Francis Atterbury
Francis Atterbury
Francis Atterburywas an English man of letters, politician and bishop. A High Church Tory and Jacobite, he gained patronage under Queen Anne, but was mistrusted by the Hanoverian Whig ministries, and banished for communicating with the Old Pretender. He was a noted wit and a gifted preacher...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth6 March 1663
character mean ends
A good character when established should not be rested in as an end, but only employed as a means of doing still further good.
school affliction virtue
Affliction is a school of virtue; it corrects levity, and interrupts the confidence of sinning.
causes drink invisible
Though fanaticism drinks at many founts, its predisposing cause is mostly the subject of an invisible futurity.
office needs enmity
He who performs his duty in a station of great power must needs incur the utter enmity of many, and the high displeasure of more.
wise grieving knowing
Should we grieve over a little misplaced charity, when an all knowing, all wise Being showers down every day his benefits on the unthankful and undeserving?
believe discovery other-worlds
They who are not induced to believe and live as they ought by those discoveries which God hath made in Scriptures would stand out against any evidence whatever, even that of a messenger sent express from the other world.
flow absurdity falsity
The greater absurdities are, the more strongly they evince the falsity of that supposition from whence they flow.
god perfection delight
If God be infinitely holy, just, and good, He must take delight in those creatures that resemble Him most in these perfections.
government would-be mankind
Few consider how much we are indebted to government, because few can represent how wretched mankind would be without it.
success favors nations
From mere success nothing can be concluded in favor of any nation upon whom it is bestowed.
humble people victory
A very prosperous people, flushed with great victories and successes, are seldom so pious, so humble, so just, or so provident as to perpetuate their happiness.
mean solitude doe
Luther deters me from solitariness; but he does not mean from a sober solitude that rallies our scattered strengths and prepares us against any new encounter from without.
sacrifice men good-man
A good man not only forbears those gratifications which are forbidden by reason and religion, but even restrains himself in unforbidden instances.
heart writing men
Modesty teaches us to speak of the ancients with respect, especially when we are not very familiar with their works. Newton, who knew them practically by heart, had the greatest respect for them, and considered them to be men of genius and superior intelligence who had carried their discoveries in every field much further than we today suspect, judging from what remains of their writings. More ancient writings have been lost than have been preserved, and perhaps our new discoveries are of less value than those that we have lost.