Benjamin Jowett Quotes

Benjamin Jowett shares plain-spoken ideas about doubt, youth, and the limits of universal goals.

34 quotes

  1. Doubt comes in at the window, when Inquiry is denied at the door.

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

  3. Nowhere probably is there more true feeling, and nowhere worse taste, than in a churchyard.

  4. I hope our young men will not grow into such dodgers as these old men are. I believe everything that a young man says to me.

  5. One man is as good as another until he has written a book.

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

  7. We have sought truth, and sometimes perhaps found it. But have we had any fun?

  8. Learn just enough of the subject [metaphysics] to enable your mind to get rid of it.

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

  10. 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.

  11. First come I. My name is J-W-TT. There's no knowledge but I know it. I am the Master of this College, What I don't know isn't knowledge.

  12. The [Oxford tourist] guide would begin: 'This, ladies and gentlemen, is Balliol College, one of the very holdest in the huniversity, and famous for the herudition of its scholars. The 'ead of Balliol College is called the Master. The present Master of Balliol is the celebrated Professor Benjamin Jowett, Regius Professor of Greek. Those are Professor Jowett's study-windows, and there' (here the ruffian would stoop down, take up a handful of gravel and throw it against the panes, bringing poor Jowett, livid with fury, to the window) 'ladies and gentlemen, is Professor Benjamin Jowett himself.'

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

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

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

  16. 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.

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

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

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

  20. 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.

  21. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  30. 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.

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

  32. “Atheism or similar charges was not unusual among intellectuals, nor condemned by the masses. The prize-winning plays of Aristophanes were not merely atheist, but made fun of the gods and their prophets and oracles.”

  33. “The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money.”

  34. “The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit of doing them”