Benjamin Jowett Quotes

There is a great deal of hard lying in the world; especially among people whose characters are above suspicion.

Nowhere probably is there more true feeling, and nowhere worse taste, than in a churchyard – both as regards the monuments and the inscriptions. Scarcely a word of true poetry anywhere.

Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl.

If you don’t find a God by five o’clock this afternoon you must leave the college.

You’ve got to be success minded. You’ve got to feel that things are coming your way when you’re out selling; otherwise, you won’t be able to sell anything.

The achievements which society rewards are won at the cost of diminution of personality.

Give the clergy your sympathy; don’t give them anything else.

Jowett, in his day, did probably more than any other single man to let some fresh air into the exhausted atmosphere of the [Oxford] common rooms, and to widen the intellectual horizons of the place.

It is most important in this world to be pushing, but it is fatal to seem so.

We can’t search or attain well being, wealth, studying, justice or kindness usually. Action is all the time particular, concrete, individualized, distinctive.

We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.

You must believe in God, in spite of what the clergy say.

Grace is an energy; not a mere sentiment; not a mere thought of the Almighty; not even a word of the Almighty. It is as real an energy as the energy of electricity. It is a divine energy; it is the energy of the divine affection rolling in plenteousness toward the shores of human need.

My dear child, you must believe in God despite what the clergy tells you.

Precautions are always blamed. When successful they are said to be unnecessary.

There is a serious defect in the thinking of someone who wants – more than anything else – to become rich. As long as they don’t have the money, it’ll seem like a worthwhile goal. Once they do, they’ll understand how important other things are – and have always been.

Plato’s dialogues bear at least some similarities to the classical plays.

All translation is a compromise – the effort to be literal and the effort to be idiomatic.

Research ! A mere excuse for idleness; it has never achieved, and will never achieve any results of the slightest value.

Logic is neither a science nor an art, but a dodge.

The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit for doing them.

Research! A mere excuse for idleness; it has never achieved, and will never achieve any results of the slightest value.

Young men make great mistakes in life; for one thing, they idealize love too much.

I am not blaming the past. … But I want the peace of God to settle on the future.

To teach a man how he may learn to grow independently, and for himself, is perhaps the greatest service that one man can do another.