John Tillotson Quotes & Sayings

There is no readier way for a man to bring his own worth into question than by endeavoring to detract from the worth of other men. — John Tillotson

Was ever any wicked man free from the stings of a guilty conscience? — John Tillotson

Great is the advantage of patience. — John Tillotson

In all the affairs of this world, so much reputation is in reality so much power. — John Tillotson

The covetous man heaps up riches, not to enjoy them, but to have them; and starves himself in the midst of plenty, and most unnaturally cheats and robs himself of that which is his own; and makes a hard shift, to be as poor and miserable with a great estate, as any man can be without it. — John Tillotson

Our belief or disbelief of a thing does not alter the nature of the thing. — John Tillotson

The crafty person is always in danger; and when they think they walk in the dark, all their pretenses are transparent. — John Tillotson

When a man has once forfeited the reputation of his integrity, he is set fast, and nothing will then serve his turn, neither truth nor falsehood. — John Tillotson

Surely modesty never hurt any cause; and the confidence of man seems to me to be much like the wrath of man. — John Tillotson

If our souls be immortal, this makes amends for the frailties of life and the sufferings of this state. — John Tillotson

For a Man cannot believe a Miracle without relying upon Sense, nor Transubstantiation without renouncing it. So that never were any two things so ill coupled together as the Doctrine of Christianity and that of Transubstantiation, because they draw several ways, and are ready to strangle one another: For the main Evidence of the Christian Doctrine, which is Miracles, is resolved into the certainty of Sense, but this Evidence is clear and point blank against Transubstantiation. — John Tillotson

Some things will not bear much zeal; and the more earnest we are about them, the less we recommend ourselves to the approbation of sober and considerate men. — John Tillotson

There is little pleasure in the world that is true and sincere beside the pleasure of doing our duty and doing good. — John Tillotson

Take away God and religion, and men live to no purpose, without proposing any worthy end of life to themselves. — John Tillotson

If God were not a necessary Being of Himself, He might almost seem to be made for the use and benefit of men. — John Tillotson

We anticipate our own happiness, and eat out the heart and sweetness of worldly pleasures by delightful forethought of them. — John Tillotson

Of some calamity we can have no relief but from God alone; and what would men do, in such a case if it were not for God? — John Tillotson

Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy; but he that can moderate these affections will find ease in his mind. — John Tillotson

If they be principles evident of themselves, they need nothing to evidence them. — John Tillotson

Convulsive anger storms at large; or pale
And silent, settles into full revenge. — John Tillotson

Integrity gains strength by use. — John Tillotson

Of all parts of wisdom the practice is the best. — John Tillotson

Let no man deceive you with vain words or vain hopes or false notions of a slight and sudden repentance. As if heaven were a hospital founded on purpose to receive all sick and maimed persons that, when they can live no longer to the lusts of the flesh and the sinful pleasures of this world, can but put up a cold and formal petition to be admitted there. No, no, as sure as God is true, they shall never see the Kingdom of God who, instead of seeking it in the first place, make it their last refuge and retreat. — John Tillotson

For the spiritual efficacy of the Sacrament doth not depend upon the nature of the thing received, supposing we received what our Lord appointed, and receive it with a right preparation and disposition of mind, but upon the supernatural blessing that goes along with it, and makes it effectual to those spiritual ends for which it was appointed. — John Tillotson

Sincerity is like traveling on a plain, beaten road, which commonly brings a man sooner to his journey's end than by-ways, in which men often lose themselves. — John Tillotson

They who are in the highest places, and have the most power, have the least liberty, because they are the most observed. — John Tillotson

Next to the wicked lives of men, nothing is so great a disparagement and weakening to religion as the divisions of Christians. — John Tillotson

Fear is that passion which hath the greatest power over us, and by which God and His laws take the surest hold of us. — John Tillotson

The crime of a bad example is the same whether men follow it or not, because he that gives bad example to others, does what in him lies to draw them into sin; and if they do not follow it, that is no mitigation of his fault. — John Tillotson

True wisdom is a thing very extraordinary. Happy are they that have it: and next to them, not those many that think they have it, but those few that are sensible of their own defects and imperfections, and know that they have it not. — John Tillotson

In matters of great concern, and which must be done, there is no surer argument of a weak mind than irresolution; to be undetermined where the case is so plain, and the necessity so urgent. To be always intending to live a new life, but never to find time to set about it; this is as if a man should put off eating, and drinking, and sleeping, from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed. — John Tillotson

To be able to bear provocation is an argument of great reason, and to forgive it of a great mind. — John Tillotson

The gospel chargeth us with piety towards God, and justice and charity to men, and temperance and chastity in reference to ourselves. — John Tillotson

Abstinence is many times very helpful to the end of religion. — John Tillotson

We have no cause to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; but the Gospel of Christ may justly be ashamed of us. — John Tillotson

Every Christian is endued with a power whereby he is enabled to resist temptations. — John Tillotson

It is hard to personate and act a part long; for where Truth is not the bottom, Nature will always be endeavoring to return, and will peep and betray herself one time or other. — John Tillotson

Wickedness is a kind of voluntary frenzy, and a chosen distraction. — John Tillotson

There are two restraints which God has laid upon human nature, shame and fear; shame is the weaker, and has place only in those in whom there are some reminders of virtue. — John Tillotson

He who is sincere hath the easiest task in the world, for, truth being always consistent with itself, he is put to no trouble about his words and actions; it is like traveling in a plain road, which is sure to bring you to your journey's end better than byways in which many lose themselves. — John Tillotson

When men live as if there were no God, it becomes expedient for them that there should be none. — John Tillotson

To be happy is not only to be freed from the pains and diseases of the body, but from anxiety and vexation of spirit; not only to enjoy the pleasures of sense, but peace of conscience and tranquillity of mind. — John Tillotson

Whether religion be true or false, it must be necessarily granted to be the only wise principle and safe hypothesis for a man to live and die by. — John Tillotson

The little and short sayings of nice And excellent men are of great value, like the dust of gold, or the least sparks of diamonds. — John Tillotson

A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence, which costs us nothing. — John Tillotson

Is not he imprudent, who, seeing the tide making haste towards him apace, will sleep till the sea overwhelms him? — John Tillotson

If people would but provide for eternity with the same solicitude and real care as they do for this life, they could not fail of heaven. — John Tillotson

With the history of Moses no book in the world, in point of antiquity, can contend. — John Tillotson

Men sunk in the greatest darkness imaginable retain some sense and awe of the Deity. — John Tillotson

If the show of any thing be good for any thing, I am sure sincerity is better; for why does any man dissemble, or seem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have such a quality as he pretends to? — John Tillotson

Men expect that religion should cost them no pains, that happiness should drop into their laps without any design and endeavor on their part, and that, after they have done what they please while they live, God should snatch them up to heaven when they die. But though the commandments of God be not grievous, yet it is fit to let men know that they are not thus easy. — John Tillotson

Fill each day with light and heart. — John Tillotson

There is one way whereby we may secure our riches, and make sure friends to ourselves of them,
by laying them out in charity. — John Tillotson

The true ground of most men's prejudice against the Christian doctrine is because they have no mind to obey it. — John Tillotson

Piety and virtue are not only delightful for the present, but they leave peace and contentment behind them. — John Tillotson

No man's body is as strong as his appetites, but Heaven has corrected the boundlessness of his voluptuous desires by stinting his strength and contracting his capacities. — John Tillotson

There is no man that is knowingly wicked but is guilty to himself; and there is no man that carries guilt about him but he receives a sting in his soul. — John Tillotson

In our pursuit of the things of this world, we usually prevent enjoyment, by expectation; we anticipate our own happiness, and eat out the heart and sweetness of worldly pleasures, by delightful forethoughts of them; so that when we come to possess them, they do not answer the expectation, nor satisfy the desires which were raised about them, and they vanish into nothing. — John Tillotson

Many man's scruples lie almost wholly about obedience to authority and compliance with indifferent customs, but very seldom about the dangers of disobedience and unpeaceableness and rending in pieces the Church of Christ by needless separations and endless divisions. — John Tillotson

The angriest person in a controversy is the one most liable to be in the wrong. — John Tillotson

Virtue and vice are not arbitrary things; but there is a natural and eternal reason for goodness and virtue, and against vice and wickedness. — John Tillotson

Every man hath greater assurance that God is good and just than he can have of any subtle speculations about predestination and the decrees of God. — John Tillotson

When we have practiced good actions awhile, they become easy; when they are easy, we take pleasure in them; when they please us, we do them frequently; and then, by frequency of act, they grow into a habit. — John Tillotson

If a man were only to deal in the world for a day, and should never have occasion to converse more with mankind, never more need their good opinion or good word, it were then no great matter (speaking as to the concernments of this world), if a man spent his reputation all at once, and ventured it at one throw; but if he be to continue in the world, and would have the advantage of conversation while he is in it, let him make use of truth and sincerity in all his words and actions; for nothing but this will last and hold out to the end. — John Tillotson

Are we proud and passionate, malicious and revengeful? Is this to be like-minded with Christ, who was meek and lowly? — John Tillotson

A little wit and a great deal of ill-nature will furnish a man for satire; but the greatest instance of wit is to commend well. — John Tillotson

Sincerity is to speak as we think, to do as we pretend and profess, to perform and make good what we promise, and really to be what we would seem and appear to be. — John Tillotson

He who provides for this life, but takes no care for eternity, is wise for a moment, but a fool forever. — John Tillotson

Truth is the shortest and nearest way to our end, carrying us thither in a straight line. — John Tillotson

It is pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to excel many others; it is pleasant to grow better, because that is to excel ourselves; it is pleasant to mortify and subdue our lusts, because that is victory; it is pleasant to command our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due order within the bounds of reason and religion, because this is empire. — John Tillotson

Zeal is fit for wise men, but flourishes chiefly among fools. — John Tillotson

Whatever convenience may be thought to be in falsehood and dissimulation, it is soon over; but the inconvenience of it is perpetual, because it brings a man under everlasting jealousy and suspicion, so that he is not believed when he speaks the truth, nor trusted when perhaps he means honestly. — John Tillotson

How often might a man, after he had jumbled a set of letters in a bag, fling them out upon the ground before they would fall into an exact poem, yea, or so much as make a good discourse in prose? And may not a little book be as easily made by chance as this great volume of the world? — John Tillotson

Ignorance and inconsideration are the two great causes of the ruin of mankind. — John Tillotson

Wealth and riches, that is, an estate above what sufficeth our real occasions and necessities, is in no other sense a 'blessing' than as it is an opportunity put into our hands, by the providence of God, of doing more good. — John Tillotson

The art of using deceit and cunning grow continually weaker and less effective to the user. — John Tillotson

None so nearly disposed to scoffing at religion as those who have accustomed themselves to swear on trifling occasions. — John Tillotson

Wisdom and understanding are synonymous words; they consist of two propositions, which are not distinct in sense, but one and the same thing variously expressed. — John Tillotson