Cotton Mather Quotes
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Be not so set upon poetry, as to be always poring on the passionate and measured pages. Let not what should be sauce, rather than food for you, engross all your application. Beware of a boundless and sickly appetite for the reading of poems which the nation now swarms withal; and let not the Circaen cup intoxicate you. But especially preserve the chastity of your soul from the dangers you may incur, by a conversation with muses no better than harlots.
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Stacy Schiff. 'The Witches of Salem: Diabolical doings in a Puritan village', The New Yorker, September 7, 2015, pp. 46-55.
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Ah! destructive Ignorance, what shall be done to chase thee out of the World!
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Ignorance is the Mother not of Devotion, but of Heresy.
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You may ... make a little recreation of poetry, in the midst of your painful studies. Nevertheless, I cannot but advise you. Withhold thy throat from thirst. Be not so set upon poetry, as to be always poring on the passionate and measured pages. ... let not the Circean cup intoxicate you.
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I will now teach my son Increase (and others of my children) the way of raising a lesson out of every verse in his reading of the Bible; and of turning it into a Prayer; and engage him (and them) unto a daily Course in reading the Bible in such a way
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What was it that obliged Jerome to write his book, Concerning Illustrious Men? It was the common reproach of old cast upon Christians, 'That they were all poor, weak, unlearned men.' The sort of men sometime called 'Puritans' in the English nation have been reproached with the same character. . . But when truth shall have liberty to speak, it will be known that Christianity never was more expressed unto the life than in the lives of the persons that have been thus reproached.
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Religion brought forth Prosperity, and the daughter destroyed the mother.
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Families are the Nurseries of all Societies; and the First combinations of mankind.
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What Must I Do to Be Saved? It is impossible to ask a more weighty Question! It is deplorable that we hear it asked with no more Frequency, with nor more Agony.
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A Good School deserves to be call'd, the very Salt of the Town, that hath it.
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That there is a Devil is a thing doubted by none but such as are under the influence of the Devil. For any to deny the being of a Devil must be from ignorance or profaneness worse than diabolical.
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If in the midst of the many Dissatisfaction among us, the publication of these Trials may promote such a pious Thankfulness unto God, for Justice being so far executed among us, I shall Re-joyce that God is Glorified...
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Wilderness is a temporary condition through which we are passing to the Promised Land.
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Memorable providence, relating to witchcraft's and possessions. (1689) 1
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Charity ... is kind, it is not easily provok'd, it thinks no evil, it believes all things, hopes all things.
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As quoted in Zirkle, Conway (1935), The beginnings of plant hybridization p. 105
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History is the story of events, with praise or blame.
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Ah, children, be afraid of going prayerless to bed, lest the Devil be your bedfellow.
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The Word of God must be Read and Heard with Diligence that so you may arrive to the Knowledge that is needful for you.
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Instead of exhorting you to augment your charity, I will rather utter an exhortation, or at least a supplication, that you may not abuse your charity by misapplying it.
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Ye monsters of the bubbling deep, Your Maker's praises spout; Up from the sands ye codlings peep, And wag your tails about.
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Our opportunities to do good are our talents.
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You are young and have the world before you; stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard bumps.