William Temple Quotes

• Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose - and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.

  William Temple

  Heart, Self, Worship Music

  William Temple (1939). “Readings in St. John's Gospel ...”

  41 Copy quote

• When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't, they don't.

  William Temple

  Prayer, Coincidence, Praying

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• The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he were poor.

  William Temple

  Health, Exercise, Men

  Sir William Temple (1720). “The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart. ...: Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Miscellanea. Memoirs. The third part. From the peace concluded 1679, to the time of the author's retirement from publick business. Memoirs ... from ... 1672, to 1679”, p.305

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• The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit.

  William Temple

  Communication, Talking, Next

  Sir William Temple (1720). “The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart. ...: Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Miscellanea. Memoirs. The third part. From the peace concluded 1679, to the time of the author's retirement from publick business. Memoirs ... from ... 1672, to 1679”, p.311

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• Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.

  William Temple

  Freedom, Mean, Humility

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• To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.

  William Temple

  Heart, Imagination, Mind

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• The best rules to form a young man are: to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it.

  William Temple

  Inspirational, Men, Effectiveness

  Sir William Temple (1814). “The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart: To which is Prefixed, the Life and Character of the Author, Considerably Enlarged”, p.547

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• We shall say without hesitation that the atheist who is moved by love is moved by the Spirit of God; an atheist who lives by love is saved by his faith in the God whose existence (under that name) he denies.

  William Temple

  Love, Atheist, Names

  William Temple (1965). “Daily readings”

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• It is sometimes said that conduct is supremely important and worship helps it. The truth is that worship is supremely important and conduct tests it

  William Temple

  Important, Tests, Helping

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• True worship is when a person, through their person, attains intimacy and friendship with God.

  William Temple

  Worship, Intimacy, Friendship With God

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• The greatest medicine is a true friend.

  William Temple

  Friendship, True Friend, Medicine

  Sir William Temple, Jonathan Swift, Lady Martha Giffard (1740). “The life and character of Sir William Temple, written by a particular friend [his sister Lady Giffard] Observations upon the United provinces of the Netherlands. Miscellanea. Memoirs, the third part, from the peace concluded 1679 to the time of the author's retirement from publick business. Memoirs of what past in Christendom from the war begun 1672, to the peace concluded 1679”, p.309

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• If your prayer is selfish, the answer will be something that will rebuke your selfishness. You may not recognize it as having come at all, but it is sure to be there.

  William Temple

  Prayer, Selfish, Answers

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• There is no structural organization of society which can bring about the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth since all systems can be perverted by the selfishness of man. The Malvern Manifesto: Drawn up by a Conference of the Province of York, January 10, 1941; signed for the Conference by Temple, then Archbishop of York .

  William Temple

  Men, Organization, Society

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• Christianity founds hospitals and atheists are cured in them, never knowing they owe their cure to Christ.

  William Temple

  Atheist, Knowing, Christianity

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• A man's wisdom is his best friend; folly, his worst enemy.

  William Temple

  Friendship, Best Friend, Men

  Sir William Temple, Jonathan Swift, Lady Martha Giffard (1731). “Some account of the life and writings of Sir William Temple, written by a particular friend [his sister Lady Giffard] Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Miscellanea. Memoirs, the third part, from the peace concluded 1679, to the time of the author's retirement from publick business. Memoirs of what past in Christendom from the war begun 1672, to the peace concluded 1679”, p.305

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• The first glass is for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the forth for my enemies.

  William Temple

  Glasses, Alcohol, Enemy

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• The greatest pleasure in life is love.

  William Temple

  Sweet, Engagement, Life Is

  Sir William Temple, Jonathan Swift, Lady Martha Giffard (1740). “The life and character of Sir William Temple, written by a particular friend [his sister Lady Giffard] Observations upon the United provinces of the Netherlands. Miscellanea. Memoirs, the third part, from the peace concluded 1679 to the time of the author's retirement from publick business. Memoirs of what past in Christendom from the war begun 1672, to the peace concluded 1679”, p.309

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• People that trust wholly to other's charity, and without industry of their own, will always be poor.

  William Temple

  People, Charity, Poor

  Sir William Temple, Jonathan Swift (1757). “The Works of Sir William Temple Bart,: Complete in Four Volumes Octavo. : To which is Prefixed, The Life and Character of the Author”, p.446

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• Learning passes for wisdom among those who want both.

  William Temple

  Wisdom, Learning, Want

  Sir William Temple (1814). “The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart: An essay upon the advancement of trade in Ireland. Of popular discontents. An introduction to the history of England. Of gardening. An essay upon the cure of the gout by moxa. Of health and long life. Of heroic virtue. Of poetry. An essay upon ancient and modern learning. Thoughts upon reviewing that essay. Of the excesses of grief. Of the different conditions of life and fortune. Heads of an essay on conversation. Poetry”, p.125

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• Some of the Fathers went so far as to esteem the love of music a sign of predestination, as a thing divine, and reserved for the felicities of heaven itself.

  William Temple

  Father, Inspiration, Heaven

  Sir William Temple, Jonathan Swift (1757). “The Works of Sir William Temple Bart,: Complete in Four Volumes Octavo. : To which is Prefixed, The Life and Character of the Author”, p.429

  6 Copy quote

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