Jeremy Taylor quotes

Jeremy Taylor was an English cleric and author, renowned for his spiritual writings and sermons. His works had a significant influence on Anglican theology and devotional literature. He became known as one of the great prose stylists of the seventeenth century. Here are 38 of his quotes:

God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends. (Jeremy Taylor)
Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
Secrecy is the chastity of friendship. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
A celibate, like the fly in the heart of an apple, dwells in a perpetual sweetness, but sits alone, and is confined and dies in singularity. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
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. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
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. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
He that is choice of his time will be choice of his company, and choice of his actions. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
Faith converses with the angels, and antedates the hymns of glory. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
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. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
In self-examination, take no account of yourself by your thoughts and resolutions in the days of religion and solemnity; examine how it is with you in the days of ordinary conversation and in the circumstances of secular employment. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
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. (Jeremy Taylor)
...since God has appointed one remedy for all the evils in the world and that is a contented spirit. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
God is pleased with no music below so much as with the thanksgiving songs of relieved widows and supported orphans; of rejoicing, comforted, and thankful persons. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
For there is some virtue or other to be exercised, whatever happens. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
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. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
A religion without mystery must be a religion without God. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
The best theology is rather a divine life than a divine knowledge. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
Know that you are your greatest enemy, but also your greatest friend. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
Love is friendship set on fire. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
Mistake not. Those pleasures are not pleasures that trouble the quiet and tranquillity of thy life. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
Bishop Jeremy Taylor is clear, that men will find it impossible to do anything greatly good, unless they cut off all superfluous company and visits. (Jeremy Taylor)
Can any thing in this world be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth can come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster? View quote
Jeremy Taylor
Her heart was a passion-flower, bearing within it the crown of thorns and the cross of Christ. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
Habits are the daughters of action, but then they nurse their mother, and produce daughters after her image, but far more beautiful and prosperous. View quote
Jeremy Taylor
Marriage is the mother of the world. It preserves kingdoms, and fills cities and churches, and heaven itself. View quote
Jeremy Taylor