Quote#Wisdom
Books should to one of these four ends conduce
Quote byJohn Denham · 1615–1669
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Of Prudence (1668), line 83.
English (original)
Books should to one of these four ends conduce, For wisdom, piety, delight, or use.
— John Denham
More from John Denham
poetry is of so subtile a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another, it will all evaporate; and if a new spirit be not added in the transfusion, there will remain nothing but a caput mortuum, there being certain graces …
Actions o' th' last age are like almanacks o' th' last year.
Variety, which all the rest endears.
[U]ncertain ways unsafest are.
But whither am I strayed? I need not raise Trophies to thee from other men's dispraise; Nor is thy fame on lesser ruins built; Nor needs thy juster title the foul guilt Of Eastern kings, who, to secure their reign, Must have their …
Ambition is like love, impatient Both of delays and rivals.