John Tillotson

With what reason canst thou expect that they children should follow thy good instructions, when thou thyself givest them an ill example?

John Tillotson (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was an Archbishop of Canterbury (1691–1694).

Quotes

• If God were not a necessary Being of himself, he might almost seem to be made for the use and benefit of men.
  • As quoted in Day's Collacon: An Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations (1884), edited by Edward Parsons Day, p. 326
  • Comparable to "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer" (translated: "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him", Voltaire, Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs (10 November 1770).

• With what reason canst thou expect that thy children should follow thy good instructions, when thou thyself givest them an ill example? Thou dost but as it were beckon to them with thy head, and shew them the way to heaven by thy good counsel, but thou takest them by the hand and leadest them in the way to hell by thy contrary example.
  • Sermon 62: On the Education of Children, in The Works of Dr. John Tillotson (1772) edited by Thomas Birch, Vol 3, p. 197; this is more commonly quoted as modernized and paraphrased by John Charles Ryle, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool (1880–1900): "To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is but a beckoning to them with the head to show them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them in the way to hell."

External links

• Bibliographic directory at Project Canterbury