John Wilkins Quotes

Bishop John Wilkins commented in 1638 on these Athenians: “Those zealous idolators [counted] it a great blasphemy to make their God a stone, whereas notwithstanding they were so senseless in their adoration of idols as to make a stone their God.

There is a terrible truthfulness about photography. The ordinary academician gets hold of a pretty model, paints her as well as he can, calls her Juliet, and puts a nice verse Shakespeare underneath, and the picture is admired beyond measure. The photographer finds the same pretty girl, he dresses her up and photographs her, and calls her Juliet, but somehow it is no good – it is still Miss Wilkins, the model. It is too true to be Juliet. George Bernard Shaw Wilson’s Photographic Magazine, LVI, 1909

It may take a decade or two before the extent of Shakespeare's collaboration passes from the graduate seminar to the undergraduate lecture, and finally to popular biography, by which time it will be one of those things about Shakespeare that we thought we knew all along. Right now, though, for those who teach the plays and write about his life, it hasn't been easy abandoning old habits of mind. I know that I am not alone in struggling to come to terms with how profoundly it alters one's sense of how Shakespeare wrote, especially toward the end of his career when he coauthored half of his last ten plays. For intermixed with five that he wrote alone, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, and The Tempest, are Timon of Athens (written with Thomas Middleton), Pericles (written with George Wilkins), and Henry the Eighth, the lost Cardenio, and The Two Noble Kinsmen (all written with John Fletcher).

As wee now wonder at the blindnesse of our Ancestors, who were not able to discerne such things as seeme plaine and obvious unto us. So will our posterity admire our ignorance in as perspicuous matters.

How strange a thing this art of writing did seem at it's first invention, we may guess by late discovered Americans, who were amazed to see men Converse with books, and could scarce make themselves to believe that a paper could speak..

It was now pointed out that the black male child, even in a black school using white textbooks, could early come to the conclusion that all the heroes in history were white men. Furthermore, with the exception of nationally known black civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, and others, the black male child frequently saw the adult black male as ineffectual and defeated. The old picture of the white man leading the black man by the hand toward the solution to his problems again gave the black male child a view of the adult black male as something not worth becoming, and killed his spirit and his will to become an adult, problem-solving individual.

Ramses. I had long since resigned myself to the impossibility of teaching Emerson the proper subjects of conversation before the servants. Wilkins is not resigned; but there is nothing he can do about it. Not only does Emerson rant on and on about personal matters at the dinner table, but he often consults Wilkins and John. Wilkins has a single reply to all questions: “I really could not say, sir.” John, who had never been in service before he came to us, had adapted very comfortably to Emerson’s habits.

Therefore, we can hardly think of submission to his baptism as an act of righteousness, and certainly not a fulfillment of all righteousness. More likely Jesus means “fulfill all righteousness” in a salvation-historical sense. God’s saving activity prophesied throughout the OT is now being fulfilled with the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry and will culminate in his death on the cross. This is supported by the similar salvation-historical reference to John the Baptist in 21:31–32 (Hagner 1992, 116–17). Jesus is expressing his obedience to God’s plan of salvation that has been revealed in the Scriptures (Keener 2009, 132). The public baptism illustrated salvation-historical continuity between John the Baptist’s and Jesus’ ministries. By identifying himself with John through baptism, Jesus endorsed John’s ministry and message, and linked his own cause to John’s (“this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness” 3:15; emphasis added).

Is Jesus inconsistent about whether he came for peace or for strife (cp. John 14:27; Matt 26:52)? Jesus’ ultimate purpose is to bring reconciliation between God and humans, but the gospel itself causes division. On the one hand the gospel brings peace between true believers and God (John 14:27), and between true believers (Eph 2:14–18). But on the other hand, the gospel divides those who believe from those who are hostile to the gospel. One either believes in Jesus, or rejects him. There is no middle ground.

Jesus’ institution of the new covenant in his blood, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin, is a dividing line. The complex of events including the cross, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Spirit at Pentecost brings the arrival of the kingdom’s redemptive life, by which time John had been executed. John is the greatest of those born during the OT era because of his crucial role in preparing the way for the Messiah and his kingdom. John’s mission was great because of the greatness of the one he introduced. Those in the kingdom of heaven are greater because of their privilege to have actually entered the kingdom of heaven.

If the word "clear" is imprecise, it is mercifully so. And not necessarily to the detriment of meaning. "It is clear that..." carries with it a bit of transparent glass, the bright ring of a bell, a sunny day, a candid conversation, an uncluttered table.

Despite the refusal of the Obama Justice Department to prosecute anyone at the IRS, it is clear that what happened was an epic clampdown on any conservative voices speaking or advocating against the president’s disastrous policies and in favor of patriotism and adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law. Over the course of twenty-seven months leading up to the 2012 election, not a single Tea Party–type organization received tax-exempt status. Many were unable to operate; others disbanded because donors refused to fund them without the IRS seal of approval; some organizations and their donors were audited without justification; and many incurred legal fees and costs fighting the unlawful conduct by Lerner and other IRS employees. The IRS suppressed the entire Tea Party movement just in time to help Obama win reelection. And everyone in the administration involved in this outrageous conduct got away with it without being punished or prosecuted. Was it simply a case of retribution against the perceived “enemies” of the administration? No, this was much bigger than political payback. It was a systematic and concerted effort to squash the Tea Party movement—one of the most organic and powerful political movements in recent memory—during an election season. [See Appendix for select IRS documents uncovered by Judicial Watch.] This was about campaign politics. It was a scandal for the ages. President Obama obviously wanted this done even if he gave no direct orders for it. In 2015, he told Jon Stewart on The Daily Show that “you don’t want all this money pouring through non-profits.” But there is no law preventing money from “pouring through non-profits” that they use to achieve their legal purposes and the objectives of their members. Who didn’t want this money pouring through nonprofits? Barack Obama. In the subsequent FOIA litigation filed by Judicial Watch, the IRS obstructed and lied to a federal judge and Judicial Watch in an effort to hide the truth about what Lois Lerner and other senior officials had done. The IRS, including its top political appointees like IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and General Counsel William J. Wilkins, have much to answer for over their contempt of court and of Congress. And the Department of Justice lawyers and officials enabling this cover-up in court need to be held accountable as well. If the Tea Party and other conservative groups had been fully active in the critical months leading up to the 2012 election, would Mitt Romney have been elected president? We will, of course, never know for certain. But we do know that President Obama’s Internal Revenue Service targeted right-leaning organizations applying for tax-exempt status and prevented them from entering the fray during that period. That is how you steal an election in plain sight. Accountability is not something we will get from the Obama administration. But Judicial Watch will continue its independent investigation and certainly any new presidential administration should take a fresh look at this IRS scandal.

No less significant were the later Latitudinarian scientists and free-thinkers who broke ranks with their British compatriots by becoming proponents of miracles, such as the astronomer, mathematician, and physicist, Isaac Newton (1642–c. 1726); and John Wilkins (1614–72), one of the founders of the Royal Society, Britain’s national academy of sciences. Curiously, none of these Latitudinarians promoted the cessation of miracles, even though, as a group, most Latitudinarians maintained a disposition of cautious detachment.

Dr. Talmadge Wilkins is well-loved in his community thanks to the quality of his work and his prominent position with the St. John's United Methodist Church. Dr. Talmadge Wilkins is proud to deliver the finest level of dental care to patients that visit his practice.

The evangelistic message is a matter of life and death.

Almost five hundred years ago, John Wilkins, a philosopher and bishop, pushed heavily for the written language to adopt an upside-down exclamation point at the end of a sentence to indicate irony. Think of how many online feuds that could have prevented.

Proclaiming the right message is a matter of life and death.