John Selden

"You will want a book which contains not man's thoughts, but God's — not a book that may amuse you, but a book that can save you — not even a book that can instruct you, but a book on which you can venture an eternity — not only a book which can give relief to your spirit, but redemption to your soul — a book which contains salvation, and conveys it to you, one which shall at once be the Saviour's book and the sinner's."

"Scrutamini scripturas (Let us look at the scriptures). These two words have undone the world."

"The House of Commons is called the Lower House, in twenty Acts of Parliament; but what are twenty Acts of Parliament amongst Friends?"

"Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest for his feet."

"Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear."

"'Tis not the drinking that is to be blamed, but the excess."

"Commonly we say a judgement falls upon a man for something in him we cannot abide."

"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."

"Gentelmen heve ever been more temperate in their religion than common people, as having more reason."

"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."

"The parish makes the constable, and when the constable is made he governs the parish."

"No man is the wiser for his learning."

"Wit and wisdom are born with a man."

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

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

"Philosophy is nothing but discretion."

"Of all actions of a man's life his marriage does least concern other people, yet of all actions of our life 'tis most meddled with by other people."

"Marriage is a desperate thing."

"Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the world."

"They that govern the most make the least noise."

"Syllables govern the world."

"Never king dropped out of the clouds."

"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."

"Never tell your resolution beforehand."

"Wise men say nothing in dangerous times."

"Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain."

"Preachers say, Do as I say, not as I do."

"A king is a thing men have made for their own sakes, for quietness' sake. Just as in a family one man is appointed to buy the meat."

"Mr. Selden was a person whom no character can part flatter, or transmit in any expressions equal to his merit and virtue. He was of so stupendous learning in all kinds and in all languages, (as may appear in his excellent and transcendent writings,) that a man would have thought he had been entirely conversant amongst books, and had never spent an hour but in reading and writing; yet his humanity, courtesy, and affability was such, that he would have been thought to have been bred in the best courts, but that his good nature, charity, and delight in doing good, and in communicating all he knew, exceeded that breeding. His style in all his writings seems harsh and sometimes obscure; which is not wholly to be imputed to the abstruse subjects of which he commonly treated, out of the paths trod by other men; but to a little undervaluing the beauty of a style, and too much propensity to the language of antiquity: but in his conversation he was the most dear discourser, and had the best faculty of making hard things easy, and presenting them to the understanding, of any man that hath been known. Mr. Hyde was wont to say, that he valued himself upon nothing more than upon having had Mr. Selden's acquaintance from the time he was very young; and held it with great delight as long as they were suffered to continue together in London; and he was very much troubled always when he heard him blamed, censured, and reproached, for staying in London, and in the parliament, after they were in rebellion, and in the worst times, which his age obliged him to do; and how wicked soever the actions were which were every day done, he was confident he had not given his consent to them; but would have hindered them if he could with his own safety, to which he was always enough indulgent. If he had some infirmities with other men, they were weighed down with wonderful and prodigious abilities and excellencies in the other scale."