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Take a straw and throw it up into the air, you may see by that which way the wind is.

John Selden

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John Selden
Age: 69 †
Born: 1584
Born: December 16
Died: 1654
Died: November 30
Jurist
Politician
Writer
Air
Wind
May
Take
Way
Straw
Straws
Throw

More quotes by 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.
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Commonly we say a judgment falls upon a man for something in him we cannot abide.
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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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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.
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There was never a merry world since the fairies left off dancing.
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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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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.
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Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes they were the easiest for his feet.
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There is no book on which we can rest in a dying moment but the Bible.
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Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the world.
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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.
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Prayer should be short, without giving God Almighty reasons why He should grant this or that He knows best wheat is good for us. If your boy should ask you for a suit of clothes and give you reasons, would you endure it? You know his needs better than he let him ask for a suit of clothes.
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Philosophy is nothing but discretion.
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Idolatry is in a man's own thought, not in the opinion of another.
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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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The happiness of married life depends upon making small sacrifices with readiness and cheerfulness.
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Religion is like the fashion, one man wears his doublet slashed, another lashed, another plain but every man has a doublet so every man has a religion. We differ about the trimming.
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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
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Those that govern most make least noise.
John Selden