Month: June 2026

“There is no love-broker in the world can more prevail in man’s commendation with woman than report of valour.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 3.2

“Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 3.1

“Wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 3.1

“Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 3.1

“They that dally nicely with words may quickly make them wanton.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 3.1

“The firefight that you lose is usually your last one.” – Roland Bartetzko, Quora Digest

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 2.5

“What is love? ’tis not hereafter; present mirth hath present laughter; what’s to come is still unsure: in delay there lies no plenty; then come kiss me, sweet and twenty, youth’s a stuff will not endure.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 2.3

“Those wits that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools; and I, that am sure I lack thee, may pass for a wise man. For what says Quinapalus? Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 1.5

“Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 1.5

“God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 1.5

“Care’s an enemy to life.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 1.3

“What great ones do, the less will prattle of.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 1.2

“O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will 1.1

“If music be the food of love, play on.” – William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 1.1

“We cannot but wonder and grieve that we should appear so despicable in your eyes as to be thought unworthy to petition or represent our grievances to this honourable House. Have we not an equal interest with the men of this nation in those liberties and securities contained in the Petition of Right, and other the good laws of the land? Are any of our lives, limbs, liberties, or goods to be taken from us more than from men, but by due process of law and conviction of twelve sworn men of the neighbourhood? And can you imagine us to be so sottish or stupid as not to perceive, or not to be sensible when daily those strong defences of our peace and welfare are broken down and trod underfoot by force and arbitrary power?” – from “A Petition of Women, Affecters and Approvers of the Petition of Sept. 11, 1648 ” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“The truth is (and we see we must either now speak or for ever be silent), we have long expected things of another nature from you, and such as . . . That you would not have followed the example of former tyrannous and superstitious Parliaments in making orders, ordinances or laws, or in appointing punishments, concerning opinions or things supernatural, styling some blasphemies, others heresies, whenas you know yourselves easily mistaken and that divine truths need no human helps to support them; such proceedings having been generally invented to divide the people amongst themselves, and to affright men from that liberty of discourse by which corruption and tyranny would be soon discovered.” – from the Levellers’ “Petition to the House of Commons” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“It is an ordinance amongst men, and for men, that all men may have a human subsistence and safety, to live as men amongst men, none to be excepted from this human subsistence but the unnatural and the inhuman. It is not for this opinion or that faction, this sect or that sort, but equally and alike indifferent for all men that are not degenerated from humanity and human civility in their living and neighbourhood. And therefore the destroyers and subverters of human society, safety, cohabitation, and being, are to be corrected, expulsed, or cut off for preservation of safety and prevention of ruin, both public and private.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“Greater love and mercy cannot be amongst men than to take compassion over the helpless and destitute.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“All degrees and titles magisterial are all subservient to popular safety, all instituted and ordained only for it. For without it can be no human society, cohabitation, or being; which above all earthly things must be maintained as the earthly sovereign good of mankind, let what or who will, perish or be confounded. For mankind must be preserved upon the earth, and to this preservation all the children of men have an equal title by birth.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“The safety of the people is the reason and end of all governments and governors. Salus popidi est suprema lex : the safety of the people is the supreme law of all commonwealths.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“All just human powers are but betrusted, conferred, and conveyed by joint and common consent; for to every individual in nature is given an individual propriety by nature, not to be invaded or usurped by any; for every one as he is himself hath a self propriety—else could he not be himself—and on this no second may presume without consent; and by natural birth all men are equal, and alike born to like propriety and freedom, every man by natural instinct aiming at his own safety and weal. And so it is that there is a general communication amongst men from their several innate properties to their elected deputies for their better being, discipline, government, property, and safety.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“All authority is fundamentally seated in the office, and but ministerially in the persons. Therefore, the persons in their ministrations degenerating from safety to tyranny, their authority ceaseth, and is only to be found in the fundamental original rise and situation thereof, which is the people, the body represented. For though it ceaseth from the hands of the betrusted, yet it doth not, neither can it, cease from its being.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“All betrusted powers, if forfeit, fall into the hands of the betrusters, as their proper centre. And where such a forfeit is committed, there it disobligeth from obedience, and warranteth an appeal to the betrusters, without any contempt or disobedience to the powers in the least; for such an appeal in that case is not at all from the power, but from the persons; not forsaking the power, but following of it in its retreat to the fountain.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“The equity of the law is superior to the letter, the letter being subordinate and subject thereto. And look how much the letter transgresseth the equity, even so much it is unequal, of no validity and force.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“Necessity is a law above all laws. And this principle conveyeth and issueth forth authority and power, both to general and particular cases, even to the taking up of unusual and unexemplary courses for public and particular deliverances.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“Nothing which is against reason is lawful, reason being the very life of the law of our land; so that should the law be taken away from its original reason and end, it would be made a shell without a kernel, a shadow without substance, a carcass without life, which presently turns to putrefaction. And as reason only gives it a legal being and life, so it only makes it authoritative and binding. If this be not granted, lust, will, pride (and what the devil and corruption will) may be a law. For if right reason be not the only being and bounder of the law over the corrupt nature of man (that what is rational, the which injustice and tyranny cannot be, may only and at all times be legal, and what is legal, to be simply and purely rational, the which mercy and justice must be whensoever, wheresoever, and by whomsoever it be), all would fall into confusion, disorder, madness, and cruelty; and so magistracy would cease, and be converted into inhumanity and tyranny.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“God is not a God of irrationality and madness, or tyranny.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“Reason hath no precedent; for reason is the fountain of all just precedents. Therefore where that is, there is a sufficient and justifiable precedent. And if this principle must be granted of, and obeyed by all (as by no rational man can be denied), then the act of appeal in this nature, if grounded upon right reason, is justifiable and warranted, even by that which gives an equitable authority, life, and being, to all just laws, precedents, and forms of government whatsoever. For reason is their very life and spirit, whereby they are all made lawful and warrantable both for settlement, administration, and obedience; which is the highest kind of justification and authority for human actions, that can be, for greater is that which gives being and justifieth than that which receiveth and is justified. All forms of laws and governments may fall and pass away, but right reason (the fountain of all justice and mercy to the creature) shall and will endure for ever. It is that by which in all our actions we must stand or fall, be justified or condemned; for neither morality nor divinity amongst men can or may transgress the limits of right reason. For whatsoever is unreasonable cannot be justly termed moral or divine, and right reason is only commensurable and discernible by the rule of merciful justice and just mercy. It is gradual in its quantity, but one in its quality.” – Richard Overton, “An Appeal from the Commons to the Free People” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)

“The most beautiful and greatest spirits are the more universal, as the more base and blunt are the more particular. Every man calleth that barbarous that agreeth not with his palate and custom; and it seemeth that we have no other touch of truth and reason than the example and the idea of the opinions and customs of that place or country where we live. These kind of people judge of nothing, neither can they: they are slaves to that they hold; a strong prevention and anticipation of opinions doth wholly possess them.” – Hanserd Knollys, “The Ancient Bounds” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)