“O dream of fame, what hast thou been to me
But the destroyer of life's calm content!”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist
Erinna
The Golden Violet (1827)
Attributed to Metrodorus by Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, V, 14, as translated by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, Clement of Alexandria, vol. II, in Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, vol. XII, 1869, p. 300 https://archive.org/details/antenicenechris05donagoog/page/n314.
“O dream of fame, what hast thou been to me
But the destroyer of life's calm content!”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist
Erinna
The Golden Violet (1827)
“Thy clothes are all the soul thou hast.”
John Fletcher The Honest Man's Fortune
Act V, scene 3, line 170.
The Honest Man's Fortune, (1613; published 1647)
“Let not thy mind run on what thou lackest as much as on what thou hast already.”
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
VII, 27
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
Context: Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast: but of the things which thou hast, select the best, and then reflect how eagerly they would have been sought, if thou hadst them not. At the same time, however, take care that thou dost not, through being so pleased with them, accustom thyself to overvalue them, so as to be disturbed if ever thou shouldst not have them.
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
Variant Translation: Let not thy mind run on what thou lackest as much as on what thou hast already.
VII, 27
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
Thomas Dekker (1572–1632) English dramatist and pamphleteer
Poem Sweet Content http://www.bartleby.com/101/204.html
Henry Hart Milman (1791–1868) English historian and churchman
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 94.
Robert Barclay (1648–1690) Scottish Quaker apologist
Letter to Charles II of England (25 November 1675)
An Apology for the True Christian Divinity (1678)
Context: There is no king in the world, who can so experimentally testify of God's providence and goodness; neither is there any who rules so many free people, so many true Christians: which thing renders thy government more honorable, thyself more considerable, than the accession of many nations filled with slavish and superstitious souls.
Thou hast tasted of prosperity and adversity; thou knowest what it is to be banished thy native country, to be overruled as well as to rule and sit upon the throne; and being oppressed, thou hast reason to know how hateful the oppressor is both to God and man. If after all these warnings and advertisements thou dost not turn unto the Lord with all thy heart, but forget him who remembered thee in thy distress and give up thyself to follow lust and vanity, surely great will be thy condemnation.
Against which snare, as well as the temptation of those that may or do feed thee and prompt thee to evil, the most excellent and prevalent remedy will be to apply thyself to that Light of Christ, which shineth in thy conscience, which neither can nor will flatter thee nor suffer thee to be at ease in thy sins, but doth and will deal plainly and faithfully with thee as those that are followers thereof have also done.
God Almighty, who hath so signally hitherto visited thee with his love, so touch and reach thy heart, ere the day of thy visitation be expired, that thou mayest effectually turn to him so as to improve thy place and station for his name.
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)
Sarmad Kashani (1590–1661) Persian mystic, poet and saint
Source: [Asiri 1950, No. 334] Asiri 1950 — Asiri, Fazl Mahmud. Rubaiyat-i-Sarmad. Shantiniketan, 1950. Quoted from SARMAD: LIFE AND DEATH OF A SUFI https://iphras.ru/uplfile/smirnov/ishraq/3/24_prig.pdf by N. Prigarina