John Webster Quotes

John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and career overlapped Shakespeare's. Wikipedia  

✵ 1578 – 1634

Works

John Webster: 17 quotes0 likes

Famous John Webster Quotes

“Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young.”

John Webster The Duchess of Malfi

Act IV, scene ii.
Duchess of Malfi (1623)
Source: The Duchess of Malfi

“Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust,
Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.”

John Webster

Act V, scene v.
Duchess of Malfi (1623)

“T is just like a summer bird-cage in a garden,—the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out.”

John Webster The White Devil

Act I, scene ii. Compare: "To public feasts, where meet a public rout,— Where they that are without would fain go in, And they that are within would fain go out", John Davies, Contention betwixt a Wife, etc.
The White Devil (1612)

“I know death hath ten thousand several doors
For men to take their exits.”

John Webster

Act IV, scene ii. Compare: "Death hath so many doors to let out life", John Fletcher, The Custom of the Country, act ii, scene 2.
Duchess of Malfi (1623)

John Webster Quotes about men

John Webster Quotes

“I saw him going the way of all flesh.”

John Webster

Westward Hoe, Act II, scene ii.

“Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright,
But look'd too near have neither heat nor light.”

John Webster The White Devil

Act IV, scene 4. Compare Distance.
The White Devil (1612)

“Glories, like glowworms, afar off shine bright,
But looked to near have neither heat nor light.”

John Webster

Act IV, scene ii.
Duchess of Malfi (1623)

Similar authors

Henry Fielding photo
Henry Fielding70
English novelist and dramatist None
Pedro Calderón de la Barca photo
Pedro Calderón de la Barca8
Spanish dramatist None
John Fletcher photo
John Fletcher52
English Jacobean playwright None
Samuel Johnson photo
Samuel Johnson362
English writer None
Thomas Fuller photo
Thomas Fuller35
English churchman and historian None
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing photo
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing18
writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic None
John Milton photo
John Milton190
English epic poet None
John Donne photo
John Donne115
English poet None
Daniel Defoe photo
Daniel Defoe43
English trader, writer and journalist None
William Shakespeare photo
William Shakespeare699
English playwright and poet None