{"id":9,"date":"2026-09-13T15:09:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T15:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/?p=9"},"modified":"2026-09-13T15:09:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T15:09:48","slug":"the-quiet-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/the-quiet-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quiet Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That is <strong>Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey<\/strong>\u2014the poet-courtier who practically invented English blank verse and was famously portrayed in <em>The Tudors<\/em>. His translation of the Roman poet Martial, <strong>&#8220;The Means to Attain a Happy Life&#8221;<\/strong> (often titled <strong>&#8220;The Things that Cause a Quiet Life&#8221;<\/strong>, c. 1547), is one of the most celebrated philosophical poems of the Tudor era:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Martial, the things that do attain<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>A happy life be these, I find:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The riches left, not got with pain;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The fruitful ground; the quiet mind;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The equal friend; no grudge, no strife;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>No charge of rule, nor governance;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Without disease, the healthful life;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The household of continuance;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The mean diet, no delicate fare;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>True wisdom joined with simpleness;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The night discharg\u00e8d of all care,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Where wine the wit may not oppress;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The faithful wife, without debate;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Such sleeps as may beguile the night:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Contented with thine own estate,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Ne wish for death, ne fear his might.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The beauty of this poem lies in Surrey\u2019s recognition that true happiness comes from <strong>&#8220;the mean diet,&#8221; &#8220;simpleness,&#8221;<\/strong> and <strong>&#8220;no charge of rule, nor governance&#8221;<\/strong>\u2014relinquishing the ego&#8217;s lust for status and control to secure a tranquil, unburdened spirit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That is Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey\u2014the poet-courtier who practically invented English blank verse and was famously portrayed in The Tudors. His translation of the Roman poet Martial, &#8220;The Means to Attain&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12,"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/12"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thequietmindestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}