHISTOPHILIS: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it: — Christopher Marlowe

I wish, grave governor, 'twere in my power
To favour you; but 'tis my father's cause,
Wherein I may not, nay, I dare not dally. — Christopher Marlowe

Goodness is beauty in the best estate. — Christopher Marlowe

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships/And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? — Christopher Marlowe

Blessed tree and blessed birds, that were to be neither saved nor damned. — Anthony Burgess

Make me immortal with a kiss. — Christopher Marlowe

I had been in 1590 for less than twenty-four hours, but I was already heartily sick of Christopher Marlowe. — Deborah Harkness

Thus, Marlowe posed the silent question: could aspiring Icarus be happy with a toilsome life on land managing a plough with plodding oxen having once tasted the weightless bliss of flight? — E.A. Bucchianeri

Who can make sense of the roles we play? If I could draw any conclusion about the long, depressing slog of human progress, it's the possibility that unseen elements lie just on the other side of the physical universe and that somehow we're actors on the stage of the Globe, right across the Thames from a place called Pissing Alley, whether William Shakespeare or Christopher Marlowe are aware of our presence or not. — James Lee Burke

The griefs of private men are soon allayed, But not of kings. — Christopher Marlowe

I am Envy ... I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned. — Christopher Marlowe

Yet should there hover in their restless heads
One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest. — Christopher Marlowe

Gaveston:
I can no longer keepe me from my lord.
Edward:
What Gaveston, welcome: kis not my hand,
Embrace me Gaveston as I do thee:
Why shouldst thou kneele, knowest thou not who I am?
Thy friend, thy selfe, another Gaveston.
Not Hilas was more mourned of Hercules,
Then thou hast beene of me since thy exile. — Christopher Marlowe

He that pleasure loves must for pleasure fall — Christopher Marlowe

Mephistopheles: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.
Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of God
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells
In being deprived of everlasting bliss? — Christopher Marlowe

O, thou art fairer than the evening air clad in the beauty of a thousand stars. — Christopher Marlowe

Had I as many souls as there be stars, I'd give them all for Mephistopheles! — Christopher Marlowe

O soul, be changed into little waterdrops, / And fall into the ocean, ne'er be found! — Christopher Marlowe

Heaven, envious of our joys, is waxen pale;
And when we whisper, then the stars fall down
To be partakers of our honey talk.
(Dido, Queen of Carthage 4.4.52-54) — Christopher Marlowe

Mephistopheles: Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortured and remain forever.
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place, for where we are is hell,
And where hell is must we ever be.
And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that is not heaven. — Christopher Marlowe

Virtue is the fount whence honor springs. — Christopher Marlowe

God Is, Lucifer is a devil, and there is a Hell. — E.A. Bucchianeri

What are kings, when regiment is gone, but perfect shadows in a sunshine day? — Christopher Marlowe

We control fifty percent of a relationship. We influence one hundred percent of it. — Christopher Marlowe

Edward:
Well Mortimer, ile make thee rue these words,
Beseemes it thee to contradict thy king?
Frownst thou thereat, aspiring Lancaster,
The sworde shall plane the furrowes of thy browes,
And hew these knees that now are growne so stiffe.
I will have Gaveston, and you shall know,
What danger tis to stand against your king.
Gaveston:
Well doone, Ned. — Christopher Marlowe

Si peccasse negamus, fallimur, et nulla est in nobis veritas; If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there's no truth in us. Why, then, belike we must sin, and so consequently die: Ay, we must die an everlasting death. What doctrine call you this, Che sera, sera,19 What will be, shall be? Divinity, adieu! — Christopher Marlowe

That holy shape becomes a devil best. — Christopher Marlowe

The general welcomes Tamburlaine receiv'd, When he arrived last upon the 1 stage, Have made our poet pen his Second Part, Where Death cuts off the progress of his pomp, And murderous Fates throw all his triumphs 2 down. But what became of fair — Christopher Marlowe

For a brazen Libertine, an adulterer, a sodomite, an atheist, a fornicator, rakehell, heretic, godless playmaker and debaucher of innocents, you're a sorry state of affairs. — Elizabeth Bear

Above our life we love a steadfast friend. — Christopher Marlowe

(Marlowe's) Faustus stubbornly reverts to his atheistic beliefs and continues his elementary pagan re-education ~ the inferno to him is a 'place' invented by men. — E.A. Bucchianeri

All places are alike, and every earth is fit for burial. — Christopher Marlowe

YOUNGER MORTIMER: Base Fortune, now I see, that in thy wheel
There is a point, to which when men aspire,
They tumble headlong down: that point I touch'd,
And, seeing there was no place to mount up higher,
Why shall I grieve at my declining fall?
Farewell, fair queen. Weep not for Mortimer,
That scorns the world, and, as a traveller,
Goes to discover countries yet unknown. — Christopher Marlowe

Fools that will laugh on earth, most weep in hell. — Christopher Marlowe

Look, look, master, here comes two religious caterpillars. — Christopher Marlowe

Till swollen with cunning, of a self-conceit,
His waxen wings did mount above his reach,
And, melting, Heavens conspir'd his overthrow.
— Christopher Marlowe

If I be cruel and grow tyrannous,
Now let them thank themselves, and rue too late. — Christopher Marlowe

Philosophy is odious and obscure;
Both law and physic are for petty wits;
Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile.
'Tis magic, magic that hath ravished me. — Christopher Marlowe

Live and die in Aristotle's works. — Christopher Marlowe

From jygging vaines of riming mother wits,
And such conceits as clownage keepes in pay,
Weele leade you to the stately tent of War:
Where you shall heare the Scythian Tamburlaine,
Threatning the world with high astounding tearms
And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword.
View but his picture in this tragicke glasse,
And then applaud his fortunes if you please. — Christopher Marlowe

BARABAS: Things past recovery
Are hardly cur'd with exclamations.
Be silent, daughter; sufferance breeds ease,
And time may yield us an occasion,
Which on the sudden cannot serve the turn. — Christopher Marlowe

Virtue is the fount whence honour springs. — Christopher Marlowe

Our swords shall play the orators for us. — Christopher Marlowe

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium--
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.--
'[kisses her]'
Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!--
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
I will be Paris, and for love of thee,
Instead of Troy, shall Wertenberg be sack'd;
And I will combat with weak Menelaus,
And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;
Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,
And then return to Helen for a kiss.
O, thou art fairer than the evening air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars;
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appear'd to hapless Semele;
More lovely than the monarch of the sky
In wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms;
And none but thou shalt be my paramour! — Christopher Marlowe

Faustus: Stay, Mephistopheles, and tell me, what good will
my soul do thy lord?
Mephistopheles: Enlarge his kingdom.
Faustus: Is that the reason he tempts us thus?
Mephistopheles: Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.
(It is a comfort to the wretched to have companions in misery) — Christopher Marlowe

KING EDWARD: But what is he whom rule and empery
Have not in life or death made miserable? — Christopher Marlowe

Ah fair Zenocrate, divine Zenocrate, Fair is too foul an epithet for thee. — Christopher Marlowe

MACHEVILL: I count religion but a childish toy,
And hold there is no sin but ignorance. — Christopher Marlowe

Wagner Doctor Faustus' student and servant: "Alas, poor slave! See how poverty jests in his nakedness. I know the villain's out of service, and so hungry that I know he would give his soul to the devil for a shoulder of mutton, though it were blood raw."
Robin a clown: "Not so, neither! I had need to have it well roasted, and good sauce to it, if I pay so dear, I can tell you. — Christopher Marlowe

What virtue is it that is born with us?
Much less can honor be ascribed thereto,
Honor is purchased by the deeds we do.
Believe me, Hero, honor is not won,
Until some honorable deed be done.

----From "Hero and Leander, Sestiad I — Christopher Marlowe

Accurst be he that first invented war. — Christopher Marlowe

All places shall be hell that are not heaven. — Christopher Marlowe

Love is not ful of pittie (as men say)
But deaffe and cruell, where he meanes to pray. — Christopher Marlowe

It is a comfort to the miserable to have comrades in misfortune, but it is a poor comfort after all. — Christopher Marlowe

I'm armed with more than complete steel, - The justice of my quarrel. — Christopher Marlowe

Strike up the drum and march courageously. — Christopher Marlowe

Love deeply grounded, hardly is dissembled. — Christopher Marlowe

Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place, for where we are is hell,
And where hell is must we ever be. — Christopher Marlowe

Forbid me not to weep; he was my father;
And, had you lov'd him half so well as I,
You could not bear his death thus patiently. — Christopher Marlowe

Thus Time, and all-states-ordering Ceremony
Had banished all offense: Time's golden thigh
Upholds the flowery body of the earth
In sacred harmony, and every birth
Of men and actions makes legitimate,
Being used aright. The use of time is Fate.

---From "Hero and Leander, Sestiad III — Christopher Marlowe

Heavens can witness I love none but you:
From my embracements thus he breaks away.
O that mine arms could close this isle about,
That I might pull him to me where I would!
Or that these tears that drizzle from mine eyes
Had power to mollify his stony heart,
That when I had him we might never part. — Christopher Marlowe

Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer, / Conspired against our God with Lucifer, / And are for ever damned with Lucifer. — Christopher Marlowe

FAUSTUS. [Stabbing his arm.] Lo, Mephistophilis, for love of thee,
I cut mine arm, and with my proper blood
Assure my soul to be great Lucifer's,
Chief lord and regent of perpetual night! — Christopher Marlowe

Bene disserer est finis logices.
(The end of logic is to dispute well.) — Christopher Marlowe

Accursed be he that first invented war. — Christopher Marlowe

And 'tis a pretty toy to be a poet. — Christopher Marlowe

Time doth run with calm and silent foot,
Shortening my days and thread of vital life. — Christopher Marlowe

BARABAS: A reaching thought will search his deepest wits,
And cast with cunning for the time to come;
For evils are apt to happen every day. — Christopher Marlowe

Hell and confusion light upon their heads. — Christopher Marlowe

He must have a long spoon that eats with the devil. — Christopher Marlowe

Things that are not at all, are never lost. — Christopher Marlowe

Love is a golden bubble full of dreams,
That waking breaks, and fills us with extremes.

---From "Hero and Leander, Sestiad III — Christopher Marlowe

Nothing violent, oft have I heard tell, can be permanent. — Christopher Marlowe

Honour is purchas'd by the deeds we do. — Christopher Marlowe

Pluck up your hearts, since fate still rests our friend. — Christopher Marlowe

USUMCASANE: To be a king, is half to be a god. — Christopher Marlowe