Clergy

"I would by no means attempt to infer from hence, that the longitude found by observations of this sort may in all cases be depended upon within one degree; but I beg leave to observe, that whatever extraordinary circumstances may have concurred to produce so near an agreement in this particular case, the event is such as may give reason to hope, however great the difficulties of finding the longitude by this method seem to be, that they are not insuperable, or such as ought to deter those whom it most nearly concerns from attempting to remove them."

"About the fame time the chair of at Oxford became vacant, by the death of the celebrated Dr. Keil; and Mr. Bradley was elected to succeed him on the 31st of October 1721, being then just nine and twenty years old; and his colleague was Mr. Halley, who was professor of Geometry on the same foundation."

"The invention of the telescope, the application of the pendulum to clocks, the invention of the micrometer, the combination of the telescope with the divided arc of a circle, invention of the transit circle by Roemer, with many improvements in minor apparatus, distinctly stamp the [17th] century as a remarkable period of preparation for achievements of the next century. From the standpoint of the modern mechanician the instruments at the Greenwich Observatory in Bradley's time were very imperfect in design and construction, and yet on the observations obtained by his skill and perseverance depends the whole structure of modern fundamental astronomy. The use the quadrant reached its highest excellence under Bradley's management. ... Bradley's observations furnish the data for Bessel's "Fundamenta Astronomiae," and many astronomers have since attempted by reductions to obtain improved positions for Bradley's stars. The value of these observations in the development of modern astronomy can hardly be exaggerated. Their importance in the determination of stellar s increases with the lapse of time, and yet the accuracy of the original observations was far inferior to that obtained in ordinary routine work with modern methods and improved instruments."

"If we suppose the distance of the fixed stars from the sun to be so great that the diameter of the earth's orbit viewed from them would not subtend a sensible angle, or which amounts to the same, that their annual is quite insensible; it will then follow that a line drawn from the earth in any part of its orbit to a fixed star, will always, as to sense, make the same angle with the plane of the ecliptic, and the place of the star, as seen from the earth, would be the same as seen from the sun placed in the focus of the ellipsis described by the earth in its annual revolution, which place may therefore be called its true or real place. But if we further suppose that the velocity of the earth in its orbit bears any sensible proportion to the velocity with which light is propagated, it will thence follow that the fixed stars (though removed too far off to be subject to a parallax on account of distance) will nevertheless be liable to an aberration, or a kind of parallax, on account of the relative velocity between light and the earth in its annual motion. For if we conceive, as before, the true place of any star to be that in which it would appear viewed from the sun, the visible place to a spectator moving along with the earth, will be always different from its true, the star perpetually appearing out of its true place more or less, according as the velocity of the earth in its orbit is greater or less; so that when the earth is in its perihelion, the star will appear farthest distant from its true place, and nearest to it when the earth is in its aphelion; and the apparent distance in the former case will be to that in the latter in the reciprocal proportion of the distances of the earth in its perihelion and its aphelion. When the earth is in any other part of its orbit, its velocity being always in the reciprocal proportion of the perpendicular let fall from the sun to the tangent of the ellipse at that point where the earth is, or in the direct proportion of the perpendicular let fall upon the same tangent from the other focus, it thence follows that the apparent distance of a star from its true place, will be always as the perpendicular let fall from the upper focus upon the tangent of the ellipse. And hence it will be found likewise, that (supposing a plane passing through the star parallel to the earth's orbit) the locus or visible place of the star on that plane will always be in the circumference of a circle, its true place being in that diameter of it which is parallel to the shorter axis of the earth's orbit, in a point that divides that diameter into two parts, bearing the same proportion to each other, as the greatest and least distances of the earth from the sun."

"How I suffered when I had to preach to you those pious lies that I detest in my heart. What remorse your credulity caused me! A thousand times I was on the point of breaking out publicly and opening your eyes, but a fear stronger than myself held me back, and forced me to keep silence until my death."

"It is an act of cruelty, of barbarism, to kill, to strike unconscious, and to cut the throat of animals, who do no harm to anyone, the way we do; because they are sensitive to injury and pain just as we are, regardless of what is said vainly, falsely, and ridiculously by our new Cartesians, who regard them as purely machines without soul and without feelings … This is a ridiculous opinion, a pernicious principle, and a detestable doctrine, because it clearly tends to stifle in the hearts of men all feelings of kindness, of gentleness, and of humanity that they might have toward these poor animals. … Blessed are the nations that treat them kindly and favorably, who are compassionate toward their miseries and their pains; but cursed are the nations that treat them cruelly, who tyrannize over them, who enjoy shedding their blood, and who are avid to eat their flesh."

"In a word, whoever will consult common sense upon religious opinions, and will carry into this examination the attention given to objects of ordinary interest, will easily perceive that these opinions have no solid foundation; that all religion is but a castle in the air; that Theology is but ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system; that it is but a long tissue of chimeras and contradictions; that it presents to all the different nations of the earth only romances devoid of probability, of which the hero himself is made up of qualities impossible to reconcile, his name having the power to excite in all hearts respect and fear, is found to be but a vague word, which men continually utter, being able to attach to it only such ideas or qualities as are belied by the facts, or which evidently contradict each other."

"When we wish to examine in a cool, calm way the opinions of men, we are very much surprised to find that in those which we consider the most essential, nothing is more rare than to find them using common sense; that is to say, the portion of judgment sufficient to know the most simple truths, to reject the most striking absurdities, and to be shocked by palpable contradictions."

"And everything you need to know about the Bible can be summed up by the great canon doctor Martyn Percy." Teabing cleared his throat and declared, "The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven."

"Lesbian, gay and bisexual Christians will not suffer discrimination in heaven. In the Kingdom of God, as faithful Christians, all enjoy a full and equal citizenship."

"To turn the Communion into a cheap replica of Orthodoxy – were such a feat even possible – would be to sell the very soul of Anglicanism. We need wisdom from the Archbishop that will help Anglicans find new unity; not more space to express greater individualisms."

"Many have much to learn from the style of faith that Martyn Percy offers. He shows readers ways of making peace between competing communities of conviction, and provides salutary warnings to those who imagine that slight from the earthen vessels of institutional religion is the way out of such conflict."

"But, O ye Gods! and thou, whom gods obey, Great Jove! with pity listen as I pray! Respect the monarch's and the father's prayer! If Pallas' safety be your heavenly care; If to infold him in these arms again I live, for life I sue with all its pain. But if some dreadful fortune be design'd, Now, now, while hope still soothes my cheated mind; Ere yet the future shall its fates unfold; While thus my son, my last, sole joy, I hold; O! break life's chain at once, and let me go, By darkness shrouded, from the death of woe!"

"They can because they dare."

"And shall I die? and unrevenged?" she said: "Yes! let me die! thus—thus I plunge in night."

"—————————— to death's abode Prone lies the path, and facile is the road. To all who seek them open day and night, Pluto's black gates with broad access invite. But to recall the foot, retrace the way Up the dark steep, and re-assert the day— This is the labor, this the mighty feat, Achieved by few, the greatest of the great."

"And while the memory of self remains, While life's warm spirit quickens in my veins, Still shall your worth be treasured in my breast; And still Elissa's virtues be confess'd."

"Roman! be thine the sovereign arts of sway; Nobly to rule, and make the world obey: Give peace its laws; respect the prostrate foe: Abase the lofty, and exalt the low."

"Yet have I lived!—and lived for noble ends! My shade in glory to the shades descends."

"Son!" cried the weeping sire, "the wish forego, To learn what late must whelm thy house in woe. Him shall the jealous Fates but show to earth: A short bright flash between decease and birth. Too high, ye Gods! our Roman power had grown, Had this your precious gift been all our own. How shall the field of Mars lament his doom! Its plain reflecting the vast groan of Rome! Tiber! what pomps of woe shall o'er thy wave Gloom, as it murmurs by the recent grave! No youth of Troy, thus rich in early praise, So high the hope of Italy shall raise: Nor shall our Rome, 'mid all her hero-host, A son so bright in dawning glory boast. O piety! O faith of ancient strain! O hand, unconquer'd on the martial plain! On foot, or spurring his impetuous steed, The foe that met him had been sure to bleed. Ah! could'st thou, hapless boy! through fate's decree Break into age, thou should'st Marcellus be!"

"As it is generally seen, blank verse seems to be only a laborious and doubtful struggle to escape from the fangs of prose... if it ever ventures to relax into simple and natural phraseology, it instantly becomes tame and the prey of its pursuer."

"Arms, and the man who first, by Fate's command, From Ilion flying, sought Italia's strand, And gain'd Lavinium, are my themes of song. Long toss'd by waves, on land he suffer'd long: From power supernal, such his doom of woe; Pursued by vengeful Juno as her foe."

"Hard is the task, O Queen! that you impose, To tear my bosom with reviving woes."

"O! trust not to the horse, my Trojan Friends! Whate'er it means, it means but to deceive. I dread the Grecians even when they give."

"Dire lust of gold! how mighty thy controll To bend to crime man's impotence of soul!"

"This, then, is the obedience of faith, whereunto the Holy Ghost sanctifies us, that we should not give ear to the doctrine taught by the world, which is a doctrine of self-righteousness, and that we should keep ourselves altogether “unspotted from the world,” in our daily walk and conversation, and that we join not with the world in any thing that denies God and Christ, be it what it may."

"Every thing that is around us strives to draw us away from the true faith."

"In their enmity to the truth, they set up another religion, an idol-worship, wherein the creature, with its works and its fleshly righteousness, has something to boast of. This they do in order to render vain the work of Christ, and to destroy the work of the Spirit. They do it also that they may have a wide mantle under which to cloak their crimes."

"We reject the pharisaical sanctity, which is but a covering of shame, under which sin has free play."

"The world and the devil fight against us believers, because we will not wear their mask of hypocrisy, under which gross wickedness may be committed."

"Compared with the rest of mankind, these believers were small in number and in power; here, might be but a single individual, there, two or three; here, might be found ten persons, and there some seventy or a hundred. In their manner of life and of thought, as well as in their worship, they were too different from other men to admit of their uniting with them, or walking after their ways. And because they could not walk as others walked, they were constantly misunderstood, and were exposed to all manner of suffering."

"We are chosen “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,-through sanctification of the Spirit;” and this sanctification, it is a comfort to know, is a sanctification we may safely confide in; because it is widely different from the self-sanctification, the fleshly holiness, or wilful separation, to which “he that runneth,” and “he that willeth,” addicts himself, in order that the idol self may be magnified and worshipped."

"Let each of us hear this letter with the conviction that it is addressed especially to him; let him say in his heart, All this is for me."

"They are separated from the mass, set apart that they may be a peculiar people to the Lord."

"His walk and conversation will then be very different from his former course of life, when he willingly served sin and Satan, indulged his evil desires, and walked after the course of this world."

"Was klein ist im Beginn wird oft am Ende überaus groß sein. Und so geschieht es, das wer im Anfange auch nur um ein Weniges von der Wahrheit abweicht, im Verlauf immer weiter und weiter und zu tausendmal größern Irrthümer fortgeführt wird."

"You can see for what reason I commend the study of eloquence to you—because we can neither explain what we ourselves want, nor understand the surviving writing written by our ancestors, unless we have thoroughly studied a fixed rule for speaking. For my part, I do not see how there could be others who wish neither to explain what they think, nor to understand what is excellently said."

"The shadow does not follow the body more closely than eloquence accompanies sagacity."

"Sagacity and eloquence are linked together to such an extent that they cannot be torn asunder for any reason."

"Does the painter imitate the body correctly if he guides his brush without any method, and if his hand is moved at random and the lines are not drawn with art? In the same way you will not put the sentiment of your mind in front of the others’ eyes unless you use appropriate and distinct words, a fitting arrangement of words and the right order of sentences. For, just as we represent bodies by colours, we represent the sentiment of our mind by speech."

"It does not make such a difference whether you are simply mute or employ no art for speaking. For it is not feasible that you can express what you think as it should be understood unless you acquire and strengthen the ability to speak by art."

"How miserable is the condition of men when the better a thing is, the further it recedes from our sight and the less it is recognized."

"No one will be able to speak suitably and clearly about anything unless he has shaped his speech by some art, by imitation of the best."

"What do you believe was on the mind of the ancient Romans that they called the arts of speaking humanity? They judged that, indisputably, by the study of these disciplines not only was the tongue refined, but also the wildness and barbarity of people’s minds was amended."

"Opto autem, ut sapientum Principum consilio, et autoritate aliquando, et ex aliarum gentium Ecclesiis, et nostris, pii et eruditi viri convocentur, ut de omnibus controversiis deliberetur, et una consentiens forma doctrinae vera et perspicua, sine ulla ambiguitate posteritati tradatur."

"Ab ipso colaphos acceperim or Ab ipso colaphos accepi."

"I am going to beat the living fuck out him...I am breaking every rule in boxing to make sure I fuck him right up [...] Once I am done with him, I am going to whip my dick out and piss on him...right in his muthafuckin face."

"Give a dog a bone, leave a dog alone. Let a dog roam and he'll find his way home."

"I have no friends."

"Damn, was it my fault, somethin' I did/ to make a father leave his first kid at 7 doin' my first bid?"