1
Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust Like diamonds we are cut with our own dustJohn Webster
2
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
3
Princes give rewards with their own hands, But death or punishment by the hands of other.John Webster
4
O that I were a man, or that I had power To execute my apprehended wishes! I would whip some with scorpions.John Webster
5
Believing can mean something a good deal less than certainty. I believe the bus will come in five minutes, but I can’t be sure. Or sometimes it can mean the kind of knowledge which is acquired after scrupulous review of evidence to build up a cumulative case for some conviction. But believing [as Scripture presents it] is not half-certainty, nor the fruit of mental effort. It’s belief in the deep, strong sense of giving allegiance to something which overwhelms us. To believe in the Lord Jesus…is to do far more than simply give him a passing nod with the mind or even to honor him with our religious devotion. It’s the astonished business of being so overthrown by his reality, so mastered by his sheer presence, so judged by him, that we can do nothing other than acknowledge that he is supremely real, supremely true. To believe in him is to confess him–to affirm with mind and will and heart that he fills all things, that our only hope lies in his name. ¶ Belief in this sense concerns the entire shape of a personal life. It embraces the whole of us. It’s not one department of our life, something in which we engage alongside all the other things we do–working, loving, hoping, creating, worrying, and so on. Believing is about the way in which we dispose the world of our existence. We believe when we’re totally shaped by something outside of us, acknowledging that it has put a decisive stamp on all that we are and all that we do. This is why belief in this deep, strong sense defines us completely: We’re “believers, ” doing all that we do out of the inescapable conviction that the Lord Jesus is the persistent factor in the whole of our life. Believing in him, confessing him, involves no less than everything.John Webster
6
Our believing has no power of itself; we certainly aren’t saved by belief. We’re saved by the grace and goodness and majesty of him in whom we believe–by the one whom we confess as we believe. In a real sense, our belief is nothing in and of itself. It’s simply a looking to him, a listening to him, in which we are wholly absorbed by that which we see and hear.John Webster
7
Take it for words. O woman’s poor revenge, Which dwells but in the tongue!John Webster
8
Through darkness diamonds spread their richest light.John Webster
9
Oft gay and honoured robes those tortures try: We think caged birds sing, when indeed they cry.John Webster
10
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
11
As in this world there are degrees of evils, So in this world there are degrees of devils.John Webster
12
You know what whore is. Next the devil adultery, Enters the devil murder.John Webster
13
Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dustJohn Webster
14
Why do we tell lies? We lie because the truth is too painful or too shameful for us to face, or because the truth is simply inconvenient and has to be suppressed before it’s allowed to disturb us. We invent lies because, for whatever reason, we want to invent reality. And the false reality which we invent, the world we make up by our lying, has one great advantage for us: It makes no claim on us. It demands nothing. It doesn’t shape us in the way that truth shapes us; it faces us with no obligations; it has no hard, resistant surfaces which we can’t get through. A lie is a made-up reality, and so never unsettles, never criticizes, never resists, never overthrows us. It’s the world, not as it is, but as we wish it to be: a world organized around us and our desires, the perfect environment in which we can be left at peace to be ourselves and to follow our own good or evil purposes. .John Webster
15
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
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O me, this place is hell.John Webster
17
Whether I resolve to fire, earth, water, air, Or all the elements by scruples, I know not, Nor greatly care. - Shoot. Shoot! Of all deaths, the violent death is best; For from ourselves it steals ourselves so fast, The pain, once apprehended, is quite past.John Webster
18
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
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Integrity of life is fame's best friend, Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end.John Webster
20
Lovers die inward that their flames conceal.John Webster
21
What! because we are poor Shall we be vicious?John Webster
22
'Tis better to be fortunate than wise.John Webster
23
Eagles commonly fly alone. They are crows, daws, and starlings that flock together.John Webster
24
Lay this unto your breast: Old friends, like old swords, still are trusted best.John Webster