Shelby Thomas Quotes

Fast women and slow horses will ruin your life.

one who, though he never digress to read a Lecture, Moral or Political, upon his own Text, nor enter into men’s hearts, further than the Actions themselves evidently guide him…filleth his Narrations with that choice of matter, and ordereth them with that Judgement, and with such perspicuity and efficacy expresseth himself that (as Plutarch saith) he maketh his Auditor a Spectator. For he setteth his Reader in the Assemblies of the People, and in their Senates, at their debating; in the Streets, at their Seditions; and in the Field, at their Battels. Quoted by Shelby Foote in his The Civil War: A Narrative – Volume 2: Fredericksburg to Meridian, Bibliographical Note, from Thomas Hobbes’ Forward to Hobbes’ translation of The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Anyone who wonders what Imps look like in their Middle Years would be perhaps more than satisfied with Shelby's Phiz at the moment,— Malice undiminish'd, with a Daily Schedule that leaves him too little time to express it.

A lady in Eaton Square, as coarse and honest as an Aston whore.

In words used earlier in this gospel, Thomas is demanding a sign (John 2:18, 6:30).

The text of the gospel of Thomas contains no miracle stories, no narrative of Jesus’ birth, no narrative of his death and no story of Easter. The book also has about it more of an Eastern mystical understanding of the nature of Jesus. It is not dogmatic or creedal and hence was not used in the theological battles that marked the first three hundred years of Christian history. Efforts to date the origin of this book have resulted in a range from as early as the 50s, which would make it prior to the writing of any of the canonical gospels, to a date well into the second century.

Elaine Pagels, in a book entitled Beyond Belief, in which she argued that the Fourth Gospel was written to contradict the gospel of Thomas; and that is why, she argues, the author of the Fourth Gospel made Thomas into a major character, unlike his treatment in any other Christian source.*

In the Fourth Gospel Jesus’ glorification is portrayed to be the moment of his crucifixion. It is when Jesus is lifted up on the cross that he draws all people to himself. It is not a suffering Christ who is seen on the cross, but a glorified Christ whose work is somehow completed in his death. In the Fourth Gospel a host of memorable characters are introduced who are mentioned nowhere else in the New Testament. This parade of characters begins in chapter 1 with a man named Nathaniel and concludes with a character known as the “beloved disciple,” who is introduced in the Farewell Discourses and who then plays a major role in the story of the passion and resurrection of Jesus. To understand this gospel we must deal with these unique Johannine creations. In the Fourth Gospel this author also gives content and even personality to several other people who have appeared previously in the tradition, but without any of the defining characteristics which John attaches to them. Among them are Andrew, the mother of Jesus, the brothers of Jesus, Philip and Thomas. We will examine the role that this gospel alone assigns to them as the story develops. These are some of the marks of the Fourth Gospel that set it apart from all the others.

You can change what you do, but you can't change what you want.