Edmund Spenser Quotes (43 Quotes)



    The gentle man by gentle deeds in known. For a man by nothing is so well bewrayed, As by his manners.


    What more felicity can fall to creature, than to enjoy delight with liberty?



    It is the mind that maketh good of ill, that maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.

    All that in this delightful garden grows, Should happy be, and have immortal bliss.

    And he that strives to touch the stars, Oft stumbles at a straw.


    The poets' scrolls will outlive the monuments of stone. Genius survives; all else is claimed by death.

    The ever-whirling wheel Of Change, to which all mortal things doth sway.

    Behold how goodly my faire love does ly,
    In proud humility!

    Gather therefore the Rose, whilst yet is prime, For soon comes age, that will her pride deflower Gather the Rose of love, whilst yet is time.


    So let us love, dear love, like as we ought,
    Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

    Such life should be the honor of your light,
    such death the sad ensample of your might.

    For of the soul the body form doth take For soul is form, and and doth the body make.

    So now they have made our English tongue a gallimaufry or hodgepodge of all other speeches.

    For deeds to die, however nobly done, And thoughts of men to as themselves decay, But wise words taught in numbers for to run, Recorded by the Muses, live for ay.

    Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
    That it can alter all the course of kind.

    A greater craftesmans hand thereto doth neede,
    that can expresse the life of things indeed.

    Roses red, and violets blue, And all the sweetest flowers, that in the forest grew.

    Another iron door, on which was writ, Be not too bold.


    Be judge ye heavens, that all things right esteeme, How I him loved, and love with all my might, So thought I eke of him, and thinke I thought aright.

    For take thy balance if thou be so wise, And weigh the wind that under heaven doth blow Or weigh the light that in the east doth rise Or weigh the thought that from man's mind doth flow.

    Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small.


    She heard with patience all unto the end, And strove to maister sorrowful assay, Which greater grew, the more she did contend And almost rent her tender hart in tway And love fresh coles unto her fire did lay For greater love, the greater is the losse...

    Who will not mercy unto others show, How can he mercy ever hope to have.

    Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,
    Our love shall live, and later life renew.

    Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, Ease after war, death after life does greatly please.

    Beauty is the bait which with delight Allures man to enlarge his kind.


    O how can beautie maister the most strong, And simple truth subdue avenging wrong

    He that strives to touch the starts, oft stumbles at a straw.


    Her angel's face, As the great eye of heaven shined bright, And made a sunshine in the shady place.

    A stern discipline pervades all nature, which is a little cruel that it may be very kind.


    Happy ye leaues when as those lilly hands,
    which hold my life in their dead doing might
    shall handle you and hold in loues soft bands,
    lyke captiues trembling at the victors sight.


    I was promised on a time - to have reason for my rhyme; From that time unto this season, I received nor rhyme nor reason.


    More Edmund Spenser Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Love - Life - Happiness - Death & Dying - Mind - Man - Reasoning - Nature - Light - Time - Heaven - Genius - Power - Faces - Money & Wealth - War & Peace - Body - Age - Speech - View All Edmund Spenser Quotations

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