Edmund Spenser

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

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

“Each goodly thing is hardest to begin.”

“And all for love, and nothing for reward.”

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

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

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

“I hate the day, because it lendeth lightTo see all things, but not my love to see.”

“Gold all is not that doth golden seem.”

“So furiously each other did assayle, As if their soules they would attonce haue rent Out of their brests, that streames of bloud did rayle Adowne, as if their springes of life were spent; That all the ground with purple bloud was sprent, And all their armours staynd with bloudie gore, Yet scarcely once to breath would they relent, So mortall was their malice and so sore,Become of fayned friendship which they vow'd afore.”

“Aye me, how many perils do enfoldThe righteous man, to make him daily fall?Were not, that heavenly grace doth him uphold,And steadfast truth acquite him out of all.”

“Why then should witless man so much misweeneThat nothing is but that which he hath seene?”

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

“For love is a celestial harmonyOf likely hearts compos'd of stars' concent,Which join together in sweet sympathy,To work each other's joy and true content,Which they have harbour'd since their first descentOut of their heavenly bowers, where they did seeAnd know each other here belov'd to be.”

“One day I wrote her name upon the strand,But came the waves and washèd it away:Again I wrote it with a second hand,But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.”

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

“Men call you fayre, and you doe credit it,For that your self ye daily such doe see:But the trew fayre, that is the gentle wit,And vertuous mind, is much more praysd of me.For all the rest, how ever fayre it be,Shall turne to nought and loose that glorious hew:But onely that is permanent and freeFrom frayle corruption, that doth flesh ensew.That is true beautie: that doth argue youTo be divine and borne of heavenly seed:Deriv'd from that fayre Spirit, from whom al trueAnd perfect beauty did at first proceed.He onely fayre, and what he fayre hath made,All other fayre lyke flowres untymely fade.”

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

“Yet gold all is not, that doth gold seem,Nor all good knights, that shake well spear and shield:The worth of all men by their end esteem,And then praise, or due reproach them yield.”