John Selden Quotes

57 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

John Selden
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
Gentlemen have ever been more temperate in their religion than common people, as having more reason.

John Selden
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
No man is wiser for his learning, wit and wisdom are born with a man.

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

John Selden
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
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 confute him.

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

John Selden
They that govern most make the least noise.

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

John Selden
There never was a merry world since the fairies left off dancing, and the Parson left conjuring.

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

John Selden