John Denham: Quotes about age

John Denham was English poet and courtier. Explore interesting quotes on age.

John Denham: 36 quotes0 likes

“Youth, what man's age is like to be doth show,
We may our ends by our beginnings know.”

Of Prudence, line 225.

“I conceive it is a vulgar error in translating poets, to affect being fidus interpres… [for] poetry is of so subtile a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another, it will all evaporate; and if a new spirit be not added in the transfusion, there will remain nothing but a caput mortuum, there being certain graces and happinesses peculiar to every language, which give life and energy to the words… therefore if Virgil must needs speak English, it were fit he should speak not only as a man of this nation, but as [a] man of this age.”

The Destruction of Troy (1656), Preface.

“Actions o' th' last age are like almanacks o' th' last year.”

The Sophy: A Tragedy (1642), Act I, scene ii.

“Search not to find how other men offend,
But by that glass thy own offences mend;
Still seek to learn, yet care not much from whom,
(So it be learning) or from whence it come.
Of thy own actions, others' judgments learn;
Often by small, great matters we discern:
Youth what man's age is like to be doth show;
We may our ends by our beginnings know.”

Source: Of Prudence (1668), line 225