John Webster Quotes

A powerful portfolio of physiological and behavioural evidence now exists to support the case that fish feel pain and that this feeling matters. In the face of such evidence, any argument to the contrary based on the claim that fish 'do not have the right sort of brain' can no longer be called scientific. It is just obstinate. ~ John Webster

In all our quest of greatness, like wanton boys, whose pastime is their care, we follow after bubbles, blown in the air. ~ John Webster

Physicians are like kings- They brook no contradiction. ~ John Webster

I was looking at the sensoriums of heroes. I was sensing through the eyes and nose of Shelley and John Webster, and using the hearing and touch of Ginsberg and Duncan and Kerouac–– and the jazz lucidity of Creeley, and the Doug fir of Snyder, and the almost mystical, physical perceptions of D.H. Lawrence and of Olson himself. I was convinced that poetry was about, by, and from, the meat, that poetry was the product of flesh brushing itself against experience. We are seekers moving in the Tathagata brushing ourselves against the universe of the real, solid illusions. It is by our touches that we become ourselves –– as our ancestors became us and as we became our maturing, sharpening, brightening selves. ~ Michael McClure

There's nothing of so infinite vexation As man's own thoughts. John Webster, The White Devil ~ Robert Galbraith

You know what whore is. Next the devil adultery,
Enters the devil murder. ~ John Webster

Imyself haveheard averygood jest, and havescornedto seem to have so sillya wit as to understand it. ~ John Webster

The weakest arm is strong enough that strikes with the sword of justice. ~ John Webster

Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust
Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust ~ John Webster

See, the curse of children! In life they keep us frequently in tears, And in the cold grave leave us in pale fears. ~ John Webster

And great men do great good, or else great harm. ~ John Webster

The soul was never put in the body to stand still. ~ John Webster

What a strange creature is a laughing fool,
As if a man were created to no use
But only to show his teeth. ~ John Webster

Oft gay and honoured robes those tortures try:
We think caged birds sing, when indeed they cry. ~ John Webster

We are merely the stars tennis-balls, struck and bandied which way please them. ~ John Webster

I know death hath ten thousand several doors
For men to take their exits; and 'tis found
They go on such strange geometrical hinges,
You may open them both ways: any way, for heaven-sake ~ John Webster

Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue. ~ John Webster

Knowledge Is Power! Train smart and obtain power! ~ John Webster

A politician is the devil's quilted anvil; He fashions all sins on him, and the blows are never heard. ~ John Webster

Ambition, madam, is a great man's madness. ~ John Webster

As in this world there are degrees of evils,
So in this world there are degrees of devils. ~ John Webster

We endure the strokes like anvils or hard steel,
Till pain itself make us no pain to feel. ~ John Webster

Integrity of life is fame's best friend,
Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end. ~ John Webster

Think't the best voyage that e'er you made like an irregular crab which, though't goes backward, thinks that it goes right, because it goes its own way. ~ John Webster

Black-birds fatten best in hard weather ~ John Webster

Through the Spirit, Jesus Christ the exalted one generates a new mode of common human life, the life of the Church. To participate in that common human life, hearing the gospel in fellowship under the word of God and living together under the signs of baptism and the Lord's supper, is to exist in a sphere in which God's limitless power is unleashed and extends into the entirety of human life: moral, political, cultural, affective, intellectual. Reason, like everything else, is remade in the sphere of the Church; and theological reason is an activity of the regenerate mind turned towards the gospel of Jesus Christ, which constitutes the Church's origin and vocation. ~ John Webster

I do love these ancient ruins. We never tread upon them but we set Our foot upon some reverend history. ~ John Webster

The basic rule for thinking about faith is this: What matters about faith is not us, but the object of faith. Faith isn't primarily a power or capacity in me; it isn't first and foremost an attitude which I adopt; indeed, it's not first of all something which I do. Faith is objective - that is, faith is wholly turned outward to the object of faith. In a real sense, it's not faith itself but that toward which faith is turned that is critically important in getting our thinking straight. What matters about faith is therefore not us but God, the object of faith. But ~ John Webster

We had need to borrow that fantastic glass,invented by Galileo the Florentine
To view another spacious world in the moon
and look to find a constant woman there ~ John Webster

Oh, yes, thy sins Do run before thee to fetch fire from hell, To light thee thither. ~ John Webster

Are you out of your princely wits?
What's he? Let me have his beard sawed off and his eyebrows filed more civil! ~ John Webster

All things do help the unhappy man to fall. ~ John Webster

Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright, But looked to near, have neither heat nor light. ~ John Webster

I am Duchess of Malfi still. ~ John Webster

Lovers die inward that their flames conceal. ~ John Webster

Love mixed with fear is sweetness. ~ John Webster

Vain the ambition of kings Who seek by trophies and dead things To leave a living name behind, And weave but nets to catch the wind. ~ John Webster

Let guilty men remember, their black deeds
Do lean on crutches made of slender reeds. ~ John Webster

O me, this place is hell. ~ John Webster

If all my royal kindred
Lay in my way unto this marriage,
I'ld make them my low foot-steps ~ John Webster

When I go to hell, I mean to carry a bribe: for look you, good gifts evermore make way for the worst persons. ~ John Webster

DUCHESS: Diamonds are of most value,
They say, that have past through most jewellers' hands.
FERDINAND: Whores, by that rule, are precious. ~ John Webster

When a man's mind rides faster than his horse can gallop they quickly both tire. ~ John Webster

Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweethearts, are surest, and old lovers are soundest. ~ John Webster

'Tis better to be fortunate than wise. ~ John Webster

Though lust do masque in ne'er so strange disguise she's oft found witty, but is never wise. ~ John Webster

Call for the robin-red-breast and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flow'rs do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.
Call unto his funeral dole
The ant, the field-mouse and the mole,
To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm,
And (when gay tombs are robbed) sustain no harm,
But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men,
For with his nails he'll dig them up again.
Let holy Church receive him duly,
Since he paid the church-tithes truly. ~ John Webster

Poor maids have more lovers than husbands. ~ John Webster

Condemn you me for that the duke did love me?
So may you blame some fair and crystal river,
For that some melancholic distracted man
Hath drowned himself in't. ~ John Webster

For the subtlest folly proceeds from the subtlest wisdom. ~ John Webster

That realm is never long in quiet, where the ruler is a soldier. ~ John Webster

I have long served virtue, And never ta'en wages of her. ~ John Webster

There's no resolution to the conflicts of our lives within ourselves, no freedom from wickedness to be sought in striving, no peace with God which is the fruit of moral effort. And the reason why there is none is that we are, indeed, defeated by sin. It's not that we're occasionally overcome, or even that more often than not we lose the battle with ourselves. It's that we're wholly defeated, ruined, "there is no health in us." To look to ourselves, therefore, to try to sort ourselves out by doing an audit of our moral lives or a clean-up operation on our spirituality is, quite literally, a hopeless undertaking. ~ John Webster

Heaven fashioned us of nothing; and we strive to bring ourselves to nothing. ~ John Webster

All the damnable degrees Of drinking have you staggered through. ~ John Webster

See, a good habit makes a child a man, Whereas a bad one makes a man a beast. ~ John Webster

I myself have loved a lady and pursued her with a great deal of under-age protestation, whom some three or four gallants that have enjoyed would with all their hearts have been glad to have been rid of. 'Tis just like a summer birdcage in a garden: the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out. ~ John Webster

O that I were a man, or that I had power

To execute my apprehended wishes!

I would whip some with scorpions. ~ John Webster

Woman to man Is either a God or a wolfe. ~ John Webster

For all our wit and reading brings us to a truer sense of sorrow. ~ John Webster

How tedious is a guilty conscience! ~ John Webster

What's a whore? She's like the guilty counterfeited coin Which whosoe're first stamps it brings in trouble all that receive it. ~ John Webster

Right! There are plots.
Your beauty! Oh, ten thousand curses on 't!
How long have I beheld the devil in crystal!
Thou hast led me, like an heathen sacrifice,
With music, and with fatal yokes of flowers,
To my eternal ruin. Woman to man
Is either a god, or a wolf. ~ John Webster

Ha, ha, ha, thou entanglest thyself in thine own work like a silkworm. ~ John Webster

Pull and pull strongly for your able strength / Must pull down heaven upon me ~ John Webster

Sometimes the Devil doth preach. ~ John Webster

The chiefest action for a man of great spirit is never to be out of action ... the soul was never put into the body to stand still. ~ John Webster

Fortune's a right whore:
If she give aught, she deals it in small parcels,
That she may take away all at one swoop. ~ John Webster

Through darkness diamonds spread their richest light. ~ John Webster

Lust carries her sharp whip At her own girdle. ~ John Webster

They, who would combat general authority with particular opinion, must first establish themselves a reputation of understanding better than other men. ~ John Dryden

I was only beginning to enter into the infinite subtlety of Gregorian chant. It was - and remains - the only public prayer I have ever been able to engage in without feeling like a phony and a jackass. But then, one day in 1965 or so, it was simply abolished. With a stroke of his pen, Pope John XXIII - who had such good ideas about other things - declared that liturgy would henceforth be in the vernacular language of the people. That was, effectively, the end of Latin chant.

Then all those monks and nuns who had devoted hours and hours a day began to sicken and fall into depressions, but nobody noticed for a long time. Maybe, as I can well believe, the music toned up their systems in some mysterious way. Or perhaps chant really was a language that God understood. Faced with numerous liturgical scholas shrieking away in the new vernacular hymns, Divinity may have covered its ears and withdrawn, leaving the monks to pine. We parish musicians, illiterate in anything written after the 13th century, stumbled around trying to score liturgies for guitar and bongo drums, trying to make sense of texts like "Eat his body! Drink his blood!"

It wasn't because the music got so bad that I quit going to Mass, but it certainly was the beginning of my doubts about papal infallibility. ~ Mary Rose O'Reilley

The onset of more severe climate impacts overseas may also open up temporary opportunities, or 'policy windows.' These would allow legislators the licence to take specific bold actions which they ordinarily believe would not otherwise be possible or politically acceptable ... In effect, envisaged solutions can become rapidly translated into practical options for action following a major disaster or near-miss. ~ John Beddington

The Conclusion


NOW Reader, I have told my Dream to thee;
See if thou can'st interpret it to me,
Or to thyself, or Neighbor; but take heed
Of mis-interpreting; for that, instead
Of doing good, will but thyself abuse: 5
By mis-interpreting, evil ensues.

Take heed also, that thou be not extreme,
In playing with the out-side of my Dream:
Nor let my figure or similitude
Put thee into a laughter or a feud; 10
Leave this for Boys and Fools; but as for thee,
Do thou the substance of my matter see.

Put by the Curtains, look within my Vail;
Turn up my Metaphors, and do not fail
There, if thou seekest them, such things to find 15
As will be helpful to an honest mind.

What of my dross thou findest there, be bold
To throw away, but yet preserve the Gold;
What if my Gold be wrapped up in Ore?
None throws away the Apple for the Core. 20
But if thou shalt cast away all as vain,
I know not but 'twill make me Dream again ~ John Bunyan

The land is so much more than its analysis. ~ John Steinbeck

Courage is being completely paralyzed with fear and taking the first step anyway. Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway. ~ John Wayne

There are no songs comparable to the songs of Zion, no orations equal to those of the prophets, and no politics like those which the Scriptures teach. ~ John Milton

What is the point of having free speech if you have nothing to say? ~ John Hagee

The highest honor in the church is not government but service. ~ John Calvin

IBM has taken a leadership role in this area and is prepared to be a technology partner with companies around the world to take advantage of these new developments. ~ John Patrick

And Lopate's anthology helped a lot too. It came out the same year I started grad school, and I remember the book's publication feeling eventful and celebratory. It got a ton of attention for giving voice to this form that had sort of slipped between the cracks. That was exciting to see. ~ John D'Agata

I've said yes to everything that Jon Stewart has asked me to do. That's been a pretty good career decision, I think. ~ John Oliver

I wish we could have acted quicker on Detroit or other failing schools. ~ John Engler

We're on a mission from God. ~ John Belushi

He who does not believe according to the tradition of the Catholic Church is an unbeliever. ~ John Of Damascus

I find that men as high as trees will write, dialogue-wise yet no man doth them slight. For writing so: Indeed if they abuse, truth, cursed be they, and the craft they use. To that intent; but yet let truth be free, to make her salleys upon Thee, and Me. Which way it pleases God: For who knows how, Better than he that taught us first to Plough. To guide our Mind and Pens for his Design? And he makes base things usher in Divine. ~ John Bunyan

2The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3"Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us." 4He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; ~ John F. MacArthur Jr.

My mother's father drank and her mother was an unhappy, neurotic woman, and I think she has lived all her life afraid of anyone who drinks for fear something like that might happen to her. ~ John Hurt

I found myself immediately attracted to Pope John Paul II when, upon his election to the Papacy, his published speeches invariably called attention to the need for recognizing the dignity of the human being as a child of God. ~ Robert H. Schuller

People can be anonymous when they go on blogs and say crazy things that they would never have the courage to say to your face. ~ John Leguizamo

To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world. ~ John Muir

I'm sure we're all nervous," Alyss said. She directed one of her rare smiles at Will. "We'd be stupid not to be."
"Well, I'm not!" Horace said, then reddened as Alyss raised one eyebrow and Jenny giggled. ~ John Flanagan

Humility is the flip side of giving God all the glory. Humility means reveling in his grace, not our goodness. ~ John Piper

War is fundamental. A man's views on war tell you the basic axioms of his view on life. ~ John C. Wright

All novelists should live in two different worlds: a real one and an unreal one. ~ John Fowles

Normally, the same strange impulse which brings a crowd to an accident is present in the reaction to a concert in which something goes wrong. ~ Lara St. John

We drove for 10 hours on rocky trails out into the central part of Mongolia in a Russian utility vehicle with no shock absorbers. Then we arrived at a remote area where we stayed in a yurt and waited to meet a horse wrangler who was scheduled to bring our rides. ~ John Fusco

You're going to spend your life doing something; you might as well pay the price to get what you want. ~ John Hawkins

The only break I ever took was to eat. That's all I did. Work, and then quickly eat something. It became my main pleasure, having access to my comfort food. ~ John Prescott

War is a defeat for humanity. ~ Pope John Paul II