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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.

John Selden

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John Selden
Age: 69 †
Born: 1584
Born: December 16
Died: 1654
Died: November 30
Jurist
Politician
Writer
Law
Tell
Every
Men
Refute
Plead
Excuses
Excuse
Ignorance

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Prayer should be short, without giving God Almighty reasons why he should grant this, or that he knows best what is good for us.
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We measure the excellency of other men by some excellency we conceive to be in ourselves.
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Tis not seasonable to call a man traitor, that has an army at his heels.
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Scrutamini scripturas (Let us look at the scriptures). These two words have undone the world.
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Few men make themselves masters of the things they write or speak.
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He that hath a scrupulous conscience is like a horse that is not well weighed he starts at every bird that flies out of the hedge.
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The happiness of married life depends upon making small sacrifices with readiness and cheerfulness.
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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.
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More solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels.
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The House of Commons is called the Lower House, in twenty Acts of Parliament but what are twenty Acts of Parliament amongst Friends?
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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?
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Opinion is something wherein I go about to give reasons why all the world should think as I think.
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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.
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Commonly we say a judgment falls upon a man for something in him we cannot abide.
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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.
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No man is the wiser for his learning
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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.
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Wit and wisdom are born with a man.
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Take a straw and throw it up into the air, you may see by that which way the wind is.
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There is no book on which we can rest in a dying moment but the Bible.
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