29 John Selden Quotes

Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity.

They that govern most make least noise. In rowing a barge, they that do drudgery work, slash, puff, and sweat; but he that governs, sits quietly at the stern, and scarce is seen to stir.

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.

Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain.

The happiness of married life depends upon making small sacrifices with readiness and cheerfulness.

Equity is a roguish thing. For law we have a measure, and 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. It 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. It is the same thing with the chancellor's conscience.

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

Prayer should be short, without giving God Almighty reasons why he should grant this, or that; he knows best what is good for us.

Never tell your resolution beforehand.

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.

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

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

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.

As in the candle I know there is both light and heat, but put out the candle, and they are both gone.

He that will keep a monkey should pay for the glasses he breaks.

'Tis much the doctrine of the times that men should not please themselves, but deny themselves everything they take delight in; not look upon beauty, wear no good clothes, eat no good meat, etc., which seems the greatest accusation that can be upon the Maker of all good things. If they are not to be used, why did God make them?

Wise people say nothing in dangerous times.

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.

They that cry down moral honesty, cry down that which is a great part of my religion, my duty toward God, and my duty toward man. What care I to see a man run after a sermon, if he cozens and cheats as soon as he comes home. On the other side, morality must not be without religion; for if so, it may change, as I see convenience.

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.

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.

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

When a doubt is propounded, learn to distinguish, and show wherein a thing holds, and wherein it doth not hold. The not distinguishing where things should be distinguished, and the not confounding, where things should be confounded, is the cause of all the mistakes in the world.

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

It is not juggling that is to be blamed, but much juggling; for the world cannot be governed without it.

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.

Equity in law is the same that the spirit is in religion, what everyone pleases to make it: sometimes they go according to conscience, sometimes according to law, sometimes according to the rule of court.

Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, else a man cannot keep up dignity. In gluttony there must be eating, in drunkenness there must be drinking; 'tis not the eating, and 'tis not the drinking that must be blamed, but the excess. So in pride.

Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because it is an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to confute him.