Quote#Wisdom
The maid who modestly conceals
Quote byEdward Moore · 1712–1757
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Fables for the Female Sex (1744), Fable x: "The Spider and the Bee", p. 62.
English (original)
The maid who modestly conceals Her beauties, while she hides, reveals; Give but a glimpse, and fancy draws Whate’er the Grecian Venus was.
— Edward Moore
More from Edward Moore
But beauty has wings, and too hastily flies, And love, unrewarded, soon sickens and dies.
Can’t I another’s face commend, And to her virtues be a friend, But instantly your forehead lours, As if her merit lessen’d yours?
This is adding insult to injuries.
Time still, as he flies, brings increase to her truth, And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.
O Poverty! thou source of human art, Thou great inspirer of the poet’s song!
But from the hoop’s bewitching round, Her very shoe has power to wound.