Quotes by John Selden
“Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear.”— John Selden
“Patience is the chiefest fruit of study. A man that strives to make himself a different thing from other men by much reading, gains this chiefest good.”— 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
“Equity is a roguish thing. For law we have a measure... equity is according to the conscience of him that is chancellor, and as that is larger or narrower, so is equity.”— 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 confute him.”— 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
“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 does with himself another, would I follow his prescription?”— John Selden