Joseph Hall

Joseph Hall was an English bishop and satirist.

Sourced

• A legal thief, a bloodless murderer,
  A find incarnate, a false userer.
  • Virgidemarium (1598) IV.

• So little in his purse, so much upon his back.
  • Portrait of a Poor Gallant.

• 'Mongst all these stirs of discontented strife,
  O, let me lead an academic life;
  To know much, and to think for nothing, know
  Nothing to have, yet think we have enow.
  • Discontent of Men with Their Condition.

• Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave.
  • Epistles, Decade III, epistle 2. Compare: "And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb.

Our birth is nothing but our death begun", Edward Young, Night Thoughts, night v., line 718.

• There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowels of the earth, many a fair pearl laid up in the bosom of the sea, that never was seen, nor never shall be.
  • Contemplations, Book IV, The Veil of Moses. Compare: "Full many a gem of purest ray serene / The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear", Thomas Gray, Elegy, stanza 14.

• Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.
  • Christian Moderation, introduction.

• Perfection is the child of time…
  • Quo vadis? A just Censure of Travel (1617).

• He is wealthy enough, that wanteth not: he is great enough, that is his own master: he is happy enough, that lives to die well.
  • Meditation and Vows century III, LIX.

Unsourced

• A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.