Quote

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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John Selden
Age: 69 †
Born: 1584
Born: December 16
Died: 1654
Died: November 30
Jurist
Politician
Writer
States
Filled
Waves
May
Cutting
Directly
Must
Policy
River
Giving
State
Boat
Much
Upon
Weather
Way
Water
Wave
Conveniently
Think
Fall
Rise
Troubled
Thinking
Give
Rivers
Foul

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Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice and yet everybody is content to hear.
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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.
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Idolatry is in a man's own thought, not in the opinion of another.
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A gallant man is above ill words.
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While you are upon earth, enjoy the good things that are here (to that end were they given), and be not melancholy, and wish yourself in heaven.
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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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Marriage is a desperate thing.
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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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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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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.
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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.
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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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Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty.
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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.
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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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Take a straw and throw it up into the air, you may see by that which way the wind is.
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