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

John Selden

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John Selden
Age: 69 †
Born: 1584
Born: December 16
Died: 1654
Died: November 30
Jurist
Politician
Writer
Things
Men
Masters
Speak
Write
Writing
Make

More quotes by John Selden

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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.
John Selden
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A gallant man is above ill words.
John Selden
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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.
John Selden
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More solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels.
John Selden
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In quoting of books, quote such authors as are usually read others you may read for your own satisfaction, but not name them.
John Selden
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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.
John Selden
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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.
John Selden
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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.
John Selden
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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.
John Selden
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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.
John Selden
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Scrutamini scripturas (Let us look at the scriptures). These two words have undone the world.
John Selden
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There is no book on which we can rest in a dying moment but the Bible.
John Selden
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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.
John Selden
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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.
John Selden
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The clergy would have us believe them against our own reason, as the woman would have her husband against his own eyes.
John Selden
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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.
John Selden
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Tis not seasonable to call a man traitor, that has an army at his heels.
John Selden
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Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the world.
John Selden
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Abundance consists not alone in material possession, but in an uncovetous spirit.
John Selden
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Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain.
John Selden