Selden Quotes & Sayings

Learning is about seeing things froma a different perspective. My role is to help people improve their vision — Bob Selden

Chester's playing filled the station. Like ripples around a stone dropped into still water, the circles of silence spread out from the newsstand. And as people listened, a change came over their faces. Eyes that looked worried grew soft and peaceful; tongues left off chattering; and ears full of the city's rustling were rested by the cricket's melody. — George Selden

We measure the excellency of other men by some excellency we conceive to be in ourselves. — John Selden

Talent is something rare and beautiful and precious,
and it must not be allowed to go to waste. — George Selden

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. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

Those that govern most make least noise. — John Selden

Talk what you will of the Jews,
that they are cursed: they thrive wherever they come; they are able to oblige the prince of their country by lending him money; none of them beg; they keep together; and as for their being hated, why, Christians hate one another as much. — John Selden

Religion is like the fashion, one man wears his doublet slashed, another lashed, another plain; but every man has a doublet; so every man has a religion. We differ about the trimming. — John Selden

Old friends are best. — John Selden

The Parish makes the constable, and when the constable is made, he governs the Parish. — John Selden

Idolatry is in a man's own thought, not in the opinion of another. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

He that has not religion to govern his morality, is not a dram better than my mastiff-dog; so long as you stroke him, and please him, and do not pinch him, he will play with you as finely as may be, he is a very good moral mastiff; but if you hurt him, he will fly in your face, and tear out your throat. — John Selden

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. — 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. — John Selden

First, in your sermons, use your logic, and then your rhetoric; Rhetoric without logic, is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet more are taken with rhetoric than logic, because they are caught with fine expressions when they understand not reason. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

Preachers say, "Do as I say, not as I do." But if a physician had the same disease upon him that I have, and he should bid me do one thing and he do quite another, could I believe him? — John Selden

Tis not seasonable to call a man traitor, that has an army at his heels. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

Nothing is text but what is spoken of in the Bible and meant there for person and place; the rest is application; which a discreet man may do well; but it is his scripture, not the Holy Ghost's. First, in your sermons use your logic, and then your rhetoric; rhetoric without logic is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root. — John Selden

Wit and wisdom differ; wit is upon the sudden turn, wisdom is bringing about ends. — John Selden

The world cannot be governed without juggling. — John Selden

We look after religion as the butcher did after his knife, when he had it in his mouth. — John Selden

While you are upon the earth, enjoy the good things that are here. — John Selden

Never king dropped out of the clouds. — John Selden

There is no book on which we can rest in a dying moment but the Bible. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

Money makes a man laugh. — John Selden

The noble buoyancy of her attitude, its suggestion of soaring grace, revealed the touch of poetry in her beauty that Selden always felt in her presence, yet lost the sense of when he was not with her. Its expression was now so vivid that for the first time he seemed to see before him the real Lily Bart, divested of all the trivialities of her little world, and catching for a moment a note of that eternal harmony of which
her beauty was a part. — Edith Wharton

I guess I'm just feeling Septemberish. — George Selden

They that govern the most make the least noise. — John Selden

A wise man should never resolve upon anything, at least, never let the world know his resolution, for if he cannot reach that he is ashamed. — John Selden

They that are against superstition oftentimes run into it of the wrong side. If I wear all colors but black, then I am superstitious in not wearing black. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

[Selden] had preserved a certain social detachment, a happy air of viewing the show objectively, of having points of contact outside the great gilt cage in which they were all huddled for the mob to gape at. How alluring the world outside the cage appeared to Lily, as she heard its door clang on her! In reality, as she knew, the door never clanged: it stood always open; but most of the captives were like flies in a bottle, and having once flown in, could never regain their freedom. It was Selden's distinction that he had never forgotten the way out. — Edith Wharton

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

Few men make themselves masters of the things they write or speak. — John Selden

Prayer should be short, without giving God Almighty reasons why he should grant this, or that; he knows best what is good for us. — John Selden

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

A gallant man is above ill words. — John Selden

Just this once, in the very heart of the busiest of cities, everyone was perfectly content not to move and hardly to breathe. And for those few minutes, while the song lasted, Times Square was still as a meadow at evening, with the sun streaming in on the people there and the wind moving among them as if they were only tall blades of grass. — George Selden

Ignorance of the law excuses no man. — John Selden

He said that the principal function of music was to organize the details into harmonies that were intended to make us forget that there was randomness all around us. The same, he said, could be said for great books. — Selden Edwards

Everyone who moves to New York City has a book or movie or song that epitomizes the place for them. For me, it's 'The Cricket in Times Square', written by George Selden and illustrated by Garth Williams. — Cathleen Schine

Commonly we say a judgment falls upon a man for something in him we cannot abide. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

Patience is the chiefest fruit of study; a man that strives to make himself different from other men by much reading gains this chiefest good, that in all fortunes he hath something to entertain and comfort himself withal. — John Selden

Selden and Lily stood still, accepting the unreality of the scene as a part of their own dream-like sensations. It would not have surprised them to feel a summer breeze on their faces, or to see the lights among the boughs reduplicated in the arch of a starry sky. The strange solitude about them was no stranger than the sweetness of being alone in it together. — Edith Wharton

A thing is stable until it's not. — Michael Selden

Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty. — John Selden

As she lay there she said to herself that there was something she must tell Selden, some word she had found that should make life clear between them. She tried to repeat the word, which lingered vague and luminous on the far edge of thought - she was afraid of not remembering it when she woke; and if she could only remember it and say it to him, she felt that everything would be well. — Edith Wharton

Marriage is a desperate thing. — John Selden

Humility is a virtue all men preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servants, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity. — John Selden

More solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

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

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. — John Selden

Chapter 1 Selden paused in surprise. In the afternoon rush of the Grand Central Station his eyes had been refreshed — Edith Wharton

A man has the advantage of being delivered early from the home point of view, and before Selden left for college he had learned that there are as many different ways of going without money as of spending it. — Edith Wharton

Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the world. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

No man is the wiser for his learning — John Selden

Neatness was not one of the things he aimed at in life. — George Selden

Abundance consists not alone in material possession, but in an uncovetous spirit. — John Selden

Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain. — John Selden

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

Preaching, in the first sense of the word, ceased as soon as ever the gospel was written. — John Selden

Wise people say nothing in dangerous times. — John Selden

I have taken much pains to know everything that is esteemed worth knowing amongst men; but with all my reading, nothing now remains to comfort me at the close of this life but this passage of St. Paul: "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." To this I cleave, and herein do I find rest. — John Selden

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

Fine wits destroy themselves with their own plots, in meddling with great affairs of state. — John Selden

Men say they are of the same religion, for quietness' sake; but if the matter were well examined, you would scarce find three anywhere of the same religion on all points. — John Selden

Wit and wisdom are born with a man. — John Selden

But just being whatever it is that I am . . . I don't think that makes me a monster. Believe me, I know. ere are plenty of real monsters walking around out there in the world. ey look respectable, but can't hide who they are from me. Real monsters hurt people for pleasure, or for no reason at all - they're just not as well armed as I am. — Michael Selden

The clergy would have us believe them against our own reason, as the woman would have her husband against his own eyes. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

Women ought not to know their own wit, because they will still be showing it, and so spoil it. — John Selden

But he could never be long without trying to find a reason for what she was doing ... — Edith Wharton

There was never a merry world since the fairies left off dancing. — John Selden

Philosophy is nothing but discretion. — John Selden

Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were the easiest for his feet. — John Selden

We see the judges look like lions, but we do not see who moves them. — John Selden

In quoting of books, quote such authors as are usually read; others you may read for your own satisfaction, but not name them. — John Selden

To preach long, loud, and Damnation, is the way to be cried up. We love a man that damns us, and we run after him again to save us. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

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

Casting out devils is mere juggling; they never cast out any but what they first cast in. — John Selden

It's not the drinking to be blamed, but the excess. — John Selden

Opinion is something wherein I go about to give reasons why all the world should think as I think. — John Selden

Every law is a contract between the king and the people and therefore to be kept. — John Selden

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. — John Selden

The happiness of married life depends upon making small sacrifices with readiness and cheerfulness. — John Selden

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