Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury

Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury (March 3 1583 – August 20 1648) was a British soldier, diplomat, historian, poet, autobiographer and metaphysician, sometimes called "the father of deism". The poet George Herbert was his brother.

He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself, for every man hath need to be forgiven.

Quotes

Verse quotations are cited from John Churton Collins (ed.) The Poems of Lord Herbert of Cherbury (London: Chatto and Windus, 1881).

• Now that the April of your youth adorns
  The garden of your face.
  • "Ditty in Imitation of the Spanish Entre tantoque el'Avril", line 1

• Sleep, Nurse of our life, Care’s best reposer,
  Nature's high'st rapture, and the vision giver.
  • "To his Mistress for her True Picture", line 11

• Our life is but a dark and stormy night,
  To which sense yields a weak and glimmering light,
  While wandering Man thinks he discerneth all
  By that which makes him but mistake and fall.
  • "To his Mistress for her True Picture", line 49

• Let then no doubt, Celinda, touch,
  Much less your fairest mind invade:
  Were not our souls immortal made
  Our equal loves can make them such.
  • "An Ode Upon a Question Moved Whether Love Should Continue for Ever", line 121

The Autobiography

Quotations are cited from Sidney Lee (ed.) The Autobiography of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, revised edition (London: Routledge, 1906).

• I must no less commend the study of anatomy, which whosoever considers, I believe will never be an atheist; the frame of man's body and coherence of his parts, being so strange and paradoxal, that I hold it to be the greatest miracle of nature.
  • P. 31

• He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself, for every man hath need to be forgiven.
  • P. 34

• There [is] no little vigour and force added to words, when they are delivered in a neat and fine way, and somewhat out of the ordinary road, common and dull language relishing more of the clown than the gentleman. But herein also affectation must be avoided; it being better for a man by a native and clear eloquence to express himself, than by those words which may smell either of the lamp or inkhorn.
  • Pp. 35-6

• A good rider on a good horse, is as much above himself and others, as this world can make him.
  • P. 39

Misattributed

• Sum up at night what thou has done by day.
  • This line, in the more grammatical form, "Sum up at night what thou hast done by day", is from George Herbert's The Temple, The Church Porch, line 451.