Jeremy Taylor Quotes
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The thing framed says that nothing framed it; the tongue never made itself to speak, and yet talks against him that did; saying that which is made, is, and that which made it, is not. But this folly is infinite as hell, as much without light or bound as the chaos or the primitive nothing.
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No man is poor who does not think himself so. But if in a full fortune with impatience he desires more, he proclaims his wants and his beggarly condition.
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It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance, for it requires knowledge to perceive it; and, therefore, he that can perceive it hath it not.
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He that loves not his wife and children feeds a lioness at home, and broods a nest of sorrows.
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God is everywhere present by His power. He rolls the orbs of heaven with His hand; He fixes the earth with His foot; He guides all creatures with His eye, and refreshes them with His influence; He makes the powers of hell to shake with His terrors, and binds the devils with His word.
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Revenge... is like a rolling stone, which, when a man hath forced up a hill, will return upon him with a greater violence, and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.
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A religion without mystery must be a religion without God.
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Secrecy is the chastity of friendship.
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Faith converses with the angels, and antedates the hymns of glory.
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Love is friendship set on fire.
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This grace (purity of intention) is so excellent that it sanctifies the most common actions of our life and yet is so necessary that without it, the very best actions of our devotion are imperfect and vicious.
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Curiosity is the direct incontinency of the spirit.
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He that is proud of riches is a fool. For if he is exalted above his neighbors because he has more gold, how much inferior is he to a gold mine.
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He that does a base thing in zeal for his friend burns the golden thread that ties their hearts together.
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God is pleased with no music from below so much as in the thanksgiving songs of relieved widows, of supported orphans, of rejoicing, and comforted, and thankful persons.
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When you lie down with a short prayer, commit yourself into the hands of your Creator; and when you have done so, trust Him with yourself, as you must do when you are dying.
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To be proud of learning is the greatest ignorance.
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He that speaketh against his own reason speaks against his own conscience, and therefore it is certain that no man serves God with a good conscience who serves him against his reason.
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The best theology is rather a divine life than a divine knowledge.
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Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit.
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Men are apt to prefer a prosperous error to an afflicted truth.
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Know that you are your greatest enemy, but also your greatest friend.
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...for there is some virtue or other to be exercised, whatever happens...
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God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends.