John Selden Quotes

57 Sourced Quotes

'Tis not the drinking that is to be blamed, but the excess.

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

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

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

John Selden
There is not anything in the world so much abused as this sentence, Salus populi suprema lex esto.

John Selden
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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John Selden
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
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.

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

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

John Selden
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
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