John Selden
Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were the easiest for his feet.Collection: Friendship
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.Collection: Hypocrisy
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.Collection: Compassion
Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, else a man cannot keep up his dignity.Collection: Pride
No man is the wiser for his learningCollection: Learning
Marriage is a desperate thing.Collection: Broken Heart
The Hall was the place where the great lord used to eat . . . He ate not in private, except in time of sickness . . . Nay, the king himself used to eat in the Hall, and his lords sat with him, and he understood men.Collection: Time
Commonly we say a judgment falls upon a man for something in him we cannot abide.Collection: Fall
More solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels.Collection: Ballads
The House of Commons is called the Lower House, in twenty Acts of Parliament; but what are twenty Acts of Parliament amongst Friends?Collection: House
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.Collection: Horse
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.Collection: Fall
We measure the excellency of other men by some excellency we conceive to be in ourselves.Collection: Men
Twas an unhappy Division that has been made between Faith and Works; though in my Intellect I may divide them, just as in the Candle I know there is both Light and Heat. But yet, put out the Candle, and they are both gone.Collection: Christian
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.Collection: Mean
We see the judges look like lions, but we do not see who moves them.Collection: Moving
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.Collection: Humility
Few men make themselves masters of the things they write or speak.Collection: Writing
Those that govern most make least noise.Collection: Noise
A glorious Church is like a magnificent feast; there is all the variety that may be, but every one chooses out a dish or two that he likes, and lets the rest alone: how glorious soever the Church is, every one chooses out of it his own religion, by which he governs himself, and lets the rest alone.Collection: Two
Women ought not to know their own wit, because they will still be showing it, and so spoil it.Collection: Wit
Ceremony keeps up things: 'tis like a penny glass to a rich spirit, or some excellent water; without it the water were spilt, and the spirit lost.Collection: Glasses
Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the world.Collection: Atheism
Fine wits destroy themselves with their own plots, in meddling with great affairs of state.Collection: Plot
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.Collection: Life
Preaching, in the first sense of the word, ceased as soon as ever the gospel was written.Collection: Firsts
A gallant man is above ill words.Collection: Men
Pleasures are all alike simply considered in themselves: he that hunts, or he that governs the commonwealth, they both please themselves alike, only we commend that, whereby we ourselves receive some benefit.Collection: Benefits
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.Collection: Drinking
Every law is a contract between the king and the people and therefore to be kept.Collection: Kings
Scrutamini scripturas (Let us look at the scriptures). These two words have undone the world.Collection: Two
Equity is a roguish thing. For Law we have a measure, know what to trust to; Equity is according to the conscience of him that is Chancellor, and as that is larger or narrower, so is Equity. 'T is all one as if they should make the standard for the measure we call a "foot" a Chancellor's foot; what an uncertain measure would this be! One Chancellor has a long foot, another a short foot, a third an indifferent foot. 'T is the same thing in the Chancellor's conscience.Collection: Law
Gentelmen heve ever been more temperate in their religion than common people, as having more reason.Collection: People
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.Collection: Running