John Selden Quotes

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

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.

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.

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

Money makes a man laugh.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain, the enjoying of something I am in great trouble for till I have it.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

In quoting of books, quote such authors as are usually read; others you may read for your own satisfaction, but not name them.

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 gallant man is above ill words.

They that are against Superstition oftentimes run into it of the wrong side. If I will wear all colours but black, then am I superstitious in not wearing black.

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

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

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

Wit and wisdom are born with a man.

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.

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

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.

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.

Marriage is a desperate thing.

Nothing is text but what is spoken of in the Bible and meant there for person and place; the rest is application; which a discreet man may do well; but it is his scripture, not the Holy Ghost's. 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.

Philosophy is nothing but discretion.

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

Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain.

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

The world cannot be governed without juggling.

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?

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

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.

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

Prayer should be short, without giving God Almighty reasons why He should grant this or that; He knows best wheat is good for us. If your boy should ask you for a suit of clothes and give you reasons, would you endure it? You know his needs better than he; let him ask for a suit of clothes.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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