Enchiridion: Containing Institutions--divine: Contemplative, Practical; Moral: Ethical, Œconomical, Political |
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Common terms and phrases
advantage AKE heed alwayes another's art thou beleeve charity chuse conquerour dayes death deserve dishonour dost ENCHIRIDION endeavour enemy evill F thou hast F thy father favour feare folly foole forreigne fortune FRANCIS QUARLES fury gain give glory God's greatnesse hadst hand happinesse happy hath heaven HEN thou himselfe injury keep kingdome lawfull lest thou let thy lost mercy naturall necessity passion peace Piers Ploughman pleasure pride prosper punish Quarles receive religion repent reward rience ruine servant shalt thou shame shew SOHO SQUARE souldiers take heed thou thine things thou art thou canst thou desire thou desirest thou givest thou losest thou mayst thou shalt find thou speakest thy actions thy body thy desire thy estate thy faith thy fancy thy heart thy honour thy judgement thy love thy neighbour thy prayer thy selfe thy sinne thy soule thy tongue tion vertue vice warre wisdome
Popular passages
Page 165 - There is more weighty bullion sense in this book than I ever found in the same number of pages in any uninspired writer.
Page 101 - Give not thy tongue too great a liberty, lest it take thee prisoner. A word unspoken is, like the sword in the scabbard, thine ; if vented, thy sword is in another's hand. If thou desire to be held wise, be so wise as to hold thy tongue.
Page 165 - Like all Middle-English Poems written on the principle of alliteration, the ' Vision of Piers Ploughman' abounds in philological difficulties ; and these are increased by the fact that no satisfactory edition of the text had yet appeared (till the present time). The poem itself is exceedingly interesting. Whoever the writer was, he wrote well. He was a keen observer of human nature ; alive to the abuses which prevailed in Church and State at the period when he lived, and equally competent and willing...
Page 9 - Government; monarchicall, aristocraticall, democraticall ; and they are apt to fall three several wayes into ruine : The first, by tyranny ; the second, by ambition ; the last, by tumults. A Common-wealth grounded upon any one of these, is not of long continuance ; but wisely mingled, each guard the other, and make that Government exact.
Page 76 - IN thy apparell avoyd singularity, profusenesse and gaudinesse ; be not too early in the fashion ; nor too late : decency is the halfe way betweene affectation and neglect : the body is the shell of the soule ; apparell is the huske of that shell ; the huske often tels you what the kirnell is.
Page 122 - TAKE heed whilst thou shewest wisdome in not speaking, thou betrayest not thy folly in too long silence : if thou art a foole, thy silence is wisdome ; if a wise man, too long silence is folly. As too many words from a foole's mouth, give a wise man no leave to speake...
Page 118 - Wisdom without innocency is knavery ; innocency without wisdom is foolery: be, therefore, as wise as serpents, and innocent as doves. The subtilty of the serpent instructs the innocency of the dove ; the innocency of the dove corrects the subtilty of the serpent. What God hath joined together, let no man separate.
Page 164 - Convey thy love to thy friend as an arrow to the mark, to stick there ; not as a ball against the wall, to rebound back to thee : that friendship will not continue to the end that is begun for an end.
Page 137 - LET the ground of all thy religious actions be obedience : examine not why it is commanded, but observe it, because it is commanded. True obedience neither procrastinates, nor questions.
Page 70 - If thou desire to be truly valiant, fear to do any injury : he that fears not to do evil, is always afraid to suffer evil ; he that never fears, is desperate ; and he that fears always, is a coward. He is the true valiant man, that dares nothing but what he may, and fears nothing but what he ought.