Quote#Death
Of what is't fools make such vain keeping?
Quote byJohn Webster · 1578–1634
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Duchess of Malfi (1623), Act IV, scene ii..
English (original)
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.
— John Webster
More from 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.
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.
I saw him going the way of all flesh.
'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.
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.
Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright, But look'd too near have neither heat nor light.