Endymion Quotes

“TELLUS: Why, she is but a woman.

ENDYMION: No more was Venus.
TELLUS: She is but a virgin.

ENDYMION: No more was Vesta.

TELLUS: She shall have an end.

ENDYMION: So shall the world.
TELLUS: Is not her beauty subject to time?
ENDYMION: No more than time is to standing still.
TELLUS: Wilt thou make her immortal?
ENDYMION: No, but incomparable”
― John Lyly, Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature

“In this fancy of the moon he deprives himself of the sight of the sun.”
― John Lyly, Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature

“Most high and happy princess, we must tell you a tale of the Man in the Moon, which if it seem ridiculous for the method, or superfluous for the matter, or for the means incredible, for three faults we can make but one excuse: it is a tale of the Man in the Moon.

It was forbidden in old time to dispute of chimaera, because it was a fiction. We hope in our times none will apply pastimes, because they are fancies; for there liveth none under the sun that knows what to make of the Man in the Moon. We present neither comedy, nor tragedy, nor story, nor anything, but . . . that whosoever heareth may say this:
'Why, here is a tale of the Man in the Moon'.”
― John Lyly, Endymion: John Lyly

“There hath
none pleased mine eye but Cynthia, none delighted mine ears but Cynthia, none possessed my heart but Cynthia. I
have forsaken all other fortunes to follow Cynthia, and here
I stand ready to die if it please Cynthia. Such a difference
hath the gods set between our states that all must be duty,
loyalty, and reverence; nothing, without it vouchsafe Your Highness, be termed love. My unspotted thoughts, my
languishing body, my discontented life, let them obtain
by princely favor that which to challenge they must not
presume, only wishing of impossibilities; with imagination
of which I will spend my spirits, and to myself, that no
creature may hear, softly call it love. And if any urge to
utter what I whisper, then will I name it honor. From this
sweet contemplation if I be not driven, I shall live of all men
the most content, taking more pleasure in mine aged
thoughts than ever I did in my youthful actions.”
― John Lyly, Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature

“My thoughts, Eumenides, are stitched to the stars, which being as high as I can see, thou may'st imagine how much higher they are than I can reach.”
― John Lyly, Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature

“Is it possible, Tellus, that so few years should harbor so many mischiefs?”
― John Lyly, Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature

“A strange effect of love, to work such an extreme hate.”
― John Lyly, Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature

“Thy years are not so many as thy vices, yet more in number than commonly nature doth afford or
justice should permit.”
― John Lyly, Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature

“Ah, my dear friend Endymion, suffer me to die with gazing at thee!”
― John Lyly, Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature

“Affection that is bred by enchantment is like a flower that is wrought in silk: in color and form most like, but nothing at all in substance or savor.”
― John Lyly, Endymion, The Man in the Moon: Enriched edition. A Whimsical Tale of Love and Longing in Renaissance Literature