And, re-assembling our afflicted powers, consult how we may henceforth most offend.
For neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible, except to God alone.
And add to these retired Leisure, That in trim gardens take his pleasure.
Her silent course advance With inoffensive pace, that spinning sleeps On her soft axle.
How sweetly did they float upon the wings Of silence through the empty-vaulted night, At every fall smoothing the raven down Of darkness till it smiled!
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift than time or motion.
Good luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth The fairy ladies danced upon the hearth.
It is Chastity, my brother. She that has that is clad in complete steel.
Truth is compared in Scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.
To know that which lies before us in daily life is the prime wisdom.
How gladly would I meet mortality, my sentence, and be earth in sensible! How glad would lay me down, as in my mother’s lap! There I should rest, and sleep secure.
The sun to me is dark And silent as the moon, When she deserts the night Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
In Physic, things of melancholic hue and quality are used against melancholy, sour against sour, salt to remove salt humors.
A short retirement urges a sweet return.
Here we may reign secure; and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in hell: Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
Myself, and all the Angelic Host, that stand in the sight of God enthroned, our happy state hold, as you yours, while our obedience hold. On other surety none: freely we serve, because we freely love.
Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise. That last infirmity of noble mind. To scorn delights, and live laborious days.
Midnight brought on the dusky hour Friendliest to sleep and silence.
Come, pensive nun, devout and pure, sober steadfast, and demure, all in a robe of darkest grain, flowing with majestic train.