John Webster quotes

John Webster was an English dramatist known for his dark and complex tragedies from the Jacobean era. His most famous plays, such as "The Duchess of Malfi" and "The White Devil," are celebrated for their psychological depth and poetic language. He is remembered as one of the greatest playwrights of early 17th-century England. Here are 30 of his quotes:

Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust. (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. View quote
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. View quote
John Webster
Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright, But look'd too near have neither heat nor light. View quote
John Webster
T is just like a summer bird-cage 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. View quote
John Webster
Heaven-gates are not so highly arched As princes' palaces; they that enter there Must go upon their knees. View quote
John Webster
But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men, For with his nails he'll dig them up again. View quote
John Webster
Lay this unto your breast: Old friends, like old swords, still are trusted best. View quote
John Webster
Eagles commonly fly alone. They are crows, daws, and starlings that flock together. View quote
John Webster
Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young. View quote
John Webster
I dare truly and boldly say, that one years exercise therein to ingenious spirits, under able Masters, will produce more real and true fruit, than the studying Aristotelian Philosophy hath brought forth in many centuries. O that the Schools therefore would leave their idle, and fruitless speculations, and not be too proud to put their hands to the coals and furnace, where they might find ocular experiments to confute their fopperies, and produce effects that would be beneficial to all posterities. (John Webster)
I saw him going the way of all flesh. View quote
John Webster
Of what is't fools make such vain keeping? Sin their conception, their birth, weeping: Their life, a general mist of error, Their death, a hideous storm of terror. View quote
John Webster
I know death hath ten thousand several doors For men to take their exits. View quote
John Webster
Prosperity doth bewitch men, seeming clear; But seas do laugh, show white, when rocks are near. View quote
John Webster
Webster is not concerned with humanity. He is the poet of bile and brainstorm, the sweet singer of apoplexy; ideally, one feels, he would have had all his characters drowned in a sea of cold sweat. His muse drew nourishment from Bedlam, and might, a few centuries later, have done the same from Belsen. View quote
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 drown'd himself in 't. View quote
John Webster
Call for the robin redbreast and the wren, Since o'er shady groves they hover, And with leaves and flowers do cover The friendless bodies of unburied men. View quote
John Webster
Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue. View quote
John Webster
Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin. View quote
John Webster
All things do help the unhappy man to fall. (John Webster)
For the subtlest folly proceeds from the subtlest wisdom. View quote
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. View quote
John Webster
Integrity of life is fame's best friend, which nobly, beyond death, shall crown in the end. View quote
John Webster
A politician is the devil's quilted anvil; He fashions all sins on him, and the blows are never heard. View quote
John Webster