Bothered by oft-repeated quote
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Original Question
I’ve always found the quote “There but for the grace of God go I” troubling. Doesn’t it imply that the person/object you’re referring to DOESN’T have God’s grace? Any explanation of this phrase focuses on the ego—there “I” go. I’ve yet to get an answer to this question; isn’t that a fallacy in itself—declining to give a straight answer?
Answers
1There But For the Grace of God, Go I
John Bradford? George Whitfield? John Newton? Sherlock Holmes? Philip Neri? Dwight Moody? Apocryphal?
Dear Quote Investigator: A deeply religious individual once saw a man being led to the gallows and said:
There but for the grace of God, go I.“Ah! who has made me to differ? But for the grace of God, there goes John Bradford.”
The expression is typically regarded as one of deep compassion and religious humility implying that under different circumstances it would be the narrator himself going to his death rather than the poor wretch he was witness too. The terrible irony is that John Bradford would soon share the martyr’s fate as well.
As it is, it’s just an expression with little commentary on the poor soul soon to meet his maker, but one of humble recognition that were the fates slightly different it might be any one of us going in his stead.
Sort of a variation of John Donne’s (Hemingway) Ask not for whom the bell tolls...
”If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."
No fallacy, here, but a rather sobering truism for us all.
John Bradford? George Whitfield? John Newton? Sherlock Holmes? Philip Neri? Dwight Moody? Apocryphal?
Dear Quote Investigator: A deeply religious individual once saw a man being led to the gallows and said:
There but for the grace of God, go I.“Ah! who has made me to differ? But for the grace of God, there goes John Bradford.”
The expression is typically regarded as one of deep compassion and religious humility implying that under different circumstances it would be the narrator himself going to his death rather than the poor wretch he was witness too. The terrible irony is that John Bradford would soon share the martyr’s fate as well.
As it is, it’s just an expression with little commentary on the poor soul soon to meet his maker, but one of humble recognition that were the fates slightly different it might be any one of us going in his stead.
Sort of a variation of John Donne’s (Hemingway) Ask not for whom the bell tolls...
”If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."
No fallacy, here, but a rather sobering truism for us all.
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