Philip Massinger Quotes

Philip Massinger offers thoughtful musings on law, power and the weight of truth.

21 quotes

1. The good needs fear no law, It is his safety and the bad man's awe.

2. Death hath a thousand doors to let out life.

3. Some undone widow sits upon mine arm, And takes away the use of it; and my sword, Glued to my scabbard with wronged orphans' tears, Will not be drawn.

4. Cause me no causes.

5. This many-headed monster, The giddy multitude.

6. Grim death.

7. Like a rough orator, that brings more truth Than rhetoric, to make good his accusation.

8. What a seaOf melting ice I walk on!

9. The sum of all that makes a just man happy Consists in the well choosing of his wife: And there, well to discharge it, does require Equality of years, of birth, of fortune; For beauty being poor, and not cried up By birth or wealth, can truly mix with neither. And wealth, when there's such difference in years, And fair descent, must make the yoke uneasy.

10. Virtue, thou in rags, may challenge more than vice set off with all the trim of greatness.

11. Pleasures of worse natures Are gladly entertained, and they that shun us Practice in private sports the stews would blush at.

12. He is not valiant that dares lie; but he that boldly bears calamity.

13. If you like not hanging, drown yourself; Take some course for your reputation.

14. He that knows no guilt can know no fear.

15. Without good company all dainties Lose their true relish, and like painted grapes, Are only seen, not tasted.

16. How sweetly sounds the voice of a good woman! It is so seldom heard that, when it speaks,it ravishes all senses.

17. He is not valiant that dares die, but he that boldly bears calamity.

18. He that would govern others, first should be Master of himself.

19. Many good purposes lie in the churchyard.

20. Cheerful looks make every dish a feast, and it is that which crowns a welcome.

21. As the index tells us the contents of stories and directs to the particular chapter, even so does the outward habit and superficial order of garments (in man or woman) give us a taste of the spirit, and demonstratively point (as it were a manual note from the margin) all the internal quality of the soul; and there cannot be a more evident, palpable, gross manifestation of poor, degenerate, dunghilly blood and breeding than a rude, unpolished, disordered, and slovenly outside.