John Selden Quotes
-
No man is the wiser for his learning; it may administer matter to work in, or objects to work upon; but wit and wisdom are born with a man.
→ -
While you are upon earth, enjoy the good things that are here (to that end were they given), and be not melancholy, and wish yourself in heaven.
→ -
Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, else a man cannot keep up his dignity.
→ -
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.
→ -
More solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels.
→ -
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.
→ -
Of all the actions of a man's life, his marriage does least concern other people, yet of all the actions of our lives, 'tis the most meddled with by other people.
→ -
The happiness of married life depends upon making small sacrifices with readiness and cheerfulness.
→ -
Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were the easiest for his feet.
→ -
Opinion is something wherein I go about to give reasons why all the world should think as I think.
→ -
Never king dropped out of the clouds.
→ -
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.
→ -
Take a straw and throw it up into the air, you may see by that which way the wind is.
→ -
We measure the excellency of other men by some excellency we conceive to be in ourselves.
→ -
Tis not seasonable to call a man traitor, that has an army at his heels.
→ -
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.
→ -
Marriage is a desperate thing.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
Every law is a contract between the king and the people and therefore to be kept.
→ -
The Parish makes the constable, and when the constable is made, he governs the Parish.
→ -
Ceremony keeps up things: 'tis like a penny glass to a rich spirit, or some excellent water; without it the water were spilt, and the spirit lost.
→ -
Scrutamini scripturas (Let us look at the scriptures). These two words have undone the world.
→ -
We look after religion as the butcher did after his knife, when he had it in his mouth.
→ -
Wit and wisdom are born with a man.
→ -
No man is the wiser for his learning
→ -
Humility is a virtue all preach, none practise, and yet every body is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity.
→ -
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.
→
Related Authors
-
Thomas Hobbes Philosopher -
Edmund Burke Statesman -
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Philosopher -
Giambattista Vico Philosopher -
William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury -
John Stuart Mill Philosopher -
Baron de Montesquieu Author -
Hugo Grotius Jurist -
Baruch Spinoza Philosopher -
Rene Descartes Philosopher -
Frederic William Maitland Jurist -
Francis Bacon Former Lord Chancellor -
Edward Coke Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales -
John Locke Philosopher -
Michael Drayton Poet -
Plato Philosopher -
William Blackstone Jurist -
Matthew Hale Barrister -
William Camden Writer -
Aristotle Philosopher