John Selden
John Selden
John Seldenwas an English jurist and a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath showing true intellectual depth and breadth; John Milton hailed Selden in 1644 as "the chief of learned men reputed in this land."...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionStatesman
Date of Birth16 December 1584
army men high-heels
Tis not seasonable to call a man traitor, that has an army at his heels.
kings men sake
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.
learning men wiser
No man is the wiser for his learning
time kings men
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.
taken expression roots
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.
spirit abundance possession
Abundance consists not alone in material possession, but in an uncovetous spirit.
devil casting firsts
Casting out devils is mere juggling; they never cast out any but what they first cast in.
noise
Those that govern most make least noise.
bible book men
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.
kings clouds
Never king dropped out of the clouds.
plot affair states
Fine wits destroy themselves with their own plots, in meddling with great affairs of state.
house twenties parliament
The House of Commons is called the Lower House, in twenty Acts of Parliament; but what are twenty Acts of Parliament amongst Friends?
glasses water pennies
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.
horse bird wells
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.