George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham Quotes (20 quotes)

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham: 20 quotes1 like

Famous George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham Quotes

“A mans fame and hayre grow most after death, and are both equally uselesse.”

Source: Commonplace book, P. 268

“Why, Sir, when I have anything to invent, I never trouble my head about it, as other men do; but presently turn over this Book, and there I have, at one view, all that Perseus, Montaigne, Seneca's Tragedies, Horace, Juvenal, Claudian, Pliny, Plutarch's lives, and the rest, have ever thought upon this subject: and so, in a trice, by leaving out a few words, or putting in others of my own, the business is done.”

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Bayes, Act I, sc. i
The Rehearsal (1671)

“There are few have Dana's fortune, to have God and gold togather.”

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Often misquoted as "How few, like Daniel, have God and gold together".
Source: Commonplace book, P. 221

“All these threatening storms, which, like impregnate Clouds, hover o'er our heads, will (when they once are grasp'd but by the eye of reason) melt into fruitful showers of blessings on the people.”

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Physician, Act II, sc. i
The Rehearsal (1671)

“A Lady that was drown'd at Sea, and had a wave for her Winding sheet.”

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Bayes, Act IV, sc, i
The Rehearsal (1671)

“Kisses are but like sands of gold and silver, found upon the ground which are not worth much themselves but as they promise a mine near too be dig'd.”

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Source: Commonplace book, P. 195

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham Quotes about the world

“Make my breast
Transparent as pure crystal, that the world,
Jealous of me, may see the foulest thought
My heart holds.”

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Beaumont and Fletcher Philaster, Act III, sc. ii, line 144.
These lines are used almost unaltered ("holds" becoming "does hold") in Act III, sc. ii of Buckingham's The Restauration, an adaptation of Philaster. They appear with an attribution to Buckingham in many 19th century collections of quotations, e.g. Henry George Bohn A Dictionary of Quotations from the English Poets (1867) p. 63, and hence also on several quotation websites.
Misattributed

“The world's a wood, in which all lose their way,
Though by a different path each goes astray.”

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

"A Satyr upon the Follies of the Men of the Age", line 109; cited from The Works of His Grace, George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham (London: T. Evans, 1770) vol. 2, p. 156

“She must be that which she to the world would seem,
For all true love is grounded on esteem:
Plainness and truth gain more a generous heart
Than all the crooked subtleties of art.”

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

"To His Mistress", cited from The Works of His Grace, George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham (London: T. Evans, 1770) vol. 2, p. 138.
Context: She that would raise a noble love must find
Ways to beget a passion for her mind;
She must be that which she to the world would seem,
For all true love is grounded on esteem:
Plainness and truth gain more a generous heart
Than all the crooked subtleties of art.

“The world is made up, for the most part, of fools and knaves, both irreconcileable foes to truth.”

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

"Letter to Mr. Clifford, on his Human Reason"; cited from The Works of His Grace, George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham (London: T. Evans, 1770) vol. 2, p. 105.
Variant (modernized spelling): The world is made up, for the most part, of fools and knaves, both irreconcilable foes to truth.