Philip Sidney
Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidneywas an English poet, courtier, scholar, and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. His works include Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poesy, and The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth30 November 1554
death done said
To be rhymed to death as is said to be done in Ireland.
sun mark aim
Who shoots at the mid-day sun, though he be so sure he shall never hit the mark, yet as sure as he is, he shall shoot higher than he who aims at a bush.
confusion matter causes
Malice, in its false witness, promotes its tale with so cunning a confusion, so mingles truths with falsehoods, surmises with certainties, causes of no moment with matters capital, that the accused can absolutely neither grant nor deny, plead innocen.
excellence doe please
Often extraordinary excellence, not being rightly conceived, does rather offend than please.
determination law rebel
Fear is the underminer of all determinations; and necessity, the victorious rebel of all laws.
pain life-and-death monsters
The scourge of life, and death's extreme disgrace, The smoke of hell,--that monster called Paine.
littles reign rebellion
There is little hope of equity where rebellion reigns.
secret life-is secrecy
What is mine, even to my life, is hers I love; but the secret of my friend is not mine!
hero victory glory
In victory, the hero seeks the glory, not the prey.
sleep lions
It is not good to wake a sleeping lion.
kindness gains courtesy
A churlish courtesy rarely comes but either for gain or falsehood.
truth simple men
Weigh not so much what men assert, as what they prove. Truth is simple and naked, and needs not invention to apparel her comeliness.
growing-up exercise men
As in labor, the more one doth exercise, the more one is enabled to do, strength growing upon work; so with the use of suffering, men's minds get the habit of suffering, and all fears and terrors are not to them but as a summons to battle, whereof they know beforehand they shall come off victorious.
plato light essence
Plato found fault that the poets of his time filled the world with wrong opinions of the gods, making light tales of that unspotted essence, and therefore would not have the youth depraved with such opinions.