Wit & Attitude Quote by John Tillotson

Zeal looks like virtue in motion, which is exactly why Tillotson treats it with suspicion. In a 17th-century England still bruised by civil war, regicide, and the whiplash of religious regimes, “zeal” wasn’t a harmless personality trait; it was political fuel. Tillotson, an Anglican divine who rose after the Restoration and navigated the post-Glorious Revolution settlement, is writing from the perspective of a church trying to survive fanaticism by branding moderation as moral maturity.

The line works because it splits zeal into two audiences. “Fit for wise men” concedes that conviction has a rightful place: clarity, courage, even reform require heat. But the sting arrives immediately: it “flourishes chiefly among fools.” Flourishes is the tell. Zeal doesn’t merely appear among the foolish; it thrives there, like an invasive plant in neglected soil. The subtext is less about passion than about competence: intensity is easiest when you don’t have to do the hard work of thinking, doubting, or living with complexity.

Tillotson is also smuggling in a theory of persuasion. Wise people treat zeal as an instrument, proportioned to reality. Fools treat it as identity. That distinction is his critique of sectarian culture: the loudest certainty often signals the weakest epistemology. In an age of sermon wars and doctrinal absolutism, this sentence is a civilizing move - a bid to make restraint fashionable and to recast moderation not as lukewarm faith, but as disciplined intelligence.