Owen Feltham
Owen Feltham
Owen Felthamwas an English writer, author of a book entitled Resolves, Divine, Moral, and Political, containing 146 short essays. It had great popularity in its day. Feltham was for a time in the household of the Earl of Thomond as chaplain or sec., and published, Brief Character of the Low Countries. His most cited essay is "How the Distempers of these Times should affect wise Men" which was selected for inclusion in John Gross' The Oxford Book of Essays, a...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionAuthor
play vanity shadow
Shall I speak truly what I now see below? The World is all a carkass, smoak and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play And in one word, just Nothing.
hope true-friend recovery
Hope is to a man as a bladder to a learning swimmer--it keeps him from sinking in the bosom of the waves, and by that help he may attain the exercise; but yet it many times makes him venture beyond his height, and then if that breaks, or a storm rises, he drowns without recovery. How many would die, did not hope sustain them! How many have died by hoping too much! This wonder we find in Hope, that she is both a flatterer and a true friend.
hope men yield
Human life has not a surer friend, nor oftentimes a greater enemy, than hope. It is the miserable man's god, which in the hardest gripe of calamity never fails to yield to him beams of comfort. It is the presumptuous man's devil, which leads him a while in a smooth way, and then suddenly breaks his neck.
men world affair
That man is but of the lower part of the world that is not brought up to business and affairs.
men missing body
Irresolution is a worse vice than rashness. He that shoots best may sometimes miss the mark; but he that shoots not at all can never hit it. Irresolution loosens all the joints of a state; like an ague, it shakes not this nor that limb, but all the body is at once in a fit. The irresolute man is lifted from one place to another; so hatcheth nothing, but addles all his actions.
tests gentle
To be gentle is the test of a lady.
angel men quitting
The boundary of man is moderation. When once we pass that pale our guardian angel quits his charge of us.
ignorance men long
Every man should study conciseness in speaking; it is a sign of ignorance not to know that long speeches, though they may please the speaker, are the torture of the hearer.
men pleasure ifs
Pleasures can undo a man at any time, if yielded to.
enemy victory may
It is much safer to reconcile an enemy than to conquer him; victory may deprive him of his poison, but reconciliation of his will.
religious men religion
It is rare to see a rich man religious; for religion preaches restraint, and riches prompt to unlicensed freedom.
lying men giving
There is no detraction worse than to overpraise a man, for if his worth proves short of what report doth speak of him, his own actions are ever giving the lie to his honor.
men eggs
The irresolute man flecks from one egg to another, so hatches nothing.
men giving grace
Any man shall speak the better when he knows what others have said, and sometimes the consciousness of his inward knowledge gives a confidence to his outward behavior, which of all other is the best thing to grace a man in his carriage.