John Selden famous quotes

Old friends are best.
-- John Selden

#Inspirational #Old Friends

Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty.
-- John Selden

#New Year #Happy New Year #Resolution

There is no book on which we can rest in a dying moment but the Bible.
-- John Selden

#Book #Dying #Moments

The world cannot be governed without juggling.
-- John Selden

#Leadership #World #Manipulation

Philosophy is nothing but discretion.
-- John Selden

#Philosophy #Discretion

The happiness of married life depends upon making small sacrifices with readiness and cheerfulness.
-- John Selden

#Sacrifice #Married #Cheerfulness

Idolatry is in a man's own thought, not in the opinion of another.
-- John Selden

#Men #Opinion #Idolatry

Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because 'tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to refute him.
-- John Selden

#Ignorance #Men #Law

I have taken much pains to know everything that is esteemed worth knowing amongst men; but with all my reading, nothing now remains to comfort me at the close of this life but this passage of St. Paul: "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." To this I cleave, and herein do I find rest.
-- John Selden

#Jesus #Pain #Taken

The Parish makes the constable, and when the constable is made, he governs the Parish.
-- John Selden

#Made

Prayer should be short, without giving God Almighty reasons why he should grant this, or that; he knows best what is good for us.
-- John Selden

#Prayer #Giving #Praying

There was never a merry world since the fairies left off dancing.
-- John Selden

#Dance #Dancing #World

Money makes a man laugh.
-- John Selden

#Money #Men #Laughing

When men comfort themselves with philosophy, 'tis not because they have got two or three sentences, but because they have digested those sentences, and made them their own: philosophy is nothing but discretion.
-- John Selden

#Philosophy #Men #Two

The House of Commons is called the Lower House, in twenty Acts of Parliament; but what are twenty Acts of Parliament amongst Friends?
-- John Selden

#House #Twenties #Parliament

Fine wits destroy themselves with their own plots, in meddling with great affairs of state.
-- John Selden

#Plot #Affair #States

The law against witches does not prove there be any; but it punishes the malice of those people that use such means to take away men's lives.
-- John Selden

#Mean #Men #Law

Opinion is something wherein I go about to give reasons why all the world should think as I think.
-- John Selden

#Thinking #Giving #World

Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the world.
-- John Selden

#World #Littles #Foolery

Gentelmen heve ever been more temperate in their religion than common people, as having more reason.
-- John Selden

#People #Common #Reason

Equity is a roguish thing. For Law we have a measure, know what to trust to; Equity is according to the conscience of him that is Chancellor, and as that is larger or narrower, so is Equity. 'T is all one as if they should make the standard for the measure we call a "foot" a Chancellor's foot; what an uncertain measure would this be! One Chancellor has a long foot, another a short foot, a third an indifferent foot. 'T is the same thing in the Chancellor's conscience.
-- John Selden

#Law #Feet #Long

Scrutamini scripturas (Let us look at the scriptures). These two words have undone the world.
-- John Selden

#Two #Looks #World

You will want a book which contains not man's thoughts, but God's - not a book that may amuse you, but a book that can save you - not even a book that can instruct you, but a book on which you can venture an eternity - not only a book which can give relief to your spirit, but redemption to your soul - a book which contains salvation, and conveys it to you, one which shall at once be the Saviour's book and the sinner's.
-- John Selden

#Bible #Book #Men

Those that govern most make least noise.
-- John Selden

#Noise

Every law is a contract between the king and the people and therefore to be kept.
-- John Selden

#Kings #Law #People

Ignorance of the law excuses no man.
-- John Selden

#Ignorance #Men #Law

More solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels.
-- John Selden

#Ballads #Libel #Shows

Take a straw and throw it up into the air, you may see by that which way the wind is.
-- John Selden

#Air #Wind #May

Nothing is text but what is spoken of in the Bible and meant there for person and place; the rest is application; which a discreet man may do well; but it is his scripture, not the Holy Ghost's. First, in your sermons use your logic, and then your rhetoric; rhetoric without logic is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root.
-- John Selden

#Men #Roots #Tree

Religion is like the fashion, one man wears his doublet slashed, another lashed, another plain; but every man has a doublet; so every man has a religion. We differ about the trimming.
-- John Selden

#Fashion #Men #Religion

We look after religion as the butcher did after his knife, when he had it in his mouth.
-- John Selden

#Knives #Religion #Looks

Men say they are of the same religion, for quietness' sake; but if the matter were well examined, you would scarce find three anywhere of the same religion on all points.
-- John Selden

#Men #Religion #Three

Preaching, in the first sense of the word, ceased as soon as ever the gospel was written.
-- John Selden

#Firsts #Preaching

Wit and wisdom differ; wit is upon the sudden turn, wisdom is bringing about ends.
-- John Selden

#Ends #Wit #Wit And Wisdom

Preachers say, "Do as I say, not as I do." But if a physician had the same disease upon him that I have, and he should bid me do one thing and he do quite another, could I believe him?
-- John Selden

#Believe #Physicians #Disease

Women ought not to know their own wit, because they will still be showing it, and so spoil it.
-- John Selden

#Wit #Spoil #Stills

In a troubled state we must do as in foul weather upon a river, not think to cut directly through, for the boat may be filled with water; but rise and fall as the waves do, and give way as much as we conveniently can.
-- John Selden

#Fall #Cutting #Thinking

We see the judges look like lions, but we do not see who moves them.
-- John Selden

#Moving #Judging #Looks

Talk what you will of the Jews,--that they are cursed: they thrive wherever they come; they are able to oblige the prince of their country by lending him money; none of them beg; they keep together; and as for their being hated, why, Christians hate one another as much.
-- John Selden

#Christian #Country #Hate

A gallant man is above ill words.
-- John Selden

#Men #Gallantry #Gallant

Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain, the enjoying of something I am in great trouble for till I have it.
-- John Selden

#Pain #Trouble #Pleasure

Casting out devils is mere juggling; they never cast out any but what they first cast in.
-- John Selden

#Devil #Casting #Firsts

He that hath a scrupulous conscience is like a horse that is not well weighed; he starts at every bird that flies out of the hedge.
-- John Selden

#Horse #Bird #Wells

Ceremony keeps up things: 'tis like a penny glass to a rich spirit, or some excellent water; without it the water were spilt, and the spirit lost.
-- John Selden

#Glasses #Water #Pennies

Never king dropped out of the clouds.
-- John Selden

#Kings #Clouds

Wit and wisdom are born with a man.
-- John Selden

#Men #Thinking #Born

While you are upon the earth, enjoy the good things that are here.
-- John Selden

#Life #Earth #Good Things

A glorious Church is like a magnificent feast; there is all the variety that may be, but every one chooses out a dish or two that he likes, and lets the rest alone: how glorious soever the Church is, every one chooses out of it his own religion, by which he governs himself, and lets the rest alone.
-- John Selden

#Two #Religion #Church

Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain.
-- John Selden

#Pain #Pleasure #Intermission

To preach long, loud, and Damnation, is the way to be cried up. We love a man that damns us, and we run after him again to save us.
-- John Selden

#Love #Running #Men

He that has not religion to govern his morality, is not a dram better than my mastiff-dog; so long as you stroke him, and please him, and do not pinch him, he will play with you as finely as may be, he is a very good moral mastiff; but if you hurt him, he will fly in your face, and tear out your throat.
-- John Selden

#Dog #Hurt #Play

If the prisoner should ask the judge whether he would be content to be hanged, were he in his case, he would answer no. Then, says the prisoner, do as you would be done to.
-- John Selden

#Compassion #Judging #Would Be

Abundance consists not alone in material possession, but in an uncovetous spirit.
-- John Selden

#Spirit #Abundance #Possession

Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear.
-- John Selden

#Humility #Practice #Virtue

Of all the actions of a man's life, his marriage does least concern other people, yet of all the actions of our lives, 'tis the most meddled with by other people.
-- John Selden

#Marriage #Wedding #Men

We pick out a text here and there to make it serve our turn; whereas , if we take it all together, and considered what went before and what followed after, we should find it meant no such thing.
-- John Selden

#Hypocrisy #Together #Should

Pleasures are all alike simply considered in themselves: he that hunts, or he that governs the commonwealth, they both please themselves alike, only we commend that, whereby we ourselves receive some benefit.
-- John Selden

#Benefits #Pleasure #Please

Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were the easiest for his feet.
-- John Selden

#Friendship #Kings #Real

They that are against superstition oftentimes run into it of the wrong side. If I wear all colors but black, then I am superstitious in not wearing black.
-- John Selden

#Running #Wearing Black #Color

A king is a thing men have made for their own sakes, for quietness sake. Just as in a family one man is appointed to buy the meat.
-- John Selden

#Kings #Men #Meat

Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, else a man cannot keep up his dignity.
-- John Selden

#Pride #Men #Degrees

It's not the drinking to be blamed, but the excess.
-- John Selden

#Drinking #Excess

Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, else a man cannot keep up dignity. In gluttony there must be eating, in drunkenness there must be drinking; 'tis not the eating, and 'tis not the drinking that must be blamed, but the excess. So in pride.
-- John Selden

#Drinking #Pride #Men

Commonly we say a judgment falls upon a man for something in him we cannot abide.
-- John Selden

#Fall #Men #Judgment

We measure the excellency of other men by some excellency we conceive to be in ourselves.
-- John Selden

#Men #Excellence

The clergy would have us believe them against our own reason, as the woman would have her husband against his own eyes.
-- John Selden

#Husband #Believe #Eye

Wise people say nothing in dangerous times.
-- John Selden

#Wise #People #Danger

Humility is a virtue all men preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servants, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity.
-- John Selden

#Humility #Men #Thinking

All things are God's already; we can give him no right, by consecrating any, that he had not before, only we set it apart to his service - just as a gardener brings his master a basket of apricots, and presents them; his lord thanks him, and perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the apricots were as much his lord's before as now.
-- John Selden

#Pain #Giving #Apricots

Few men make themselves masters of the things they write or speak.
-- John Selden

#Writing #Men #Speak

In quoting of books, quote such authors as are usually read; others you may read for your own satisfaction, but not name them.
-- John Selden

#Book #Names #May

Twas an unhappy Division that has been made between Faith and Works; though in my Intellect I may divide them, just as in the Candle I know there is both Light and Heat. But yet, put out the Candle, and they are both gone.
-- John Selden

#Christian #Prayer #Light

Marriage is a desperate thing.
-- John Selden

#Broken Heart #Heart #Broken

No man is the wiser for his learning
-- John Selden

#Learning #Men #Wiser

The Hall was the place where the great lord used to eat . . . He ate not in private, except in time of sickness . . . Nay, the king himself used to eat in the Hall, and his lords sat with him, and he understood men.
-- John Selden

#Time #Kings #Men

No man is the wiser for his learning; it may administer matter to work in, or objects to work upon; but wit and wisdom are born with a man.
-- John Selden

#Men #May #Matter

First, in your sermons, use your logic, and then your rhetoric; Rhetoric without logic, is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet more are taken with rhetoric than logic, because they are caught with fine expressions when they understand not reason.
-- John Selden

#Taken #Expression #Roots

Tis not seasonable to call a man traitor, that has an army at his heels.
-- John Selden

#Army #Men #High Heels