In our pursuit of the things of this world, we usually prevent enjoyment, by expectation; we anticipate our own happiness, and eat out the heart and sweetness of worldly pleasures, by delightful forethoughts of them; so that when we come to possess them, they do not answer the expectation, nor satisfy the desires which were raised about them, and they vanish into nothing.
Truth is the shortest and nearest way to our end, carrying is thither in a straight line.
JOHN TILLOTSON, The Works of the Most Reverend John Tillotson, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury
Were it not for some small remainders of piety and virtue which are yet left scattered among mankind, human society would in a short space disband and run into confusion, and the earth would grow wild and become a forest.
JOHN TILLOTSON, "The Advantages of Religion to Societies", The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson
Sincerity is the most compendious wisdom, and an excellent instrument for the speedy dispatch of business; it creates confidence in those we have to deal with, saves the labor of many inquiries, and brings things to an issue in few words; it is like traveling in a plain beaten road, which commonly brings a man sooner to his journey's ends than bye-ways, in which men often lose themselves.
JOHN TILLOTSON, The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson
A bare possibility that a thing may be or not be, is no just cause of doubting whether a thing be or not.
JOHN TILLOTSON, The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson
There is no man that is knowingly wicked, but is guilty to himself; and there is no man that carries guilt about him, but he receives a sting into his soul.
JOHN TILLOTSON, Sermons Preach'd Upon Several Occasions
Integrity hath many advantages over all the arts of dissimulation and deceit; it is much the plainer and easier, much the safer and more secure way; it hath less of trouble and difficulty, of entanglement and perplexity, of danger and hazard; it is the shortest and nearest way to our end, carrying us thither in a straight line, and will hold out and last, when deceit and cunning, which continually grow weaker and less effectual, will finally fail us.
JOHN TILLOTSON, attributed, Day's Collacon
Zeal is an edge-tool, which children in understanding should not meddle withal; and yet it most frequently possesseth the weakest minds.
