Quote

More solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels.

John Selden

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Selden
Age: 69 †
Born: 1584
Born: December 16
Died: 1654
Died: November 30
Jurist
Politician
Writer
Well
Libel
Things
Complexion
Ballads
Solid
Show
Times
Shows
Wells

More quotes by John Selden

Image
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
Image
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
Image
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.
John Selden
Image
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
Image
The Parish makes the constable, and when the constable is made, he governs the Parish.
John Selden
Image
Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty.
John Selden
Image
Tis not seasonable to call a man traitor, that has an army at his heels.
John Selden
Image
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.
John Selden
Image
No man is the wiser for his learning
John Selden
Image
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
Image
We measure the excellency of other men by some excellency we conceive to be in ourselves.
John Selden
Image
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
Image
Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice and yet everybody is content to hear.
John Selden
Image
Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain.
John Selden
Image
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.
John Selden
Image
The House of Commons is called the Lower House, in twenty Acts of Parliament but what are twenty Acts of Parliament amongst Friends?
John Selden
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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