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John Webster Quotes (1580-1634)
About John Webster
John Webster (c. 1580 β c. 1634) was an English Jacobean dramatist, a late contemporary of William Shakespeare. His tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage.
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βCover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young.β
βI know death hath ten thousand several doors
For men to take their exits.β
For men to take their exits.β
βBut keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men,
For with his nails he'll dig them up again.β
For with his nails he'll dig them up again.β
βProsperity doth bewitch men, seeming clear;
But seas do laugh, show white, when rocks are near.β
But seas do laugh, show white, when rocks are near.β
βHeaven-gates are not so highly arched
As princes' palaces; they that enter there
Must go upon their knees.β
As princes' palaces; they that enter there
Must go upon their knees.β
βCall for the robin redbreast and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.β
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.β
βCondemn you me for that the duke did love me?
So may you blame some fair and crystal river
For that some melancholic, distracted man
Hath drown'd himself in 't.β
So may you blame some fair and crystal river
For that some melancholic, distracted man
Hath drown'd himself in 't.β
βIs not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweethearts, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.β
βOf what is't fools make such vain keeping?
Sin their conception, their birth, weeping:
Their life, a general mist of error,
Their death, a hideous storm of terror.β
Sin their conception, their birth, weeping:
Their life, a general mist of error,
Their death, a hideous storm of terror.β
βI dare truly and boldly say, that one years exercise therein to ingenious spirits, under able Masters, will produce more real and true fruit, than the studying Aristotelian Philosophy hath brought forth in many centuries. O that the Schools therefore would leave their idle, and fruitless speculations, and not be too proud to put their hands to the coals and furnace, where they might find ocular experiments to confute their fopperies, and produce effects that would be beneficial to all posterities.β
John Webster Quotes by Topic
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John Webster on Sorrow 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on Sorrow →John Webster on Death 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on Death →John Webster on Lust 2 quotes
βLust carries her sharp whip At her own girdle.β
John Webster on Wolves
βWoman to a man is either a god or a wolf.β
John Webster on Tailors
βAll his reverend wit Lies in his wardrobe.β
John Webster on Navigation
βHe hath put a girdle 'bout the world And sounded all her quicksands.β
John Webster on Greatness
John Webster on Stars
John Webster on Guilt
βLet guilty men remember, their black deeds Do lean on crutches made of slender reeds.β
John Webster on Health
John Webster on Dust
John Webster on Hell
John Webster on Prosperity
βProsperity doth bewitch men, seeming clear; As seas do laugh, show white, when rocks are near.β
John Webster on Glory
John Webster on Distance
John Webster on Glowworms
John Webster on Ruins
βI do love these ancient ruins. We never tread upon them but we set Our foot upon some reverend history.β
John Webster on Heaven
John Webster on Man
John Webster on Ambition
John Webster on Homicide
βDo you not weep? Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out. The element of water moistens the earth, But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens.β
John Webster on Ageing
βIs not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.β
What John Webster Said About Others
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John Webster on Women 3 quotes
βThereβs nothing sooner dry than womenβs tears.β
Quotes About John Webster
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T.S. Eliot on John Webster
βWebster was much possessed by death And saw the skull beneath the skin.β
Kenneth Tynan on John Webster
βWebster is not concerned with humanity. He is the poet of bile and brainstorm, the sweet singer of apoplexy; ideally, one feels, he would have had all his characters drowned in a sea of cold sweat. His muse drew nourishment from Bedlam, and might, a few centuries later, have done the same from Belsen.β
About John Webster
John Webster (c. 1580 β c. 1634) was an English Jacobean dramatist, a late contemporary of William Shakespeare. His tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage.