James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Owen Feltham
Discontent is like ink poured into water, which fills the whole fountain full of blackness. It casts a cloud over the mind, and renders it more occupied about the evil which disquiets it than about the means of removing it.
Discontents are sometimes the better part of our life.
Every man should study conciseness in speaking; it is a sign of ignorance not to know that long speeches, though they may please the speaker, are the torture of the hearer.
Gold is the fool’s curtain, which hides all his defects from the world.
He that would be singular in his apparel had need of something superlative to balance that affectation.
In things that may have a double sense, it is good to think the better was intended; so shall we still both keep our friends and quietness.
Irresolution loosens all our joints: like an ague, it shakes not this limb or that limb, but all the body is at once in a fit. The irresolute man hatches nothing, but addles all his actions.
It is to be doubted whether he will ever find the way to heaven who desires to go thither alone.
Knowledge is the treasure of the mind, but discretion is the key to it, without which it is useless. The practical part of wisdom is the best.
Laughter should dimple the cheek, not furrow the brow.
Love is never lasting which flames before it burns.
Meditation is the soul’s perspective glass, whereby in her long removes she discerneth God as if he were nearer at hand.
Negligence is the rust of the soul, that corrodes through all her best resolves.
Occasion reins the motions of the stirring mind.
Promises may get friends, but it is performance that must nurse and keep them.
Riches, though they may reward virtues, yet they cannot cause them; he is much more noble who deserves a benefit than he who bestows one.
Show me the man who would go to heaven alone, and I will show you one who will never be admitted.
There is no detraction worse than to overpraise a man.
Truth and fidelity are the pillars of the temple of the world; when these are broken, the fabric falls, and crushes all to pieces.
When two friends part, they should lock up one another’s secrets and exchange their keys.
While we think to revenge an injury, we many times begin one, and after that repent our misconceptions.
Words are rather the drowsy part of poetry; imagination the life of it.
Words do sometimes fly from the tongue that the heart did neither hatch nor harbour.