JOHN WEBSTER

Though lust do masque in ne'er so strange disguise she's oft found witty, but is never wise.

Lay this unto your breast: Old friends, like old swords, still are trusted best.

Integrity of life is fame's best friend, which nobly, beyond death, shall crown in the end.

Eagles commonly fly alone. They are crows, daws, and starlings that flock together.

Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust.

When a man's mind rides faster than his horse can gallop they quickly both tire.

When I go to hell, I mean to carry a bribe: for look you, good gifts evermore make way for the worst persons.

A politician is the devil's quilted anvil; He fashions all sins on him, and the blows are never heard.

That friend a great man's ruin strongly checks, who rails into his belief all his defects.

In all our quest of greatness, like wanton boys, whose pastime is their care, we follow after bubbles, blown in the air.

Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue.

Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin.

For the subtlest folly proceeds from the subtlest wisdom.

Men often are valued high, when they are most wretched.

'Tis better to be fortunate than wise.

Heaven fashioned us of nothing; and we strive to bring ourselves to nothing.

All things do help the unhappy man to fall.

We are merely the stars tennis-balls, struck and bandied which way please them.

Poor maids have more lovers than husbands.

Love mixed with fear is sweetness.

Cowardly dogs bark loudest.

Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright, But looked to near, have neither heat nor light.

The soul was never put in the body to stand still.

I myself have loved a lady and pursued her with a great deal of under-age protestation, whom some three or four gallants that have enjoyed would with all their hearts have been glad to have been rid of. 'Tis just like a summer birdcage in a garden: the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out.