17th century

Explore 573 quotes from the 17th century

To desire to have many books, and never to use them, is like a childe that will have a candle burning by him all the while he is sleeping.

Henry Peacham

More information about this quote

Topic

Tsundoku Books

Author

Henry Peacham

Source

The Compleat Gentleman

Language

English

Time

1622 1620s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Peacham, Henry. The Compleat Gentleman. London: Francis Constable, 1622.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men; which, both in affection and means, have married and endowed the public.

Francis Bacon

Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Buy Francis Bacon's Major Works at Amazon Buy Francis Bacon's Major Works at Amazon
Read Of Marriage and Single Life at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Family as burden Family

Author

Francis Bacon

Source

Of Marriage and the Single Life Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Medium

Essay

Genre

Sociology

Language

English

Time

1625 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Bacon, Francis "Of Marriage and Single Life." Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall. London: John Haviland, 1625.

Current Citation

Bacon, Francis. "Essays, or Counsels, Civil and Moral (1625): Of Marriage and Single Life." Francis Bacon: The Major Works, edited by Brian Vickers. Oxford University Press, 2008.

The summer hath his joys,
And winter has delights;
Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,
They shorten tedious nights.

Thomas Campion

Third Book of Ayres

More information about this quote

Topic

Sex

Author

Thomas Campion

Source

Third Book of Ayres

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1617 1610s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Campion, Thomas. The Third and Fourth Booke of Ayres. London, 1617, bk. 3.

All kings, and all their favourites,
All glory of honours, beauties, wits,
The sun itself, which makes times as they pass,
Is elder by a year, now, than it was
When thou and I first one another saw.
All other things to their destruction draw;
Only our love hath no decay;
This no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday;
Running it never runs from us away,
But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.

John Donne

Songs and Sonnets

More information about this quote

Topic

Undying love

Author

John Donne

Source

The Anniversary Songs and Sonnets

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1631 1630s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Donne, John. "The Anniversary." Songs and Sonnets. London, 1633, st. 1, I. 1.

Current Citation

Donne, John. "The Anniversary." Selected Poems. Penguin Classics, 2007, st. 1, I. 1.

No man worth having is true to his wife, or can be true to his wife, or ever was, or ever will be so.

Sir John Vanbrugh

The Relapse

More information about this quote

Topic

Infidelity Relationship challenges

Speaker

Berinthia

Author

Sir John Vanbrugh

Source

The Relapse

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play) Comedy

Language

English

Time

1696 1690s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Vanbrugh, John, Sir. The Relapse. Performed by Colley Cibber, Mary Kent, John Verbruggen, and Jane Rogers. Patent Company, 1696, Drury Lane, London, England, UK, act 3, sc. 2.

Current Citation

Vanbrugh, John, Sir. "The Relapse." The Relapse and Other Plays. Oxford University Press, 2009, act 3, sc. 2.

Were the happinesse of the next world as closely apprehended as the felicities of this, it were a martyrdom to live.

Sir Thomas Browne

More information about this quote

Topic

The afterlife Heaven Life

Author

Sir Thomas Browne

Source

Hydriotaphia

Language

English

Time

1658 1650s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Browne, Thomas, Sir. "Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or, a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk." Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or, a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk Together with the Garden of Cyrus. London: Henry Brome, 1658, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Browne, Thomas, Sir. "Hydriotaphia or Urne Buriall (1658)." Thomas Browne: Selected Writings, edited by Kevin Killeen. Oxford University Press, 2018, ch. 4.

How long soever it hath continued, if it be against reason, it is of no force in law.

Edward Coke

More information about this quote

Topic

Custom and convention Reason Law

Author

Edward Coke

Source

Institutes of the Lawes of England

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1628 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Coke, Edward. The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. Or, a Commentarie upon Littleton, Not the Name of a Lawyer Onely, but of the Law it selfe. London: Societe of Stationers, 1628, bk. 1, ch. 10, sect. 80.

Almighty God hath not bestowed on mankind a remedy of so universal an extent and so efficacious in curing divers maladies as opiates.

Thomas Sydenham

More information about this quote

Topic

Opium Drugs

Author

Thomas Sydenham

Source

Observationes Medicae

Language

Latin

Time

1676 1670s 17th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Sydenham, Thomas. Observationes Medicae. London, 1676.

An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.

Henry Wotton

More information about this quote

Topic

Diplomacy Foreign policy International politics

Author

Henry Wotton

Language

Latin

Time

1604 1600s 17th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Wotton, Henry. Album of Christopher Fleckamore. c. 1604.

I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.

George Fox

More information about this quote

Topic

Good and evil Ocean and sea

Author

George Fox

Medium

Personal journal

Statement Type

Vision

Language

English

Time

1647 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fox, George. Journal entry. c. 1647.

Or love me less, or love me more
And play not with my liberty;
Either take all, or all restore,
Bind me at least, or set me free.

Sidney Godolphin

More information about this quote

Topic

Vulnerability in love Love

Author

Sidney Godolphin

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Orders and commands

Language

English

Time

1643 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Godolphin, Sidney. Song. c. 1712.

A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.

James VI and I

More information about this quote

Topic

Smoking

Author

James VI and I

Source

A Counterblaste to Tobacco

Medium

Treatise

Language

English

Time

1604 1600s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James VI, King and James I, King. A Counterblast to Tobacco. London: Robert Barker, 1604.

Reason is the life of the law, nay the common law itself is nothing else but reason.

Edward Coke

More information about this quote

Topic

Common law Law Reason

Author

Edward Coke

Source

Institutes of the Lawes of England

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1628 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Coke, Edward. The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. Or, a Commentarie upon Littleton, Not the Name of a Lawyer Onely, but of the Law it selfe. London: Societe of Stationers, 1628, bk. 2, ch. 6, sect. 138.

In architecture as in all other operative arts, the end must direct the operation. The end is to build well. Well building hath three conditions. Commodity, firmness, and delight.

Henry Wotton

More information about this quote

Topic

Architecture

Author

Henry Wotton

Source

Elements of Architecture

Medium

Treatise

Language

English

Time

1624 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wotton, Henry. Elements of Architecture. London: John Bill, 1624, pt. 1.

Distribution should undo excess
And each man have enough.

William Shakespeare

King Lear

Buy King Lear at Amazon Buy King Lear at Amazon
Read King Lear at The Folger Shakespeare Library

More information about this quote

Topic

Redistribution of resources Socialism

Speaker

Gloucester

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

King Lear

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1606 1600s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. King Lear. King's Men, 26 Dec. 1606, Palace of Whitehall, Westminster, England, UK, act 4, sc. 1.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "The Tragedy of King Lear." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 4, sc. 1.

There's an experienced rebel, Time,
And in his squadrons Poverty;
There's Age that brings along with him
A terrible artillery:
And if against all these thou keep'st thy crown,
Th'usurper Death will make thee lay it down.

Thomas Flatman

More information about this quote

Topic

Challenges of life Time Poverty Aging Death

Author

Thomas Flatman

Source

The Defiance

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1682 1680s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Flatman, Thomas. "The Defiance." Poems and Songs. London: Benjamin Tooke, 1674.

Shall I wasting in despair
Die because a woman's fair?
Or make pale my cheeks with care
'Cause another's rosy are?
Be she fairer than the day,
Or the flow'ry meads in May,
If she be not so to me,
What care I how fair she be?

George Wither

Fair Virtue

More information about this quote

Topic

Women's attractiveness

Author

George Wither

Source

Fair Virtue

Language

English

Time

1622 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gent, George Wither. Fair Virtue, The Mistress of Phil'arete. London: John Grismand, 1622, sonnet 4, st. 1.

The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made;
Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become
As they draw near to their eternal home.
Leaving the old; both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new.

Edmund Waller

On the Divine Poems

More information about this quote

Topic

Personal growth Effects of time Acquiring wisdom

Author

Edmund Waller

Source

On the Divine Poems

Language

English

Time

1686 1680s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Waller, Edmund. "On the Foregoing Divine Poems." Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1857.

Deceive not thyself by overexpecting happiness in the married estate... Remember the nightingales which sing only some months in the spring, but commonly are silent when they have hatched their eggs.

Thomas Fuller (churchman)

The Holy State and the Profane State

More information about this quote

Topic

Marriage

Author

Thomas Fuller (churchman)

Source

The Holy State and the Profane State

Medium

Essay

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1642 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fuller, Thomas. The Holy State and the Profane State. Cambridge: John Williams, 1642, bk. 3, ch. 22.

Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.

William Shakespeare

Hamlet

Buy Hamlet at Amazon Buy Hamlet at Amazon
Read Hamlet at The Folger Shakespeare Library

More information about this quote

Topic

Fate

Speaker

Hamlet

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Hamlet

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1616 1610s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 5, sc. 1

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, 2015, act 5, sc. 1.