John Tillotson Quotes (21 Quotes)

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

The covetous man heaps up riches, not to enjoy them, But to have them.

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

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

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.

So that we pursue the happiness of this world just as little Children chase birds, when we think we are come very near it and have it almost in our hands it flies farther from us than it was at first

Are we not all members of the same Body and partakers of the same Spirit and heirs of the same blessed hope of eternal life ... Why do we not, as becomes brethren, dwell together in unity, but are so apt to quarrel and break out into heats, to crumble into sects and parties, to divide and separate from one another upon every trifling occasion Give me leave ... in the name of our dear Lord ... to recommend to you this new commandment of his, that ye love one another. Which is almost a new commandment still, and hardly the worse for wearing, so seldom is it put on, and so little hath it been practiced among Christians.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.