Beilby Porteus Quotes

Beilby Porteus , successively Bishop of Chester and of London, was a Church of England reformer and a leading abolitionist in England. He was the first Anglican in a position of authority to seriously challenge the Church's position on slavery. Wikipedia  

✵ 8. May 1731 – 13. May 1809
Beilby Porteus photo
Beilby Porteus: 5 quotes1 like

Famous Beilby Porteus Quotes

“One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero. Princes were privileged
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.”

Beilby Porteus

Source: Death: A Poetical Essay (1759), Line 154. Compare: "One to destroy is murder by the law, And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe; To murder thousands takes a specious name, War’s glorious art, and gives immortal fame", Edward Young, "Love of Fame", Satire vii, line 55.

“Teach him how to live,
And, oh still harder lesson! how to die.”

Beilby Porteus

Source: Death: A Poetical Essay (1759), Line 316. Compare: "There taught us how to live; and (oh, too high
The price for knowledge!) taught us how to die", Thomas Tickell, On the Death of Mr. Addison (1721), line 81.; "He who should teach men to die, would at the same time teach them to live", Michel de Montaigne, Essay, book i. chap. ix.; "I have taught you, my dear flock, for above thirty years how to live; and I will show you in a very short time how to die", Sandys, Anglorum Speculum, p. 903.

“In sober state,
Through the sequestered vale of rural life,
The venerable patriarch guileless held
The tenor of his way.”

Beilby Porteus

Source: Death: A Poetical Essay (1759), Line 108. Compare: "They kept the noiseless tenor of their way" (alternately quoted as "the even tenor of their way"), Thomas Gray, Elegy in a Country Churchyard, Stanza 19, line 4.

“War its thousands slays, Peace its ten thousands.”

Beilby Porteus

Source: Death: A Poetical Essay (1759), Line 178.

Similar authors

Francis de Sales photo
Francis de Sales12
French bishop, saint, writer and Doctor of the Church j None
Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori photo
Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori2
Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musici… None
François Fénelon photo
François Fénelon43
Catholic bishop None
John Amos Comenius photo
John Amos Comenius12
Czech teacher, educator, philosopher and writer None
Henry Fielding photo
Henry Fielding70
English novelist and dramatist None
Richard Brinsley Sheridan photo
Richard Brinsley Sheridan58
Irish-British politician, playwright and writer None
Samuel Johnson photo
Samuel Johnson362
English writer None
William Shakespeare photo
William Shakespeare699
English playwright and poet None
Benjamin Franklin photo
Benjamin Franklin183
American author, printer, political theorist, politician, p… None
Edmund Burke photo
Edmund Burke270
Anglo-Irish statesman None