Daily Inspiration Quote by Jonathan Mayhew

“Extremes are dangerous” reads like a mild caution, but coming from Jonathan Mayhew, it’s closer to a political instrument disguised as pastoral common sense. Mayhew was a New England clergyman writing and preaching in a culture where sermons doubled as civic instruction. His most famous political preaching defended resistance to tyranny while still insisting that rebellion not become its own form of moral madness. The line works because it offers moderation as a moral technology: a way to legitimize forceful dissent without baptizing chaos.

The intent is strategic. Mayhew is warning that zeal can curdle into cruelty on either side of power: absolute rulers and absolute rebels. In an 18th-century Anglo-American world, “extremes” meant more than temperament; it meant doctrines. On one pole: divine-right authority that demands obedience as a religious duty. On the other: a kind of apocalyptic certainty that treats any opponent as beyond the bounds of conscience. Mayhew’s clerical voice matters here. He’s not merely advocating prudence; he’s policing the soul of public life, trying to keep political action tethered to Protestant moral restraint.

The subtext is a tightrope: he wants to encourage resistance (later read as proto-Revolutionary) while inoculating his audience against being labeled seditious fanatics. Calling extremes “dangerous” grants him credibility with cautious listeners and creates a standard by which to condemn both tyranny and mob vengeance. It’s a sentence that sounds like decorum, but functions like a permit: act, but do not become what you oppose.