British author & Freemason (1726-1779)
Politeness is ... forgetting ourselves in order to seek what may be agreeable to others.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Religion is a thing much talked of, but little understood; much pretended to, but very little practiced; and the reason why it is so ill practiced, is because it is not better understood. Knowledge therefore must precede religion; since it is necessary to be wise, in order to be virtuous. It must be known to whom, and upon what account duty is owing, otherwise it never can be rightly paid: It must therefore be considered, that God is the object of all Religion, and that the soul is the subject wherein it exists and resides. From the soul it must proceed, and to God it must be directed.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
As you desire the love of God and man, beware of Pride; it is a tumor in your mind, that breaks and poisons all your actions; it is a worm in your treasure, which eats and ruins your estate ... it is the friend of the flatterer, the mother of envy, the nurse of fury, the band of luxury, the sin of devils, the devil in mankind.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Let us duly learn to prize and value our Souls: Is the body such a valuable piece, what then is the Soul? The body is but a husk of shell, the Soul is the kernel; the body is but the cask, the Soul is the precious liquor contained in it; the body is but the cabinet, the Soul is the jewel; the body is but the dwelling, the Soul the inhabitant.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
In perusing the writings of sensible men, we have frequent opportunities of examining our own hearts, and by that means, of attaining a more certain knowledge of ourselves.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
How Pride can so far intoxicate men's understandings, as to make them fancy they are exalted by riches and honour above other men, and, in the vanity of their hearts, to look down with contempt upon their supposed inferiors, is prodigious, as usual as it is. Certainly it cannot be imagined that the richer clothes create the noble heart, or the choicer meats the more honourable blood; though with all the senseless boasting of noble blood, it is the quails and woodcocks, and other dainties, that give it all the pre-eminence it has above that which is bred by coarser diet; with the adoption of gouts and scurvys, and other honourable attendant diseases, into the bargain.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
How dreadful is the prospect of death, at the remotest distance! how the smallest apprehensions of it can pall the most gay, airy, and brisk spirits! even I, who thought I could have been merry in sight of my coffin, and drink a health with the sexton in my own grave, now tremble at the least envoy of the king of terrors. To see but the shaking of my glass makes me turn pale ... all the jollity of my humour and conversation is turned on a sudden into chagrin and melancholy, black as despair, and gloomy as the grave.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
To make it evident that Sin is a great evil, we need but reflect a little on the nature and effects of it. If we inquire into the nature of Sin, we shall find that it is founded in the subversion of the dignity, and defacing the beauty of human nature: And that it consists in the darkness of our understanding, the depravity of our affections, and the feebleness and impotence of the will.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
How unthinking must those unhappy persons be, who make it a common excuse for idle and pernicious amusements, that they do it to kill Time.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Wisdom is a right understanding, a faculty of discerning good from evil, what is to be chosen and what rejected; a judgment grounded upon the true value of things, and not the common opinion of them.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Virtue is the conformity of our affections and actions with the public good, or the voluntary production of the greatest happiness in ourselves and others.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
The greatest business of a man is to improve his mind.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
There is no real felicity for man, but in reforming all his errors and vices, and entering upon a strict and constant course of Virtue.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
If you desire to be wiser yet, think yourself not yet wise.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Necessity teaches wisdom, while prosperity makes fools.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine