62 Joseph Hall Quotes

Next to hypocrisy in religion, there is nothing worse than hypocrisy in friendship.

Satan rocks the cradle when we sleep at our devotions.

A good man is kinder to his enemy than bad men to their friends.

There be three usual causes of ingratitude upon a benefit received - envy, pride, and covetousness; envy, looking more at other's benefits than our own; pride, looking more at ourselves than at the benefit; covetousness, looking more at what we would have than at what we have.

The godly man contrarily is afraid of nothing; not of God, because he knows Him his best friend, and will not hurt him; not of Satan, because he cannot hurt him; not of afflictions, because he knows they come from a loving God, and end in his good; not of the creatures, since "the very stones in the field are in league with Him;" not of himself, since his conscience is at peace.

There is no enemy can hurt us but by our own hands. Satan could not hurt us, if our own corruption betrayed us not. Afflictions cannot hurt us without our own impatience. Temptations cannot hurt us, without our own yieldance. Death could not hurt us, without the sting of our own sins. Sins could not hurt us, without our own impenitence.

Sorrows, because they are lingering guests, I will entertain but moderately, knowing that the more they are made of the longer they will continue: and for pleasures, because they stay not, and do but call to drink at my door, I will use them as passengers with slight respect. He is his own best friend that makes the least of both of them.

What a world of wit is here packed together! I know not whether the sight doth more dismay or comfort me. It dismays me to think that here is so much I cannot know; it comforts me to think that this variety yields so good helps to know what I should. Blessed be the memory of those who have left their blood, their spirits, their lives, in these precious books, and have willingly wasted themselves into these during monuments, to give light unto others.

The best ground, unfilled and neglected, soonest runs out into rank weeds. A man of knowledge that is either negligent or uncorrected cannot but grow wild and godless.

The proud man hath no God; the envious man hath no neighbor; the angry man hath not himself. What good, then, in being a man, if one has neither himself nor a neighbor nor God.

I never love those salamanders that are never well but when they are in the fire of contention. I will rather suffer a thousand wrongs than offer one. I have always found that to strive with a superior, is injurious; with an equal, doubtful; with an inferior, sordid and base; with any, full of uniqueness.

Death did not first strike Adam, the first sinful man, nor Cain, the first hypocrite, but Abel, the innocent and righteous. The first soul that met death overcame death; the first soul parted from earth went to heaven. Death argues not displeasure, because he whom God loved best dies first, and the murderer is punished with living.

If religion might be judged of according to men's intentions, there would scarcely be any idolatry in the world.

The wicked is a very coward, and is afraid of everything; of God, because He is his enemy; of Satan, because he is his tormentor; of God's creatures, because they, joining with their Maker, fight against him; of himself, because he bears about with him his own accuser and executioner.

Not to be afflicted is a sign of weakness; for, therefore God imposeth no more on me, because he sees I can bear no more.

The heart of man is a short word, a small substance, scarce enough to give a kite a meal, yet great in capacity; yea, so indefinite in desire that the round globe of the world cannot fill the three corners of it. When it desires more and cries, "Give, give," I will set it over to the infinite good, where the more it hath, it may desire more, and see more to be desired.

Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.

The idle man is the devil's cushion, on which he taketh his free ease, who, as he is incapable of any good, so he is fitly disposed for all evil motions.

Infidelity and Faith look both through the same perspective-glass, but at contrary ends. Infidelity looks through the wrong end of the glass; and, therefore, sees those objects near which are afar off, and makes great things little, diminishing the greatest spiritual blessings, and removing far from us threatened evils. Faith looks at the right end, and brings the blessings that are far off close to our eye, and multiplies God's mercies, which, in the distance, lost their greatness.

A charitable untruth, an uncharitable truth, and an unwise management of truth or love, are all to be carefully avoided of him that would go with a right foot in the narrow way.

No devil is so dangerous as the religious devil.

Fools measure actions, after they are done, by the event; wise men beforehand, by the rules of reason and right. The former look to the end, to judge of the act. Let me look to the act, and leave the end with God.

Heaven hath many tongues to talk of it, more eyes to behold it, but few hearts that rightly affect it.

As in a pair of bellows, there is a forced breath without life, so in those that are puffed up with the wind of ostentation, there may be charitable words without works.

I account this body nothing but a close prison to my soul; and the earth a larger prison to my body. I may not break prison, till I be loosed by death; but I will leave it, not unwillingly, when I am loosed.

Means without God cannot help. God without means can, and often doth. I will use good means, but not rest in them.

Never throw mud. You may miss your mark; but you must have dirty hands.

Recreation is intended to the mind as whetting is to the scythe, to sharpen the edge of it, which otherwise would grow dull and blunt. He, therefore, that spends his whole time in recreation is ever whetting, never mowing; his grass may grow and his steed starve. As, contrarily, he that always toils and never recreates, is ever mowing, never whetting; laboring much too little purpose; as good no scythe as no edge.

The practices of good men are more subject to error than their speculations. I will, then, honor good examples, but endeavor to live according to good precepts.

He is great enough that is his own master.

Satan would seem to be mannerly and reasonable; making as if he would be content with one-half of the heart, whereas God challengeth all or none: as, indeed, He hath most reason to claim all that made all. But this is nothing but a crafty fetch of Satan; for he knows that if he have any part, God will have none: so the whole falleth to his share alone.

Christianity teacheth me that what I charitably give alive, I carry with me dead; and experience teacheth me that what I leave behind, I lose. I will carry that treasure with me by giving it, which the worldling loseth by keeping it; so, while his corpse shall carry nothing but a winding cloth to his grave, I shall be richer under the earth than I was above it.

It is not hasty reading, but seriously meditating upon holy and heavenly truths that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the bee's touching on the flowers that gathers the honey, but her abiding for a time upon them, and drawing out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most on divine truth, that will prove the choicest, wisest, strongest Christian.

Pleasures come like oxen slow and heavily, and go away like post-horses, upon the spur.

It is no small happiness to attend those from whom we may receive precepts and examples of virtue.

He that takes his cares on himself loads himself in vain with an uneasy burden. I will cast my cares on God; he has bidden me; they cannot burden him.

It is no small commendation to manage a little well. To live well in abundance is the praise of the estate, not of the person. I will study more how to give a good account of my little, than how to make it more.

Good prayers never come creeping home. I am sure I shall receive either what I ask, or what I should ask.

No marvel if the worldling escape earthly afflictions. God corrects him not. He is base born and begot. God will not do him the favor to whip him. The world afflicts him not, because it loves him: for each man is indulgent to his own. God uses not the rod where He means to use the Word. The pillory or scourge is for those malefactors that shall escape execution.

Our wishes are the true touchstone of our estate; such as we wish to be we are. Worldly hearts affect earthly things; spiritual, divine. We cannot better know what we are than by what we would be.

There would not be so many open mouths if there were not so many open ears.

The most generous vine, if not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems and grows at last weak and fruitless: so doth the best man if he be not cut short in his desires, and pruned with afflictions.

Society is the atmosphere of souls; and we necessarily imbibe from it something which is either infectious or healthful.

I would fain know all that I need, and all that I may. I leave God's secrets to himself. It is happy for me that God makes me of his court, and not of his council.

Those who give not till they die show that they would not then if they could keep it any longer.

Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.

Everyone would have something, such perhaps as we are ashamed to utter. The proud man would have honor; the covetous man, wealth and abundance; the malicious, revenge on his enemies; the epicure, pleasure and long life; the barren, children; the wanton, beauty; each would be humored in his own desire, though in opposition both to God's will, and his own good.

Garments that have once one rent in them are subject to be torn on every nail, and glasses that are once cracked are soon broken. Such is man's good name when once tainted with just reproach.

Moderation is the center wherein all philosophies, both human and divine, meet.

Nothing doth so fool a man as extreme passion. This doth make them fools which otherwise are not, and show them to be fools which are so.