Philip Sidney
24 quotes
Biography
"Either I will find a way, or I will make one."
"As in geometry, the oblique must be known, as well as the right; and in arithmetic, the odd as well as the even; so in actions of life, who seeth not the filthiness of evil, wanteth a great foil to perceive the beauty of virtue."
"Open suspecting others comes of secret condemning themselves."
"Many-headed multitude."
"Who shoots at the mid-day sun, though he be sure he shall never hit the mark, yet as sure he is he shall shoot higher than who aims but at a bush."
"A fair woman shall not only command without authority but persuade without speaking."
"My dear, my better half"
"....But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay, Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows, And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way. Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes, Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite: "Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write.""
"Come sleep, O sleep, the certain knot of peace, The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe, The poor man’s wealth, the prisoner’s release, The indifferent judge between the high and low."
"That sweet enemy, France."
"There have been many most excellent poets that never versified, and now swarm many versifiers that need never answer to the name of poets."
"The historian…loaden with old mouse-eaten records, authorizing himself (for the most part) upon other histories, whose greatest authorities are built upon the notable foundation of hearsay; having much ado to accord differing writers and to pick truth out of partiality; better acquainted with a thousand years ago than with the present age, and yet better knowing how this world goeth than how his own wit runneth; curious for antiquities and inquisitive of novelties; a wonder to young folks and a tyrant in table talk, denieth, in a great chafe, that any man for teaching of virtue, and virtuous actions is comparable to him."
"With a tale forsooth he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner."
"Certainly, I must confess my own barbarousness, I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet."
"Poetry, a speaking picture... to teach and delight"
"The poet...nothing affirmeth, and therefore never lieth."
"In the sweetly constituted mind of Sir Philip Sidney, it seems as if no ugly thought or unhandsome meditation could find a harbour. He turned all that he touched into images of honour and virtue."
"It is great happiness to be praised of them who are most praiseworthy."
"The ingredients of health and long life, are great temperance, open air, easy labor, and little care."
"It is the nature of the strong heart, that like the palm tree it strives ever upwards when it is most burdened."
"Poesy must not be drawn by the ears: it must be gently led, or rather, it must lead, which was partly the cause that made the ancient learned affirm it was a divine, and no human skill, since all other knowledges lie ready for any that have strength of wit; a poet no industry can make, if his own genius be not carried into it."
"If you have so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself up to look to the sky of poetry... thus much curse I must send you, in the behalf of all poets, that while you live, you live in love, and never get favour for lacking skill of a sonnet; and, when you die, your memory die from the earth for want of an epitaph."
"It is not good to wake a sleeping lion."
"My dear my better half."