“Like untuned golden strings all women are,
Which long time lie untouch'd, will harshly jar.
Vessels of brass, oft handled, brightly shine.”
First Sestiad
Hero and Leander (published 1598)
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Christopher Marlowe 55
English dramatist, poet and translator 1564–1593Related quotes

“Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.”
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

“Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.”
Not Burke but Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858).
Misattributed

“Brass shines as fair to the ignorant as gold to the goldsmiths.”
Letter (1581).

Source: The Doctrine of the Mean

“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”

Source: 1800s, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 1, plate 27, "To the Jews" 1) lines 9-12