Quote#Wisdom
Cease, fond shepherd! Cease desiring
Quote byMary Wortley Montagu · 1689–1762
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "The Advice".
English (original)
Cease, fond shepherd! Cease desiring What you never must enjoy; She derides your vain aspiring, She, to all your sex is coy.Cunning Damon once pursued her, Yet she never would incline; Strephon too, as vainly wooed her, Though his flocks are more than thine.At Diana’s shrine, aloud, By the zone around her waist, Thrice she bowed, and thrice she vowed, Like the Goddess, to be chaste.
— Mary Wortley Montagu
More from Mary Wortley Montagu
Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet; In short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet.
Satire should, like a polished razor keen, Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen.
Let this great maxim be my virtue’s guide,— In part she is to blame that has been tried: He comes too near that comes to be denied.
Though I never get possession, ’Tis a pleasure to adore; Hope, the wretch’s only blessing, May, in time, procure me more.Constant courtship may obtain her, Where both wealth and merit fail; And the lucky minute gain her—
Civility costs nothing and buys everything.
But the fruit that can fall without shaking Indeed is too mellow for me.