George Herbert (1593 – 1633)
English poet and orator.
The eye is bigger then the belly.
Dare to be true. Nothing can need a lie:
A fault, which needs it most, grows two thereby.
Weigh justly and sell dearely.
Goe not for every griefe to the physitian, nor for every quarrell to the lawyer, nor for every thirst to the pot.
The buyer needes a hundred eyes, the seller not one.
Sundays observe; think when the bells do chime,
'T is angels' music.
Be calm in arguing: for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy.
Give not S. Peter so much, to leave Saint Paul nothing.
The honey is sweet, but the bee stings.
Gluttony kills more then the sword.
He is not poore that hath little, but he that desireth much.
One graine fills not a sacke, but helpes his fellowes.
Well may hee smell fire whose gowne burnes.
Hee that lies with the dogs riseth with fleas.
Show me a lyer, and I'l shew thee a theefe.
For want of a naile the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.
My meaning (dear Mother) is in these sonnets, to declare my resolution to be, that my poor abilities in poetry, shall be all and ever consecrated to God's glory.
Leave jesting while it pleaseth, lest it turne to earnest.
By no means run in debt: take thine own measure.
Who cannot live on twenty pound a year,
Cannot on forty.
An oath that is not to bee made is not to be kept.