John Tillotson Quotes - Page 2

There is no readier way for a man to bring his own worth into question than by endeavoring to detract from the worth of other men.

Are we proud and passionate, malicious and revengeful? Is this to be like-minded with Christ, who was meek and lowly?

Of some calamity we can have no relief but from God alone; and what would men do, in such a case if it were not for God?

For the spiritual efficacy of the Sacrament doth not depend upon the nature of the thing received, supposing we received what our Lord appointed, and receive it with a right preparation and disposition of mind, but upon the supernatural blessing that goes along with it, and makes it effectual to those spiritual ends for which it was appointed.

The crafty person is always in danger; and when they think they walk in the dark, all their pretenses are transparent.

Of all parts of wisdom, the practice is the best. Socrates was esteemed the wisest man of his time because he turned his acquired knowledge into morality, and aimed at goodness more than greatness.

Take away God and religion, and men live to no purpose, without proposing any worthy end of life to themselves.

Every man hath greater assurance that God is good and just than he can have of any subtle speculations about predestination and the decrees of God.

If our souls be immortal, this makes amends for the frailties of life and the sufferings of this state.

Whether religion be true or false, it must be necessarily granted to be the only wise principle and safe hypothesis for a man to live and die by.

We anticipate our own happiness, and eat out the heart and sweetness of worldly pleasures by delightful forethought of them.

Great is the advantage of patience.

How often might a man, after he had jumbled a set of letters in a bag, fling them out upon the ground before they would fall into an exact poem, yea, or so much as make a good discourse in prose? And may not a little book be as easily made by chance as this great volume of the world?

The angriest person in a controversy is the one most liable to be in the wrong.

It is hard to personate and act a part long; for where Truth is not the bottom, Nature will always be endeavoring to return, and will peep and betray herself one time or other.

Was ever any wicked man free from the stings of a guilty conscience?

It is pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to excel many others; it is pleasant to grow better, because that is to excel ourselves; it is pleasant to mortify and subdue our lusts, because that is victory; it is pleasant to command our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due order within the bounds of reason and religion, because this is empire.

Wisdom and understanding are synonymous words; they consist of two propositions, which are not distinct in sense, but one and the same thing variously expressed.

Is not he imprudent, who, seeing the tide making haste towards him apace, will sleep till the sea overwhelms him?

Piety and virtue are not only delightful for the present, but they leave peace and contentment behind them.

Sincerity is like traveling on a plain, beaten road, which commonly brings a man sooner to his journey's end than by-ways, in which men often lose themselves.

To be able to bear provocation is an argument of great reason, and to forgive it of a great mind.

Whatever convenience may be thought to be in falsehood and dissimulation, it is soon over; but the inconvenience of it is perpetual, because it brings a man under everlasting jealousy and suspicion, so that he is not believed when he speaks the truth, nor trusted when perhaps he means honestly.

Fear is that passion which hath the greatest power over us, and by which God and His laws take the surest hold of us.

In matters of great concern, and which must be done, there is no surer argument of a weak mind than irresolution; to be undetermined where the case is so plain, and the necessity so urgent. To be always intending to live a new life, but never to find time to set about it; this is as if a man should put off eating, and drinking, and sleeping, from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed.