Sir John Davies Quotes

• Zeal without knowledge is the sister of folly.

  Sir John Davies

  Folly, Zeal

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• Hence it is that old men do plant young trees, the fruit whereof another age shall take.

  Sir John Davies

  Men, Tree, Age

  Sir John Davies (1869). “The Complete Poems: (including Psalms I. to L. in Verse, and Other Hitherto Unpublished Mss.)”, p.137

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• We may conceive an hope that the next generation will in tongue and heart and every way else become English; so as there will be no difference or distinction but the Irish sea betwixt us.

  Sir John Davies

  Heart, Sea, Differences

  Sir John Davies (1786). “Historical Tracts”, p.215

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• Thou art true and honest as a dog.

  Sir John Davies

  Dog, Art, Honest

  Sir John Davies (1876). “Complete Poems”, p.19

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• Much like a subtle spider which doth sit
  In middle of her web, which spreadeth wide;
  If aught do touch the utmost thread of it,
  She feels it instantly on every side.

  Sir John Davies

  Garden, Sides, Spiders

  Robert Anderson, Geoffrey Chaucer, Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Thomas Sackville Earl of Dorset (1795). “The Works of the British Poets. With Prefaces”, p.695

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• I know my soul hath power to know all things, Yet is she blind and ignorant in all: I know I'm one of Nature's little kings, Yet to the least and vilest things am thrall.

  Sir John Davies

  Kings, Soul, Ignorant

  Sir John Davies (1733). “A Poem on the Immortality of the Soul: By Sir John Davis. To which is Prefixed an Essay Upon the Same Subject”, p.14

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• Deeds are males, words females are.

  Sir John Davies

  Males, Female, Deeds

  "Scene of Folly", p. 147, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 184-87, 1922.

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• Wit,--the pupil of the soul's clear eye.

  Sir John Davies

  Eye, Soul, Pupils

  Sir John Davies (1759). “The Original, Nature, and Immortality of the Soul: A Poem”, p.59

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• This is the slowest, yet the daintiest sense;
  For ev'n the ears of such as have no skill,
  Perceive a discord, and conceive offence;
  And knowing not what's good, yet find the ill.

  Sir John Davies

  Skills, Knowing, Ears

  Sir John Davies (1759). “The Original, Nature and Immortality of the Soul, a Poem. With an Introduction Concerning Human Knowledge ... The Fourth Edition, Corrected. With an Account of the Author's Life and Writings”, p.82

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• These wickets of the soul are plac'd so high,
  Because all sounds do highly move aloft;
  And that they may not pierce too violently,
  They are delay'd with turns and twinings oft.
  For should the voice directly strike the brain,
  It would astonish and confuse it much;
  Therefore these plaits and folds the sound restrain.
  That it the organ may more gently touch.

  Sir John Davies

  Moving, Voice, Soul

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• What more than madness reigns, when one short sitting many hundreds drains.

  Sir John Davies

  Gambling, Sitting, Reign

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• If aught can teach us aught, Affliction's looks,
  Making us pry into ourselves so, near,
  Teach us to know ourselves, beyond all books,
  Or all the learned schools that ever were.

  Sir John Davies

  Book, School, Looks

  Robert Anderson, Geoffrey Chaucer, Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Thomas Sackville Earl of Dorset (1795). “The Works of the British Poets. With Prefaces”, p.683

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• I know myself a Man-- Which is a proud and yet a wretched thing.

  Sir John Davies

  Men, Proud, Wretched

  'Nosce Teipsum' st. 45

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• For what made that in glory shine so long But poets' Pens, pluckt from Archangels' wings?

  Sir John Davies

  Wings, Long, Shining

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• Dancing is a frenzyand a rage.

  Sir John Davies

  Dancing, Rage

  Robert Anderson, Geoffrey Chaucer, Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Thomas Sackville Earl of Dorset (1795). “The Works of the British Poets. With Prefaces”, p.713

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