Joseph Hall Quotes

Good prayers never come creeping home. I am sure I shall receive either what I ask, or what I should ask.

Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.

Let others either envy or pity me; I care not, so long as I enjoy myself.

If the sun of God's countenance shine upon me, I may well be content to be wet with the rain of affliction.

Seldom was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.

Try to be of some use to others.

Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave.

A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.

Words are as they are taken, and things are as they are used. There are even cursed blessings.

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.

Society is the atmosphere of souls; and we necessarily imbibe from it something which is either infectious or healthful.

If religion might be judged of according to men's intentions, there would scarcely be any idolatry in the world.

Perfection is the child of time.

What I have done is worthy of nothing but silence and forgetfulness, but what God has done for me is worthy of everlasting and thankful memory.

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,--as good no scythe as no edge.

Nothing fools people as much as extreme passion.

Revenge commonly hurts both the offerer and sufferer; as we see in a foolish bee, which in her anger invenometh the flesh and loseth her sting, and so lives a drone ever after.

Mark in what order: first, our calling; then, our election; not beginning with our election first. By our calling, arguing our election.

There would not be so many open mouths if there were not so many open ears.

Not only commission makes a sin. A man is guilty of all those sins he hateth not. If I cannot avoid all, yet I will hate all.

He is a very humble man, that thinks not himself better than some others.

Heaven hath many tongues to talk of it, more eyes to behold it, but few hearts that rightly affect it.

A good man is kinder to his enemy than bad men are to their friends.

For whom he means to make an often guest, One dish shall serve; and welcome make the rest.

It is a shame for the tongue to cast itself upon the uncertain pardon of other's ears

Our good purposes foreslowed are become our tormentors upon our deathbed.

Earthly greatness is a nice thing, and requires so much chariness in the managing, as the contentment of it cannot requite.

Virtues go ever in troops; they go so thick, that sometimes some are hid in the crowd; which yet are, but appear not.

It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most on Divine truth, that will prove the choicest, wisest, strongest Christian.

The life of doctrine is in application.

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 once tainted with just reproach.

It is not sin that kills the soul, but impenitence.

The proud man hath no God; the envious man hath no neighbor; the angry man hath not himself.

I have seldom seen much ostentation and much learning met together. The sun, rising and declining, makes long shadows; at mid day, when he is highest, none at all.

The idle man is the Devil's cushion, on which he taketh his free ease: who, as he is uncapable of any good, so he is fitly disposed for all evil motions.

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.

The idle man is the devil's cushion.

I first adventure, follow me who list And be the second English satirist

I have seldom seen much ostentation and much learning met together.

Even the best things ill used become evils; and, contrarily, the worst things used well prove good.

We must first pray, that God would make us wise; before we can wish, he would make us happy.

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.

There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowels of the earth, many a fair pearl laid up in the bosom of the sea, that never was seen, nor never shall be.

The blood that is once inflamed with wine is apt to boil with rage.

How apt nature is, even in those who profess an eminence in holiness, to raise and maintain animosities against those whose calling or person they pretend to find cause to dislike!

And, if I were so low that I accounted myself the worst of all, yet some would account themselves in worse case.

...Covetousness, looking more at what we would have than at what we have.

Those that dare lose a day, ate dangerously prodigal; those that dare misspend it, are desperate.

This field is so spacious that it were easy for a man to lose himself in it; and if I should spend all my pilgrimage in this walk, my time would sooner end than my way.

Not to be afflicted is a sign of weakness; for, therefore God imposeth no more on me, because He sees I can bear no more.