Tryon Edwards

Who was Tryon Edwards?

Tryon Edwards was an American theologian, best known for compiling A Dictionary of Thoughts, a book of quotations. [But see note in Talk section.] He published the works of Jonathan Edwards in 1842. He also compiled and published the sixteen sermons of his great grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, on 1 Corinthians 13, the "Love Chapter", titling the book "Charity And Its Fruits; Christian love as manifested in the heart and life", which thought by some to be the most thorough analysis of the text of 1 Corinthians 13 ever written.

He was minister of the Second Congregational Church in New London, Connecticut, from 1845-1857, after having served in Rochester, New York.

Some representative entries from A Dictionary of Thoughts are:

⁕"Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both."

⁕"The first step to improvement, whether mental, moral, or religious, is to know ourselves--our weaknesses, errors, deficiencies, and sins, that, by divine grace, we may overcome and turn from them all."

⁕"Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science, in fact, rests on a basis of faith, for it assumes the permanence and uniformity of natural laws - a thing which can never be demonstrated."

Famous Quotes:

• Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor have we got to go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from a Heaven, at our very door
• To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.
• Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.
• Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another -- too often ending in the loss of both.
• Age does not depend upon years, but upon temperament and health. Some men are born old, and some never grow up.
• Hell is truth seen too lateduty neglected in its season.
• Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science, in fact, rests on a basis of faith, for it assumes the permanence and uniformity of natural laws -- a thing which can never be demonstrated.
• Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood.
• Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries. In a world where everything is doubtful, and where we may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, why this restless stir and commotion of mind? Can it alter the cause, or unravel the mystery of human events?
• To rejoice in another's prosperity is to give content to your lot; to mitigate another's grief is to alleviate or dispel your own.