“Affection that is bred by enchantment is like a flower that is wrought in silk: in color and form most like, but nothing at all in substance or savor.”
Source: Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature
“TELLUS: Why, she is but a woman.
ENDYMION: No more was Venus.
TELLUS: She is but a virgin.
ENDYMION: No more was Vesta.
TELLUS: She shall have an end.
ENDYMION: So shall the world.
TELLUS: Is not her beauty subject to time?
ENDYMION: No more than time is to standing still.
TELLUS: Wilt thou make her immortal?
ENDYMION: No, but incomparable”
Source: Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature
“All fish are not caught with flies”
Source: John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit' and 'Euphues and His England': An Annotated, Modern-Spelling Edition
“The empty vessel giveth a greater sound than the full barrel.”
Source: John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit' and 'Euphues and His England': An Annotated, Modern-Spelling Edition
“The greater the kindred is, the lesse the kindnesse must bee.”
Source: The Dramatic Works of John Lilly, (the Euphuist.): Mydas. Mother Bombie. The woman in the moone. Love's metamorphosis. Notes
“Marriage is destinie, made in heaven.”
Source: The Dramatic Works of John Lilly: Mydas. Mother Bombie. The woman in the moone. Love's metamorphosis. Notes
“Thou shalt come out of a warme Sunne into God's blessing.”
Source: Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit. Editio Princeps. 1579. Euphues and His England. Editio Princeps. 1580. Collated with Early Subsequent Editions
“Whilst that the childe is young, let him be instructed in vertue and lytterature.”
Source: Euphues. The Anatomy of Wit. Editio princeps, 1579. Euphues and his England. Editio princeps, 1580. Collated with early subsequent editions ... Carefully edited by Edward Arber
“Things of greatest profit are set forth with least price. Where the wine is neat there needeth no live blush.”
“If all the earth were paper white / And all the sea were ink / 'Twere not enough for me to write / As my poor heart doth think.”
“Lips are no part of the head, only made for a double-leaf door for the mouth.”
Source: Gallathea and Midas
“It is the eye of the master that fatteth the horse, and the love of the woman that maketh the man.”
Source: John Lyly: Selected Prose and Dramatic Work
“A bargain is a bargain.”
Source: Mother Bombie
“The measure of love is to have no mean, the end to be everlasting.”
Source: Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit; Euphues & His England
“To love and to live well is wished of many, but incident to few.”
Source: Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit; Euphues & His England
“[Beauty is] a delicate bait with a deadly hook; a sweet panther with a devouring paunch, a sour poison in a silver pot.”
Source: John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit' and 'Euphues and His England': An Annotated, Modern-Spelling Edition
“Water runneth smoothest where it is deepest.”
Source: Campaspe and Sappho and Phao: John Lyly
“A merry companion is as good as a wagon, For you shall be sure to ride though ye go a foot.”
“The wound that bleedeth inward is most dangerous.”
“Let the falling out of friends be a renewing of affection.”
Source: Euphues
“If love be a god, why should not lovers be virtuous?”
“Children and fooles speake true.”
Source: The Dramatic Works of John Lilly, (the Euphuist.): John Lilly and his works. Endimion. Campaspe. Sapho and Phao. Gallathea. Notes
“An Englishman hath three qualities, he can suffer no partner in his love, no stranger to be his friend, nor to be dared by any.”
“The fallyng out of faithfull frends is the renuyng of loue.”
“A new broome sweepeth cleane.”
Source: Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit. Editio Princeps. 1579. Euphues and His England. Editio Princeps. 1580. Collated with Early Subsequent Editions
“When parents put gold into the hands of youth, when they should put a rod under their girdle--when instead of awe they make them past grace, and leave them rich executors of goods, and poor executors of godliness, then it is no marvel that the son being left rich by his father's will, becomes reckless by his own will.”
Source: John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit' and 'Euphues and His England': An Annotated, Modern-Spelling Edition
“None but the lark so shrill and clear;
Now at heaven's gate she claps her wings,
The morn not waking till she sings.”
Source: John Lyly: Selected Prose and Dramatic Work
“Thou art an heyre to fayre lying, that is nothing, if thou be disinherited of learning, for better were it to thee to inherite righteousnesse then riches, and far more seemly were if for thee to haue thy Studie full of bookes, then thy pursse full of mony.”
“Gentlemen use books as Gentlewomen handle their flowers, who in the morning stick them in their heads, and at night strawe them at their heeles.”
“Do you think that any one can move the heart but He that made it?”
“Cupid and my Campaspe play'd
At cards for kisses - Cupid paid:
He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows,
His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;
Loses them too; then down he throws
The coral of his lips, the rose
Growing one's cheek (but none knows how);
With these, the crystal of his brow,
And then the dimple of his chin:
All these did my Campaspe win.
At last he set her both his eyes -
She won, and Cupid blind did rise.
O Love! has she done this for thee?
What shall, alas! become of me?”
“The tongue, the ambassador of the heart.”
“Fish and guests in three days are stale.”
Source: Euphues
“To love women and never enjoy them, is as much to love wine and never taste it.”
Source: John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit' and 'Euphues and His England': An Annotated, Modern-Spelling Edition
“The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble.”
Source: Euphues. The Anatomy of Wit. Editio princeps, 1579. Euphues and his England. Editio princeps, 1580. Collated with early subsequent editions ... Carefully edited by Edward Arber
“Instruments sound sweetest when they are touched softest.”
“In arguing of the shadow, we forgo the substance.”
Source: John Lyly: Selected Prose and Dramatic Work
“Many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.”
Source: John Lyly: Selected Prose and Dramatic Work
“Nothing so perilous as procrastination”
Source: John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit' and 'Euphues and His England': An Annotated, Modern-Spelling Edition
“The night has a thousand eyes.”
“As the best wine doth make the sharpest vinegar, so the deepest love turns to the deadliest hate.”
“I am of this mind, that might and malice, deceit and treachery perjury and impiety may lawfully be committed in love; which is lawless.”
“I have ever thought so superstitiously of wit, that I fear I have committed idolatry against wisdom.”
Source: John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit' and 'Euphues and His England': An Annotated, Modern-Spelling Edition
“Though women have small force to overcome men by reason; yet have they good fortune to undermine them by policy.”
Source: John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit' and 'Euphues and His England': An Annotated, Modern-Spelling Edition
“It is the disposition of the thought that altered the nature of the thing.”
“The true measure of life is not length, but honesty.”
“He that loseth his honesty hath nothing else to lose.”
Source: John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit' and 'Euphues and His England': An Annotated, Modern-Spelling Edition
“Children and fools speak true.”
Source: Endymion
“A merry companion is as good as a wagon.”
Source: The Dramatic Works: With Notes and Some Account of His Life and Writings : in Two Volumes
“The slothful are always ready to engage in idle talk of what will be done tomorrow, and every day after.”