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John of Salisbury Quotes

We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up,

We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.

John of Salisbury
Sight, Add, Sitting

Between a tyrant and a prince there is this single or chief difference, that the latter obeys the law and rules the people by its dictates, accounting himself as but their servant.

John of Salisbury
Law, Tyrants, Differences
"Policraticus". Book by John of Salisbury, Bk. 4, ch. 1, 1159.

He who will not when he may, may not when he will.

John of Salisbury
May

A man is free in proportion to the measure of his virtues, and the extent to which he is free determines what his virtues can accomplish.

John of Salisbury
Men, Virtue, Proportion
"Policraticus". Book by John of Salisbury, Bk. 7, ch. 25, 1159.

Let him who is not come to logic be plagued with continuous and everlasting filth

John of Salisbury
Filth, Logic, Everlasting

Just as the soul animates the body, so, in a way, meaning breathes life into a word.

John of Salisbury
Soul, Body, Way
John of Salisbury (2009). “The Metalogicon: A Twelfth-century Defense of the Verbal and Logical Arts of the Trivium”, p.81, Paul Dry Books

Seeking is a necessary preliminary to finding, and one who cannot endure the hardship of inquiry cannot expect to harvest the fruit of knowledge.

John of Salisbury
Inquiry, Hardship, Fruit
John of Salisbury (2009). “The Metalogicon: A Twelfth-century Defense of the Verbal and Logical Arts of the Trivium”, p.104, Paul Dry Books

The common people say, that physicians are the class of people who kill other men in the most polite and courteous manner.

John of Salisbury
Men, Class, People
Policraticus Bk II, Ch. 29

Among all the liberal arts, the first is logic, and specifically that part of logic which gives initial instruction about words. ... [T]he word "logic" has a broad meaning, and is not restricted exclusively to the science of argumentative reasoning. [It includes] Grammar [which] is "the science of speaking and writing correctly-the starting point of all liberal studies."

John of Salisbury
Art, Writing, Science

Accurate reading on a wide range of subjects makes the scholar; careful selection of the better makes the saint.

John of Salisbury
Reading, Saint, Range
John (of Salisbury, Bishop of Chartres) (1979). “Policraticus: the statesman's book”, Frederick Ungar

Verily if with mine own eyes I had seen a priest of God, or any of those who wear the monastic garb, sinning, I would spread my cloak and hide him, that he might not be seen of any.

John of Salisbury
Eye, Might, Cloaks
John (of Salisbury, Bishop of Chartres) (1963). “The statesman's book of John of Salisbury: being the fourth, fifth, and sixth books, and selections from the seventh and eighth books, of the Policraticus”

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