“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?”
“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.”
“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.”
Source: The wisdom of being religious
“Was ever any wicked man free from the stings of a guilty conscience?”
Source: The works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ... containing fifty four sermons and discourses, on several occasions
“When men live as if there were no God, it becomes expedient for them that there should be none.”
Source: The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ...: Containing Fifty Four Sermons and Discourses, on Several Occasions. Together with The Rule of Faith
“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.”
Source: The works of the most reverend Dr. 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.”
Source: Twenty Discourses on the Most Important Subjects: Calculated for Every Class of Readers
“The true ground of most men's prejudice against the Christian doctrine is because they have no mind to obey it.”
Source: The works of the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson containing two hundred sermons and discourses, on several occasions ...
“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.”
Source: The works of the most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: containing fifty four sermons and discourses ... Together with the rule of faith
“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.”
“Surely modesty never hurt any cause; and the confidence of man seems to me to be much like the wrath of man.”
Source: The works of the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: containing fifty four sermons and discourses on several occasions. Together with The Rule of Faith. Being all that were published by His Grace himself and now collected into one volume, to which is added an alphabetical table of the principle matter
“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.”
Source: The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: Containing Fifty Four Sermons and Discourses, on Several Occasions : Together with the Rule of Faith : Being All that Were Published by His Grace Himself and Now Collected Into One Volume : to which is Added, an Alphabetical Table of the Principal Matters
“The gospel chargeth us with piety towards God, and justice and charity to men, and temperance and chastity in reference to ourselves.”
Source: Sermons Preach'd Upon Several Occasions: By John Tillotson, D.D. Dean of Canterbury, Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn, and One of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary. The First Volume
“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.”
“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.”
Source: The works of Dr. John Tillotson ... with the life of the author
“Take away God and religion, and men live to no purpose, without proposing any worthy end of life to themselves.”
Source: The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ...: Containing Fifty Four Sermons and Discourses, on Several Occasions. Together with The Rule of Faith
“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.”
Source: The works of the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson containing two hundred sermons and discourses, on several occasions ...
“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.”
Source: The works of the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson ...
“Men sunk in the greatest darkness imaginable retain some sense and awe of the Deity.”
“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?”
“Truth is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and sits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware; whereas a lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack; and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.”
“Of all parts of wisdom, the practice is the best. Socrates was esteemed the wisest man of his time because he turned his acquired knowledge into morality, and aimed at goodness more than greatness.”
“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.”
Source: The Works of the Most Reverend John Tillotson, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: In Twelve Volumes, Containing 254 Sermons and Discourses on Several Occassions; Together with the Rule of Faith; Prayers Composed by Him for His Own Life; a Discourse to His Servants Before the Sacrament; and a Form of Prayer Composed by Him for the Use of King William
“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.”
Source: Works
“Zeal is fit for wise men, but flourishes chiefly among fools.”
“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.”
Source: The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: Containing Fifty Four Sermons and Discourses on Several Occasions. Together with the Rule of Faith
“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?”
Source: The works of the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: containing fifty four sermons and discourses on several occasions. Together with The Rule of Faith. Being all that were published by His Grace himself and now collected into one volume, to which is added an alphabetical table of the principle matter
“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.”
“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.”
Source: A discourse against transubstantiation
“If God were not a necessary Being of Himself, He might almost seem to be made for the use and benefit of men.”
Source: The works of the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson containing two hundred sermons and discourses, on several occasions ...
“Next to the wicked lives of men, nothing is so great a disparagement and weakening to religion as the divisions of Christians.”
Source: The works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ...: containing two hundred sermons and discourses ... To which are annexed prayers composed by him for his own use; a discourse to his servants before the Sacrament; and a form of prayer composed by him, for the use of King William ... together with tables to the whole ...
“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.”
“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.”
Source: The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ...: Containing Fifty Four Sermons and Discourses, on Several Occasions. Together with The Rule of Faith
“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.”
Source: The works of the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson containing two hundred sermons and discourses, on several occasions ...
