John Selden Quotes

Old friends are best.

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

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.

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

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

Those that govern most make least noise.

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.

Ignorance of the law excuses no man.

A wise man should never resolve upon anything, at least, never let the world know his resolution, for if he cannot reach that he is ashamed.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain.

'Tis not the eating, nor 'tis not the drinking that is to be blamed, but the excess.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Patience is the chiefest fruit of study; a man that strives to make himself different from other men by much reading gains this chiefest good, that in all fortunes he hath something to entertain and comfort himself withal.

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