Henry Wotton

"I pensieri stretti e il viso sciolto will go safely over the whole world."

"Who God doth late and early pray, More of his grace than gifts to send, And entertains the harmless day With a well-chosen book or friend."

"Lord of himself, though not of lands; And having nothing, yet hath all."

"You meaner beauties of the night, That poorly satisfy our eyes More by your number than your light; You common people of the skies, What are you when the sun shall rise?"

"I am but a gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff."

"Love lodged in a woman's breast Is but a guest."

"He first deceased; she for a little tried To live without him, liked it not, and died."

"How happy is he born and taught, That serveth not another's will; Whose armor is his honest thought, And simple truth his utmost skill!"

"An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth."

"The itch of disputing will prove the scab of churches."

"Hic jacet hujus sententiæ primus author: DISPUTANDI PRURITUS ECCLESIARUM SCABIES. Nomen alias quære."

"Advised a young diplomat "to tell the truth, and so puzzle and confound his enemies.""

"It became normal to have at each of the major courts a resident “ambassador”—a word defined by the English poet and diplomat Sir Henry Wotton in a punning epigram as “a man sent to lie abroad for his country’s good.” Given the time required for travel, and the hazards en route—especially in an age of dynastic and religious warfare—permanent ambassadors offered a convenient substitute for personal summitry. And their detailed reports required the attention of specialist secretaries who oversaw foreign affairs, such as Francis Walsingham in Elizabethan London or Antonio Perez at the court of Philip III. Day-to-day diplomacy tended to slip out of the hands of rulers."

"Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to."