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HALL, Joseph Quotes
(1574-1656), English bishop
The most generous vine, if not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems and grows at last weak and fruitless: so doth the best man if he be not cut short in his desires, and pruned with afflictions.
It is no small happiness to attend those from whom we may receive precepts and examples of virtue.
Rich people should consider that they are only trustees for what they possess, and should show their wealth to be more in doing good than merely in having it.—They should not reserve their benevolence for purposes after they are dead, for those who give not of their property till they die show that they would not
then if they could keep it any longer.
Our body is a well-set clock, which keeps good time, but if it be too much or indiscreetly tampered with, the alarum runs out before the hour.
He that takes his cares on himself loads himself in vain with an uneasy burden.—I will cast my cares on God; he has bidden me; they cannot burden him.
Fools measure actions, after they are done, by the event; wise men beforehand, by the rules of reason and right. The former look to the end, to judge of the act. Let me look to the act, and leave the end with God.
For every bad there might be a worse; and when one breaks his leg let him be thankful it was not his neck.
I never love those salamanders that are never well but when they are in the fire of contention.—I will rather suffer a thousand wrongs than offer one.—I have always found that to strive with a superior, is injurious; with an equal, doubtful; with an inferior, sordid and base; with any, full of unquietness.
Every day is a little life, and our whole life is but a day repeated. Therefore live every day as if it would be the last. Those that dare lose a day, are dangerously prodigal; those that dare misspend it are desperate.
Death did not first strike Adam, the first sinful man, nor Cain, the first hypocrite, but Abel, the innocent and righteous.—The first soul that met death overcame death; the first soul parted from earth went to heaven.—Death argues not displeasure, because he whom God loved best dies first, and the murderer is punished with living.
Everyone would have something, such perhaps as we are ashamed to utter. The proud man would have honor; the covetous man, wealth and abundance; the malicious, revenge on his enemies; the epicure, pleasure and long life; the barren, children; the wanton, beauty; each would be humored in his own desire, though in opposition both to God's will, and his own good.
Satan rocks the cradle when we sleep at our devotions.
It is no small commendation to manage a little well.—To live well in abundance is the praise of the estate, not of the person.—I will study more how to give a good account of my little, than how to make it more.
Emulation, in the sense of a laudable amoition, is founded on humility, for it implies that we have a low opinion of our present, and think it necessary to advance and make improvement.
There is no enemy can hurt us but by our own hands.—Satan could not hurt us, if our own corruption betrayed us not.—Afflictions cannot hurt us without our own impatience.—Temptations cannot hurt us, without our own yieldance.—Death could not hurt us, without the sting of our own sins.—Sins could not hurt us, without our own impenitence.
A good man is kinder to his enemy than bad men to their friends.
He is great enough that is his own master.
The heart of man is a short word, a small substance, scarce enough to give a kite a meal, yet great in capacity; yea, so indefinite in desire that the round globe of the world cannot fill the three corners of it.—When it desires more and cries, "Give, give," I will set it over to the infinite good, where the more it hath, it may desire more, and see more to be desired.
Heaven hath many tongues to talk of it, more eyes to behold it, but few hearts that rightly affect it.
The idle man is the devil's cushion, on which he taketh his free ease, who, as he is incapable of any good, so he is fitly disposed for all evil motions.
Infidelity and Faith look both through the same perspective-glass, but at contrary ends. Infidelity looks through the wrong end of the glass; and, therefore, sees those objects near which are afar off, and makes great things little,— diminishing the greatest spiritual blessings, and removing far from us threatened evils. Faith looks at the right end, and brings the blessings that are far off close to our eye, and multiplies God's mercies, which, in the distance, lost their greatness.
There be three usual causes of ingratitude upon a benefit received—envy, pride, and covetousness; envy, looking more at other's benefits than our own; pride, looking more at ourselves than at the benefit; covetousness, looking more at what we would have than at what we have.
If religion might be judged of according to men's intentions, there would scarcely be any idolatry in the world.
Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.
I have seldom seen much ostentation and much learning met together. The sun, rising and declining, makes long shadows; and mid-day, when he is highest, none at all.
What a world of wit is here packed together!—I know not whether the sight doth more dismay or comfort me.—It dismays me to think that here is so much I cannot know; it comforts me to think that this variety yields so good helps to know what I should.—Blessed be the memory of those who have left their blood, their spirits, their lives, in these precious books, and have willingly wasted themselves into these during monuments, to give light unto others.
An evil man is clay to God, and wax to the devil; a good man is God's wax, and Satan's clay.
The proud man hath no God; the envious man hath no neighbor; the angry man hath not himself. What good, then, in being a man, if one has neither himself nor a neighbor nor God.
Means without God cannot help.—God without means can, and often doth.—I will use good means, but not rest in them.
It is not hasty reading, but seriously meditating upon holy and heavenly truths that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the bee's touching on the flowers that gathers the honey, but her abiding for a time upon them, and drawing out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most on divine truth, that will prove the choicest, wisest, strongest Christian.
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues.
Moderation is the center wherein all philosophies, both human and divine, meet.
I would fain know all that I need, and all that I may.—I leave God's secrets to himself.—It is happy for me that God makes me of his court, and not of his council.
The best ground, unfilled and neglected, soonest runs out into rank weeds.—A man of knowledge that is either negligent or uncorrected cannot but grow wild and godless.
Neutrality in things good or evil is both odious and prejudicial, but in matters of an indifferent nature, is safe and commendable.
I have seldom seen much ostentation and much learning met together. The sun, rising and declining, makes long shadows; at midday, when he is highest, none at all.
As in a pair of bellows, there is a forced breath without life, so in those that are puffed up with the wind of ostentation, there may be charitable words without works.
Nothing doth so fool a man as extreme passion. This doth make them fools which otherwise are not, and show them to be fools which are so.
Good prayers never come creeping home. I am sure I shall receive either what I ask, or what I should ask.
The practices of good men are more subject to error than their speculations. I will, then, honor good examples, but endeavor to live according to good precepts.
Recreation is intended to the mind as whetting is to the scythe, to sharpen the edge of it, which otherwise would grow dull and blunt. He, therefore, that spends his whole time in recreation is ever whetting, never mowing; his grass may grow and his steed starve. As, contrarily, he that always toils and never recreates, is ever mowing, never whetting; laboring much to little purpose; as good no scythe as no edge.
Garments that have once one rent in them are subject to be torn on every nail, and glasses that are once cracked are soon broken.—Such is man's good name when once tainted with just reproach.
There would not be so many open mouths if there were not so many open ears.
Society is the atmosphere of souls; and we necessarily imbibe from it something which is either infectious or healthful.
Those that dare lose a day, ate dangerously prodigal; those that dare misspend it, are desperate.
If the sun of God's countenance shine upon me, I may well be content to be wet with the rain of affliction.
He that taketh his own cares upon himself loads himself in vain with an uneasy burden. I will cast all my cares on God; he hath bidden me; they cannot burden him.
A charitable untruth, an uncharitable truth, and an unwise management of truth or love, are all to be carefully avoided of him that would go with a right foot in the narrow way.
Virtues go ever in troops; so thick that sometimes some are hid in the crowd, which yet are virtues though they appear not.
Those who give not till they die show that they would not then if they could keep it any longer.
Our wishes are the true touchstone of our estate; such as we wish to be we are. Worldly hearts affect earthly things; spiritual, divine. We cannot better know what we are than by what we would be.
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