Philip Sidney Quotes (26 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Philip Sidney

The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Philip Sidney

Astrophel and Stella

Philip Sidney

Philip Sidney: 26 quotes2 likes

Famous Philip Sidney Quotes

“Either I will find a way, or I will make one.”

Philip Sidney

“My dear, my better half”

Philip Sidney book The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book III. books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=GxhRAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA275&dq=half <br class="br">The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“Come sleep, O sleep, the certain knot of peace,
The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man’s wealth, the prisoner’s release,
The indifferent judge between the high and low.”

Philip Sidney book Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet 39, line 1.
Astrophel and Stella (1591)

“Fool," said my muse to me. "Look in thy heart and write.”

Philip Sidney book Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet 1,Concluding couplet from Loving in truth,and fain in verse my love to show
Compare: "Look, then, into thine heart and write", Henry W. Longfellow, Voices of the Night, Prelude.
Variant: Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
"Fool!" said my muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write.
Source: Astrophel and Stella (1591)
Context: .... But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay,
Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows,
And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way.
Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write."

“Sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge.”

Philip Sidney

Page 39.
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“My true love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange, one for the other given.”

Philip Sidney

"My true love hath my heart, and I have his".

Philip Sidney Quotes about heart

“High-erected thoughts seated in the heart of courtesy.”

Philip Sidney book The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 1. Compare: "Great thoughts come from the heart", Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, Maxim cxxvii.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“Certainly, I must confess my own barbarousness, I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet.”

Philip Sidney

Page 99.
The old song is usually known as "The Ballad of Chevy Chase" or "The Hunting of the Cheviot".
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“Hard-hearted minds relent and rigor's tears abound,
And envy strangely rues his end, in whom no fault was found.
Knowledge her light hath lost, valor hath slain her knight,
Sidney is dead, dead is my friend, dead is the world's delight.”

Philip Sidney

Fulke Greville, Epitaph on Sir Philip Sidney.
Criticism

Philip Sidney Quotes

“A fair woman shall not only command without authority but persuade without speaking.”

Philip Sidney book The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 3, page 485.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“Thy necessity is yet greater than mine”

Philip Sidney

Allegedly spoken after the Battle of Zutphen, when offering water to an injured peer, though himself gravely wounded. <br class="br">Source: Sir Philip Sydney Biography http://www.biography.com/people/sir-philip-sidney-21397397,

“And thou my minde aspire to higher things;
Grow rich in that which never taketh rust.”

Philip Sidney

Sidney, Sonnet. Leave me, O Love. Quote reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 419-23.

“There have been many most excellent poets that never versified, and now swarm many versifiers that need never answer to the name of poets.”

Philip Sidney

Page 87.
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“With a tale forsooth he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner.”

Philip Sidney

Page 95.
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“As in geometry, the oblique must be known, as well as the right; and in arithmetic, the odd as well as the even; so in actions of life, who seeth not the filthiness of evil, wanteth a great foil to perceive the beauty of virtue.”

Philip Sidney

Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney; with remarks, by Miss Porter (1807), p. 23. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.aa0000617332;view=1up;seq=53

“Stella, think not that I by verse seek fame,
Who seek, who hope, who love, who live but thee;
Thine eyes my pride, thy lips mine history:
If thou praise not, all other praise is shame.”

Philip Sidney book Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet 90.
Astrophel and Stella (1591)

“Open suspecting others comes of secret condemning themselves.”

Philip Sidney book The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 1, page 144.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“Who shoots at the mid-day sun, though he be sure he shall never hit the mark, yet as sure he is he shall shoot higher than who aims but at a bush.”

Philip Sidney book The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 2, page 253.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“In the sweetly constituted mind of Sir Philip Sidney, it seems as if no ugly thought or unhandsome meditation could find a harbour. He turned all that he touched into images of honour and virtue.”

Philip Sidney

Charles Lamb "Characters of Dramatic Writers, Contemporary with Shakspeare", in Thomas Hutchinson (ed.) The Works in Prose and Verse of Charles and Mary Lamb (1908) vol. 1, p. 70.
Criticism

“Poetry, a speaking picture… to teach and delight”

Philip Sidney

From 'Tracing Aristotle's Rhetoric' in Defense of Poesy 1581.
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“Have I caught my heav'nly jewel.”

Philip Sidney book Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet 1, Second Song. Note: Quoted by William Shakespeare in Merry Wives of Windsor.
Astrophel and Stella (1591)

“They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.”

Philip Sidney book The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 1. Compare: "He never is alone that is accompanied with noble thoughts", John Fletcher, Love's Cure, act iii. sc. 3.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“The historian…loaden with old mouse-eaten records, authorizing himself (for the most part) upon other histories, whose greatest authorities are built upon the notable foundation of hearsay; having much ado to accord differing writers and to pick truth out of partiality; better acquainted with a thousand years ago than with the present age, and yet better knowing how this world goeth than how his own wit runneth; curious for antiquities and inquisitive of novelties; a wonder to young folks and a tyrant in table talk, denieth, in a great chafe, that any man for teaching of virtue, and virtuous actions is comparable to him.”

Philip Sidney

Page 89.
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“The poet…nothing affirmeth, and therefore never lieth.”

Philip Sidney

Page 103.
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“That sweet enemy, France.”

Philip Sidney book Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet 41, line 4.
Astrophel and Stella (1591)

“Many-headed multitude.”

Philip Sidney book The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 2. Compare: "Many-headed multitude", William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act ii. sc. 3.; "This many-headed monster, Multitude", Daniel, History of the Civil War, book ii. st. 13.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)