Quotes from George Herbert

When you are an anvil, hold you still; when you are a hammer, strike your fill.

The buyer needs a hundred eyes, the seller not one.

Religion stands on tiptoe in our land,Ready to pass to the American strand.

Man stole the fruit, but I must climb the tree.

You must lose a fly to catch a trout.

Show me a liar, and I'll show thee a thief.

For want of a nail the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:So I did sit and eat.

One hour's sleep before midnight is worth three after.

Go not for every grief to the physician, nor for every quarrel to the lawyer, nor for every thirst to the pot.

And now in age I bud again,After so many deaths I live and write;I once more smell the dew and rain,And relish versing: O my only light,It cannot beThat I am heOn whom thy tempests fell all night.

Pension never enriched young man.

Take all that is given whether wealth, love or language, nothing comes by mistake and with good digestion all can be turned to health.

Who would have thought my shrivel'd heartCould have recovered greenness?

By suppers more have been killed than Galen ever cured.

God's mill grinds slow, but sure.

One father is more than a hundred Schoolemasters.

But as I rav'd and grew more fierce and wildAt every word,Methought I heard one calling, Child!And I replied, My Lord.

Read as you taste fruit or savor wine, or enjoy friendship, love or life.

The mill cannot grind with the water that's past.

His bark is worse than his bite.

A servant with this clauseMakes drudgery divine:Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,Makes that and th' action fine.

He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea.

Be useful where thou livest.