Anne Bradstreet
24 quotes
Biography
Anne Bradstreet was among the most prominent of early English poets of North America and the first writer in England's North American colonies to be published. She is the first Puritan figure in American literature and notable for her large corpus of poetry, as well as personal writings published posthumously.
"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish."
"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."[Meditations Divine and Moral]"
"I am obnoxious to each carping tongue/ Who says my hand a needle better fits./ A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong/ For such despite they cast on female wits;/ If what I do prove well, it won't advance,/ They'll say it's stolen, or else, it was by chance."
"If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none; And for thy Mother, she alas is poor, Which caus'd her thus to send thee out of door."
"What to my Saviour shall I give Who freely hath done this for me? I'll serve him here whilst I shall live And Loue him to Eternity"
""Sister," quoth Flesh, "what liv'st thou on Nothing but Meditation?"
"Such cold mean flowers the spring puts forth betime, Before the sun hath thoroughly heat the clime."
"Leave not thy nest, thy dam and sire, Fly back and sing amidst this choir."
"The principal might yield a greater sum, Yet handled ill, amounts but to this crumb;"
"Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending."
"Fire hath its force abated by water, not by wind; and anger must be allayed by cold words, and not by blustering threats."
"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish."
"Wisdom with an inheritance is good, but wisdom without an inheritance is better than an inheritance without wisdom."
"Sweet words are like honey, a little may refresh, but too much gluts the stomach."
"That when we live no more, We may live ever"
"If we had no winter the spring would not be so pleasant."
"O Time the fatal wrack of mortal things,That draws oblivion's curtains over kings;Their sumptuous monuments, men know them not,Their names without a record are forgot,Their parts, their ports, their pomps all laid in th' dustNor wit nor gold, nor buildings scape time's rust;But he whose name is graved in the white stoneShall last and shine when all of these are gone."
"If we had no winter the spring would not be so pleasant if we did not sometimes taste of adversity prosperity would not be so welcome."
"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge fitter to bruise than to polish."
"There is no object that we see no action that we do no good that we enjoy no evil that we feel or fear but we may make some spiritual advantage of all: and he that makes such improvement is wise as well as pious."
"If ever two were one then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife then thee."
"Sweet words are like honey a little may refresh but too much gluts the stomach."
"Youth is the time of getting middle age of improving and old age of spending."
"If what I do prove well, it won't advance. They'll say it's stolen, or else it was by chance."