“I do not wish to command so much as to persuade. I wish to induce people to see themselves as others see them, to regard what they are doing in reference to its far-off effects on the consciences of others, to cultivate a truer sense of proportion of things, to deal more with ideas than with the clothing of ideas; to pay more attention to the reason of a thing than to its antiquity; to remember that the chief danger that besets those who are pursuing a high object is to confuse means with ends; to examine themselves very fully, lest they confuse Christian zeal with the desire to have their own way.”

Lecture at the Diocesan Conference (April 1899)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I do not wish to command so much as to persuade. I wish to induce people to see themselves as others see them, to regar…" by Mandell Creighton?
Mandell Creighton photo
Mandell Creighton 6
English historian and ecclesiastic 1843–1901

Related quotes

Jonas Salk photo
Sarah Vowell photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“No body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Benjamin Banneker (30 August 1791) http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mtj:@field(DOCID+@lit(tj060149))
1790s
Context: No body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa & America.

George Washington photo

“There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

Letter to Robert Morris https://web.archive.org/web/20060503040039/http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/project/volumes/confederation/essay4.html (12 April 1786)
1780s

Virginia Woolf photo
Calvin Coolidge photo

“I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis on the observance of the law than they do on its enforcement.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

From an address before the Women’s National Committee for Law Enforcement, as quoted in The New England historical and genealogical register, Volume 87, H. F. Waters, New England Historic & Genealogical Society (1933), p. 100.
1930s
Context: I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis on the observance of the law than they do on its enforcement. It is a maxim of our institutions, that the government does not make the people, but the people make the government.

Terry Pratchett photo
Huston Smith photo

“The idea of an object is the idea of its effects, of what it will do, and of what will happen to it, under various conditions.”

Otis Hamilton Lee (1902–1948) American philosopher

Source: [The Review of Metaphysics, 1, 4, June 1948, 32–58, Pragmatism and Existence, https://www.pdcnet.org/revmetaph/content/revmetaph_1948_0001_0004_0032_0058]

Cristiano Ronaldo photo

“I don’t see anyone better than me. No player does things that I cannot do myself, but I see things others can’t do. There’s no more complete player than me. I’m the best player in history — in the good and the bad moments.”

Cristiano Ronaldo (1985) Portuguese association football player

[Dev, Sarthak, Football Paradise, The Ballon d’Or: It’s time football stopped trying to be Hollywood, 15 December 2017, 4 February 2018, https://www.footballparadise.com/ballon-dor/]
In the wake of winning his fifth Ballon d’Or in December 2017.

Related topics