“He that writes idle books, makes for himself another body, in which he always lives, and sins—after death—as fast and as foul as ever he did in his life.”

Warning on the lasting harm of frivolous or vicious writing · Author's Preface to Silex Scintillans (1655)

• Responsibility
• Sin
• Writing

“Holy writing must strive (by all means) for perfection and true holiness, that a door may be opened to him in heaven.”

On the spiritual requirement for sacred poetry · Author's Preface to Silex Scintillans (1655)

• Holiness
• Perfection
• Poetry

“As men are killed by fighting, the truth is lost in disputing.”

Caution against sterile controversy that obscures rather than reveals · Preface to Hermetical Physick of Henry Nollus (1655)

• Argument
• Truth
• Wisdom