“None so blind as those that will not see.”

THE OLD BIBLICAL QUOTE THAT’S NOT IN THE BIBLE: “None so blind as those that will not see.”        Matthew Henry (1662-1714)        English Presbyterian minister and writer        A saying popularized by Henry’s use in his Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708)        Contrary to common belief, this is not a quote from the Bible. It’s a proverbial English saying with no clear origin. Matthew Henry helped popularize it by using it several times in his widely-read book of explanatory comments about the Bible. The saying was probably inspired by Bible verses, possibly Matthew 13:13 (“Therefore I speak to them in parables: because they seeing see not…”) or Jeremiah 5:21 (“Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not…”).

THE LAME EXCUSE VARIATION: “There are none so lame as those who will not walk.”        Sir James Marchant (1867-1956)        British philanthropist and author        In the book If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach (1928)

THE TRUE BELIEVER PRINCIPLE: “There are none so positive as those who are but half right.”        William McDonnell (1814-1900)        Canadian writer        In his novel Family Creeds (1879)

SPURGEON’S VERSION: “There are none so tender as those who have been skinned themselves.”         Rev. C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)        British Baptist preacher        From a sermon included in his book Sermons: Volume 6 (1859)

THE UNWORTHY WISH LIST VERSION: “There are none so bitterly disappointed as those who have got what they wanted, because human nature is so sadly prone to want such things as are unworthy.”        Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler (1860-1929)        British poet and novelist        In her novel Place and Power (1903)

THE IRRITATING BLOWHARDS PRINCIPLE: “None so empty as those who are full of themselves.”        Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683)        British Puritan divine and scholar        Quoted in the book Moral and Religious Aphorisms Collected from the Manuscript Papers of the Reverend and Learned Doctor Whichcote (1753)

THE IRRITATING CRITICS PRINCIPLE: “There’s none so bland as can’t see.”        Editorial comment in a 1994 issue of the Theatre Record        Regarding a critic’s negative review of an avant-garde adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III

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Further reading: books of religious quotations...