ANTHOLOGY: GREAT QUOTES

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. — George Orwell
I believe that I may understand (Credo ut intelligam). — Anselm (1033-1093)
When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. — Erasmus of Rotterdam
The truly Christian mind has repented of "proof-texting" (that notion that we can settle every doctrinal and ethical issue by quoting a single, isolated text, whereas God has given us a comprehensive revelation ), and instead saturates itself in the whole of Scripture. — John Stott (Involvement: Being a Responsible Christian in a Non-Christian Society)
Zeal without doctrine is like a sword in the hand of a lunatic. — John Calvin
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. — Upton Sinclair
I don't believe in God, but I miss him. — (atheist) Julian Barnes
Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive. — C. S. Lewis
There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness... — C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
It is the very nature of Christian truth that it cannot be enforced. Coerce belief and you destroy belief and you turn the truth believed into a lie. — Richard Bauckham
We must all either wear out or rust out, every one of us. My choice is to wear out. — Theodore Roosevelt
What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first steps to something better. — Wendell Phillips
Human associations do not escape but mirror and magnify the vices and virtues of the human heart. — Ron Highfield
The heart has its reasons, which reason itself does not know. — Blaise Pascal
I am not what I ought to be; I am not what I want to be; I am not what I hope to be in another world. But still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am. — John Newton
A wise man will not walk down the road of success with you. He’ll simply point you in the right direction.
You can always tell luck from ability by its duration.
The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you're made of, not the circumstances.
Wonderful things in the Bible I see — most of them put there by you or by me. — Walter Kaiser
To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society. – Theodore Roosevelt.
Some people never let ideas interrupt the easy flow of their conversation.
Many people drive their automobile as if they were rehearsing for an accident.
Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
Many a man’s reputation would not recognize his character if they met in the dark.
The sectarian thinks he has the sea ladled into his private pond. — Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
It is much easier to repent of sins that we have already committed than to repent of those we intend to commit.
A good past is the best thing a man can use for a future reference.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. — Thomas Jefferson
The more a man knows, the more he forgives. – Catherine the Great
Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper upbringing, a good set of values — and witnesses!
Whoso neglects learning in his youth loses the past and is dead for the future. – Euripides
Many a man gets a reputation for being energetic when in truth he is merely fidgety.
Take care of your character and your reputation will take care of itself.
To be a good speaker in public, you must be a good thinker in private.
Time is nature’s way of preventing everything from happening at once.
The school should always have as its aim that the young man leave it as a harmonious personality, not as a specialist. This in my opinion is true in a certain sense even for technical schools… The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgment should always be placed foremost, not the acquisition of special knowledge. — Albert Einstein
The world is too dangerous to live in—not because of people who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. — Albert Einstein
Tobacco is a nauseating plant consumed by only two creatures: a large green worm and man. The worm doesn’t know any better.
Tolerance gets a lot of credit that belongs to apathy.
Truth is often violated by falsehood, but can be equally outraged by silence. — Henri Frederic Amiel
Maybe we were better off when charity was a virtue instead of a deduction.
We need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure. – Oliver Wendel Holmes II
Do it now! Today will be yesterday tomorrow.
Smooth seas do not make good sailors.
Part-time faith, like a part-time job, cannot fully support you.
Were it not for the doers, the critics would soon be out of business.
It is especially hard to work for money you’ve already spent for something you didn’t need.
It’s extremely difficult to sell anyone a product you’ve never used — or a religion you’ve never lived.
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one. — James A. Froude (1818-1894) — or perhaps Thoreau
All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. — Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Blessed is the man who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.
Don’t worry if your job is small and your rewards few / remember that the mighty oak was once a nut like you.
Age doesn’t always bring wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone.
If the highest aim of the captain were to preserve the ship, he would keep it in port forever. — Thomas Aquinas
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible. — Thomas Aquinas
Be slow in choosing friends, slower in changing them.
Satan doesn't care which side of the horse we fall off, as long as we don't stay in the saddle. — Martin Luther
Wise men always know more than they tell, but fools tell more than they know.
Knowledge can be memorized. Wisdom must think things through.
You can often gauge a man’s ambition by whether he hates his alarm clock or considers it his dear friend.
God gives us the ingredients for our daily bread, but he expects us to do the baking.
A man should work eight hours and sleep eight hours, but not the same eight hours.
If there were no God, there would be no atheists. — G.K. Chesterton, Where All Roads Lead, 1922
All men thirst to confess their crimes more than tired beasts thirst for water, but they naturally object to confessing them while other people, who have also committed the same crimes, sit by and laugh at them. – G.K. Chesterton, ILN, 3/14/08
What we call emancipation is always and of necessity simply the free choice of the soul between one set of limitations and another. – G. K. Chesterton, Daily News, 12-21-05
There are some desires that are not desirable. – G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
It is not bigotry to be certain we are right, but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong. – G.K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion
Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable. – G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 10/23/09
These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own. – G .K. Chesterton, ILN 8-11-28
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. — G. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With The World, 1910
There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions. – G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 1/13/06
An open mind is like an open mouth: its purpose is to bite on something nourishing. Otherwise, it becomes like a sewer, accepting everything, rejecting nothing. — G. K. Chesterton
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies — probably because they are generally the same people. — G. K. Chesterton, 1910
A citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine, except that the fine is generally much lighter. – G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, May 25, 1931
A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. – G. K. Chesterton, “The Five Deaths of the Faith,” in The Everlasting Man
A strange fanaticism fills our time: the fanatical hatred of morality, especially of Christian morality. – G. K. Chesterton, “The Moral Philosophy of Meredith,” A Handful of Authors
Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere. – K. Chesterton
Atheism is indeed the most daring of all dogmas . . . for it is the assertion of a universal negative.” – G. K. Chesterton, “Charles II,” Twelve Types
Bigotry is an incapacity to conceive seriously the alternative to a proposition. – G. K. Chesterton, “The Bigot,” Lunacy and Letters
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions. – G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, April 19, 1930
Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance. – G. K. Chesterton, The Speaker, 15, 1900
Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God. – G. K. Chesterton
Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it. – G. K. Chesterton, “The Shadow of the Sword,” Autobiography
The decay of society is praised by artists as the decay of a corpse is praised by worms. – G. K. Chesterton, “The Progressive”: George Bernard Shaw
The free man is not he who thinks all opinions equally true or false; that is not freedom but feeble-mindedness. The free man is he who sees the errors as clearly as he sees the truth. – G. K. Chesterton
The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what is right. – G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, Oct. 28, 1922
The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted: precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden. – G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, 3, 1920
The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half-truth is always the ally of some vice. – G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, June 11, 1910
Theology is only thought applied to religion. – G. K. Chesterton, “The Groups of the City,” The New Jerusalem
There are an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands. – G. K. Chesterton
There is a case for telling the truth; there is a case for avoiding the scandal; but there is no possible defense for the man who tells the scandal, but does not tell the truth – G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, July 18, 1908
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. – G. K. Chesterton, “The War of the Usurpers,” A Short History of England
Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians are not like him. – Bara Dada (in Stanley E. Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road, 1925)
When belief in God becomes difficult, the tendency is to turn away from Him; but in heaven's name, to what?
White lies are likely to leave black marks on a man’s reputation.
Even the hypocrite admires righteousness. That is why he imitates it.
Men of genius are admired; men of wealth are envied; men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.
Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.
It seems that Satan first makes friends with the parents to make it easier to get their boys and girls.
The Bible is not only the world’s best seller. It is man’s best purchase.
Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them.
One evidence of the value of the Bible is the character of those who oppose it.
A fool tells you what he will do; a boaster, what he has done. The wise man does it and says nothing.
Service is nothing but love in work clothes.
Conduct is character in motion; for [humans] do what they themselves are. — Henry Burton
Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor devotion to Jesus is service for him. – Oswald Chambers
Crisis reveals character. — Oswald Chambers
A nodding congregation may or may not mean assent to what the preacher is saying.
Leniency to the dishonest is cruelty to those whom they injure. — Charles Spurgeon
Opportunity has the uncanny habit of favoring those who have paid the price of years of preparation.
If our God is small enough for us to understand, he isn’t big enough for us to worship.
A rumor is like a check. Never endorse it until you’re sure it is genuine.
The fellow who boasts about his open mind may only have a vacant one.
Some things have to be put off dozens of times before they completely slip our minds.
The guy who invented the boomerang was probably the same one who invented the credit card.
Quite often when a man thinks his mind is getting broader, it is only his conscience stretching.
When a person has a reputation for telling the truth, he doesn’t have to prove everything he says.
Philosophy is an orderly way of discussing subjects we don’t know anything about.
Never put a question mark where God has put a period.
The successful man is one who has the horsepower of an optimist and the emergency breaks of a pessimist.
What some speakers lack in depth they make up for in length.
An open mind, like an open window, should be equipped with a screen to keep the bugs out.
A conscience is a safe guide only when God is the guide of the conscience.
The Lord calls for us to stand, though not always to understand.
Gossip is like mud thrown on a clean wall. It may not stick, but it always leaves a dirty mark.
Faith with works is a force. Faith without works is a farce.
“Anger” is just one letter short of danger.
A Bible that’s falling apart often belongs to one who isn’t.
If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
Many people give a tenth to the Lord — a tenth of what they ought to give!
An empty tomb proves Christianity; an empty church denies it.
The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you. — David Foster Wallace
Conceit is what makes a little squirt think he’s a fountain of knowledge.
A big shot is frequently an individual of small caliber and immense bore.
Some students drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
In the story of life, death is not the period, but only the comma.
One of the surest marks of good character is a man’s ability to accept personal criticism without feeling malice toward the one who gives it.
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you shine into it, the more it will contract.
The heart cannot rejoice in what the mind rejects as false. — C. S. Lewis
The man who cannot feel anger at what is evil typically lacks enthusiasm for what is good.
We should be as careful of the books we read as of the company we keep.
Other books are given to us for our information, but the Bible was given to us for our transformation.
Sometimes when you’re arguing with a fool, he’s doing the same thing.
Authority is like a bank account. The more you draw on it, the less you have.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble. — Charles Spurgeon
A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.
A good question for an atheist: after taking him out to dinner, ask him if he believes there is a cook.
An atheist is someone who can't hack metaphor. — Robinson Davies
The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass is God waiting for you. — Werner Heisenberg
A successful man continues to look for work after he has found a job.
There’s nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men.
Nothing dies more quickly than a new idea in a closed mind.
The self-made man always seems to admire his maker.
With some people a clear conscience is nothing more than a poor memory.
If you want to become old and wise, you must first be young and stupid!
Temptation seldom breaks your door down; it quietly and cunningly enters the open mortals of your mind.
Enthusiasm is contagious — and so is the lack of it.
People don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care.
The faults of others are like headlights on a passing car. They always seem more glaring than our own.
An excuse may be merely a thin skin of falsehood stretched tightly over a bald-faced lie.
To err is human; to cover it up is even more human.
In the book of Revelation we read of a book which no man could open. Some believe this was the pocketbook.
A wise man learns by the mistakes of others. An ordinary man learns by his own mistakes. A fool learns by nobody’s mistakes.
The road to failure is greased with the slime of indifference.
Fear is the darkroom of reality where negatives are developed.
If you’re burning the candle at both ends, you might not be as bright as you think.
Some flowers do not yield their perfume until they are bruised.
Wise men always know more than they tell, but fools tell more than they know.
There is one thing for which you should be abundantly thankful: Only you and God have all the facts about yourself.
There are two authentic marks of a Christian: giving and forgiving.
When a friend makes a mistake, don’t rub it in. Rub it out.
Fear is the tax that conscience pays to guilt.
It is better to give than to lend — and it often costs just the same!
Following the path of least resistance is what makes rivers and men crooked.
Many children could keep on the straight and narrow path if they could get information from someone who’s been over the route.
A cold church is like cold butter — it never spreads very well.
A hypocrite never intends what he pretends to be.
Enthusiasm is a good engine, but it needs intelligence for a driver.
Sooner or later we must learn that God makes no deals.
Judging from the way things look now, it’s a good thing that the future doesn’t all come at the same time.
Sometimes a nation abolishes God, but fortunately God is more tolerant.
Do unto others as though you were the others.
Like the tallest mountain, great men retain their dignity and stability during the most severe storm.
God promises a safe landing, not a calm voyage.
Heaven is a bargain, no matter how great the cost.
We may not know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future.
To feel sorry for the needy is not the mark of a Christian — it is to help them!
Many juvenile delinquents are youngsters who have been given a free hand, but not in the proper place.
Don’t stay away from church because you have the idea there are too many hypocrites in it. There’s always room for one more!
Be thankful if your job is a little harder than you like. A razor can’t be sharpened on a piece of velvet.
We may confess small faults to convey the impression that we have no big ones.
The average man thinks he isn’t.
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not — he is a fool. Shun him / He who knows not and knows that he knows not — he is simple. Teach him / He who knows and knows not that he knows — he is asleep. Wake him / He who knows and knows that he knows — he is wise. Follow him.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. — The Serenity Prayer, Alcoholics Anonymous version, modified; originally from a prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr
It is possible to learn from an enemy things we can’t learn from a friend.
Better be patient on the road than a patient in the hospital.
The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your arm.
An intelligent person now only knows how to take advice, but also how to reject it.
A smart person doesn’t tell everything he knows, but he knows everything he tells.
Knowledge is knowing a fact. Wisdom is knowing what to do with that fact.
Don’t ever follow a leader until you know whom he is following.
The difference between a luxury and a necessity depends on whether your neighbor has it and you don’t.
If you will live right each day, you will be neither afraid of tomorrow nor ashamed of yesterday.
Knowledge humbles the great man, astonishes the common man, and puffs up the little man.
The most important things in life aren’t things.
When new light breaks forth from the Word, the systematizer is faced with the painful dilemma of either adapting his system to absorb the freshly perceived truth or of trimming the truth to fit his system. The latter is the temptation of tidy minds. — John R. W. Stott
Living without faith is like driving in a fog.
Most people, when they come for advice, want their opinions strengthened, not corrected.
Training can’t make us all leaders — but it can teach us which leader to follow.
People are funny. They spend money they don’t have to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.
Most people are willing to change, not because they see the light, but because they feel the heat.
Industry is the mother of success — luck, a distant relative.
Many people think they are broad-minded just because they are too lazy to form an opinion.
The person who looks up to God rarely looks down on people.
Failure is the path of least persistence.
Many lose their health seeking to become wealthy, and then lose their wealth seeking to get back their health.
If the church were perfect, you couldn’t belong.
It is impossible to preach with one eye on the conscience and the other on the collection.
The mind stretched by a new idea never returns to its original dimensions.
Hatred is a boomerang which is sure to hit your harder than the one at whom you threw it.
The man who is able to distinguish between tiredness and laziness in himself will go far.
Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways. — Benet (1898-1943)
Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.
A soul without prayer is like lungs without air.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failures, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. – T. Roosevelt (1858-1919)
From cowardice that shrinks from new truth / From laziness that is content with half truth / From arrogance that thinks it knows all truth / Dear God of truth, deliver me! – Unknown
The two great tests of character are wealth and poverty.
If you’re too busy to pray, you’re too busy.
If you could kick the fellow responsible for most of your problems, you couldn’t sit down for three weeks!
The speaker who doesn’t strike oil in twenty-five minutes should stop boring.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. — African Proverb
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. — Chinese proverb
Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions. They’re easier to handle than dumb mistakes.
A real Christian is as horrified by his own sin as he is by his neighbor’s.
Satan hinders prayer, but prayer also hinders Satan.
Making a sin legal does not make it harmless.
Oversleeping is a mighty poor way to make your dreams come true.
No individual raindrop ever considered itself responsible for the Flood.
Concern yourself not with the stumbles of the past or future. Only a worm does not stumble. – Og Mandino
Make the most of every failure. Fall forward. — Anon.
It would be strange indeed the Church should require more than Christ himself did, or make other conditions of her communion than our Saviour did of discipleship… Without all controversy, the main inlet of all the distractions, confusion, and divisions of the Christian world hath been the adding of other conditions of Church-communion than Christ hath done. – Edward Stillingfleet, Dean of St Paul’s London, 1659
People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. – D.A. Carson
Fear of getting caught sometimes keeps a fellow from sinning until the opportunity has passed.
Never before has the future so rapidly become the past.
A man’s conscience, and not his mattress, has the most to do with the quality of his sleep.
In essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all things, charity. – Rupertus Meldenius
For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories. – Plato (427-347 BC)
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people. — Eleanor Roosevelt
Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs. — Zig Ziglar
If you go out looking for friends, you’re going to find they are very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere. — Zig Ziglar
Attitude, not aptitude, determines altitude. — Zig Ziglar
Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker. — Zig Ziglar
Look back in forgiveness, forward in hope, down in compassion and up with gratitude." — Zig Ziglar
Has modernity finally done what no enemy or persecutor has ever succeeded in doing and reduced the authority of the Scriptures to a shifting weather vane and the church to babbling impotence? — Os Guinness, Renaissance
The West has beaten back the totalitarian pretensions of both Hitler’s would-be master race in Germany and Stalin’s would-be master class in the Soviet Union. But now it stands weak and unsure of itself before its three current menaces: first, the equally totalitarian, would-be master faith of Islamism… second, the increasingly totalitarian philosophy and zero-sum strategies of illiberal liberalism; and third, the self-destructive cultural chaos of the West’s own chosen ideas and lifestyles… destroying its identity… sapping its former strength. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
… Many of the defectors [from the Christian church] are not really atheists or even agnostic, but in limbo between the characteristic halfway houses of “believing without belonging” or still “belonging without believing.” — Os Guinness, Renaissance
Western cultural elites have disregarded God for more than two centuries, but for a while the effects were mostly confined to their own circles… Now in the 21st century, their movement from disregard to desecration to decadence is going mainstream, and the United States is only the lead society among those close to the tipping point. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
Soon, as the legalization and then normalization of polyamory, polygamy, pedophilia and incest follow the same logic as that of abortion and homosexuality, the socially destructive consequences of these trends will reverberate… until the social chaos is beyond recovery. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
… The church is the most diverse community on earth, the Bible is the most translated and translatable book in human history, churches are the most numerous social service agencies across the world… This is a time of momentous significance for the future of humanity. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
The vilest [form of Western worldliness] is the distortion of the gospel through American-style heath-and-wealth theology, with its prosperity doctrines and their vicious exploitation of the unsuspecting poor. The logic and dynamics of this shameless twisting of the gospel run parallel to those of witchcraft…— Os Guinness, Renaissance
Ten million assertions, even when magnified and accelerated in a hundred million tweets and “likes,” still never add up to truth or wisdom, or what is right and good. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
… Consistent Christian living may be harder the higher it reaches, but this is no excuse for mediocre expectations and standards. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
[Jesus] flatly refused the temptations of power and fame offered him by the Grand Inquisitor from hell. He was no Judas Maccabaeus redivivus [explain]. His conspiracy was not that of the Zealots of his day. His revolutionary manifesto was not a bloody call to arms like that of Marx and Engels, Hitler and Himmler, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot. His mission was not at the point of a sword like Muhammad’s. In fact, Jesus was the unarmed prophet who renounced the sword, and seemed to turn away from the use of force that any civilization needs in order to build and sustain itself. And he appeared to show little or no interest in many of the burning issues that parade across our television screens, shout at us in the headlines of our newspapers, and rage like wildfire through our social media. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
The Christian faith calls for an open and voluntary confession of our wrongs, whenever we are wrong. This… is challenging and it may certainly be embarrassing for anyone who has to do it, but it is in fact an act of moral courage. For in confession we are called to do what no human does naturally and easily: to go on record against ourselves. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
The Christian… does not believe in modern revolutionary change that is effected from the outside only, for such change is always too shallow and does not last. The key to changing the world is simply being there, but an active, transforming engagement of a singularly robust and energetic kind… What changes the world is not a fully developed Christian worldview, but a worldview actually lived… — Os Guinness, Renaissance
Because of… the “crooked timber” of our humanity (Immanuel Kant) or the fact that we are “cracked human beings” (John Gray), our best endeavors will always be shot through with ironies and limitations. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
[Commenting on Isa 55:8-9] The point is not that God’s thoughts are unknowable, but that they are different from our ours, higher than ours, and therefore they demand that we follow him and not simply our best ideas. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
Only God can handle the whole world. The world is not ours to manage or to save. Our task is to focus on our individual callings in engaging with the world, to trust that others are following theirs too, and to leave to God the masterminding of the grand outcome. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
On the modern superstition that to achieve success in any area we must live and breathe for that alone: Down that way lies the path to idolatry, obsession, restlessness, cut-through rivalry, and a life marked by either arrogance or bitter regrets. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
All too often we have abandoned our Lord’s concern for those in the shadows, the twilight, and the deep darkness of the world, and become cheerleaders for those in power and the naïve sycophants of the powerful and the rich. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
The kingdom of God is an upside-down, back-to-front, inside-out kingdom that stuns our expectations and blasts us out of our ruts and our prejudices. — Os Guinness, Renaissance
Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage. — Richard Lovelace
Let us pray, not for lighter burdens, but for stronger backs. — Amish proverb
One man has enthusiasm for thirty minutes, another for thirty days, but it is the man who has it for thirty years who makes a success of his life. — Samuel Butler (1612-1680)
The strength that comes from confidence can be quickly lost in conceit.
Most of our suspicion of others is aroused by our knowledge of ourselves.
People with tact have less to retract.
Sermons and biscuits are improved by shortening.
Intelligence is like a river. The deeper it is, the less noise it makes.
Five percent of people really think, ten percent think they think, and the remainder would rather die than think. It’s the five percent who make the difference in the world.
Good manners is being able to put up with bad ones.
It’s always hard to find a job for the fellow who doesn’t want one.
The man of the hour spent many days and nights getting there.
It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true today may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion. — Thoreau
A poor listener seldom hears a good sermon.
Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. — Orwell
Remember me as you pass by / As you are now, so once was I / As I am now, so you must be / Prepare yourself to follow me. –From a tombstone in Lambeth Cemetery
Indeed, indeed Repentance oft I swore before — but was I sober when I swore? – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, 94.
The best of men cannot suspend their fate: the good die early, and the bad die late. – De Foe
It’s not the burden that breaks you down, but how you carry it.
Give me somewhere to stand / And I will move the world. – Euripides
There was an old fellow of Trinity / A doctor well versed in divinity / But he took to freethinking/ And then to deep drinking / And soon had to leave the vicinity.
A clergyman told from his text / How Samson was scissored and vexed: / Then a barber arose / From his sweet Sunday doze, / Got rattled, and shouted, “Who’s next?”
There once was a pious young priest, / Who lived almost wholly on yeast; / “For,” he said, “it is plain / We must all rise again, / And I want to get started at least.”
I sat next to the Bishop at tea; / It was just as I feared it would be. / His rumblings abdominal / Were simply phenomenal, / And everyone thought it was me!
The Methodist said, “I esteem / My good Baptist friends, and I dream / We may some day unite.” / Cried the Baptist, “All right! / Let us meet in the midst of the stream!” – Casey Renn
Said Nero to one of his train, / “These Christians will surely refrain, / Encased as they are / In coatings of tar, / From burning my city again.”
Though branded a heretic, Arius / Still championed his views so precarious. / And stout Athanasius / Was not feeling gracious, / But cried, “Arius does it to harry us!” — Casey Renn
I think it exceedingly odd / That a divinity professor named Dodd / Should spell, if you please, / His name with two d’s / When one is sufficient for God.
There was an old fellow of Trinity / Who solved the square root of infinity, / But it gave him such fidgets / To count up the digits, / He chucked math and took up divinity.
There was a faith healer of Deal, / Who said, “Although pain isn’t real, / When I sit on a pin / And it punctures my skin, / I dislike what I fancy I feel.”
Said Davis, “I feel great abhorrence / For a church without scriptural warrants. / With Vatican II / I’ll have nothing to do; / I take all of my councils from Florence.”
At a wedding feast out in Duquesne / A preacher first tasted champuesne. / He exclaimed, “How it tickles! / I much prefer pickles.” / But he drank it aguesne and aguesne.
God’s plan made a hopeful beginning, / But man ruined his chances by sinning. / We trust that the story / Will end in God’s glory; / But at present the other side’s winning. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always. — A. W. Tozer
Wise leaders should have known that the human heart cannot exist in a vacuum. If Christians are forbidden to enjoy the wine of the Spirit they will turn to the wine of the flesh….Christ died for our hearts and the Holy Spirit wants to come and satisfy them. — A. W. Tozer
The neglected heart will soon be a heart overrun with worldly thoughts; the neglected life will soon become a moral chaos; the church that is not jealously protected by mighty intercession and sacrificial labors will before long become the abode of every evil bird and the hiding place for unsuspected corruption. The creeping wilderness will soon take over that church that trusts in its own strength and forgets to watch and pray. — A. W. Tozer
It is because of the hasty and superficial conversation with God that the sense of sin is so weak and that no motives have power to help you to hate and flee from sin as you should. – A. W. Tozer
The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still. – A. W. Tozer
Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. – Ambrose Bierce
Little of the Word with little prayer is death to the spiritual life. Much of the Word with little prayer gives a sickly life. Much prayer with little of the Word gives more life, but without steadfastness. A full measure of the Word and prayer each day gives healthy and powerful life. – Andrew Murray
One great power of sin is that it blinds men so that they do not recognize its true character. – Andrew Murray
Temptation usually comes in through a door that has deliberately been left open. – Arnold Glasow
We all know a fool when we see one — but not when we are one. – Arnold Glasow
Involuntary ignorance is not charged against you as a fault; but your fault is this — you neglect to inquire into the things you are ignorant of. – Augustine (354-430)
God is not a deceiver, that He should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us. – Augustine (354-430)
God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination. – Augustine (354-430)
A man may lose the good things of this life against his will; but if he loses the eternal blessings, he does so with his own consent. – Augustine (354-430)
The soul stands at salute when He passes by.
A liar is one who has no partition between his imagination and his information.
It is the laden bough that hangs low, and the most fruitful Christian who is the most humble.
He came to pay a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay.
Give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving!
Here lies an atheist: all dressed up and no place to go. – Epitaph in a Maryland cemetery
The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, lies here, food for worms; but the work shall not be lost, for it will appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author. — self-written epitaph
Whoever gossips to you will gossip of you.
It often shows a fine command of language to say nothing.
There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.
Pray to God. Love God. Fear God. Serve God. Take not God’s name in vain. Do not Swear. Do not Steal. Cheat not in your play. Play not with bad boys. Call no ill names. Use no ill words. Tell no Lies. Hate Lies. Speak the Truth. Spend your Time well. Love your School. Mind your Book. Strive to learn. Be not a Dunce. – A Lesson for Children, 1777
How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, His precepts! – Benjamin Franklin
Many who plan to seek the Lord at the eleventh hour die at 10:30.
It is no great thing to be humble when you are brought low; but to be humble when you are praised is a great and rare attainment. – Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it. – Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ. We do not even know ourselves except through Jesus Christ. – Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
He who throws dirt loses ground.
A great many people think they are thinking when they are only rearranging their prejudices. – William James (1842-1910)
No man is free who is not master of himself. — Epictetus (60-110 AD)
God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet. – Persian saying
For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe. — Larry Eisenberg
The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated. – William James (1842-1910)
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. – Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. – Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
The person who pursues revenge should dig two graves.
Men are alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ. — Molière (1622-73)
If one is to do good one must do it in the minute particulars. General good is the plea of the hypocrite, the flatterer and the scoundrel. – William Blake (1757-1827)
Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it. – George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. – Edmund Burke (1729-97)
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. – Abraham Lincoln (1809-65)
The words of the tongue should have three gatekeepers: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? –Arab proverb
Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods. — C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right.
Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
We may note in passing that He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three results: Hatred, Terror, Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild admiration. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
When the author walks on the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right…something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise…it will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. — C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be: if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other. But the standard that measures two things is something different from either. You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality, admitting that there is such a thing as a real Right, independent of what people think, and that some people’s ideas get nearer to that real Right than others. — C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
If you read history you will find out that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. — C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
In reality, moral rules are directions for running the human machine. Every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown, or a strain, or a friction, in the running of that machine…When you are being taught how to use any machine, the instructor keeps on saying, “No, don’t do it like that,” because, of course, there are all sorts of things that look all right and seem to you the natural way of treating the machine, but do not really work. — C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism…To your knees, man! and to your Bible! Decide at once! Don’t hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God, quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and cowardly excuses. Enlist! – C. T. Studd
Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity. – Charles Spurgeon
We may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives. – Charles Spurgeon
I will not believe that thou hast tasted of the honey of the gospel if thou can eat it all to thyself. – Charles Spurgeon
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. – Charles Wesley
Success is the world’s criterion of merit; fidelity is God’s. – Charles S. Robinson
I have but one passion – it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ. – Count Zinzendorf
Character is what you are in the dark. – Dwight L. Moody
This book [the Bible] will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book. – Dwight L. Moody
The Bible without the Holy Spirit is a sundial by moonlight. – Dwight L. Moody
Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Let him who cannot be alone beware of community... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day. – E. M. Bounds
The vigour of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts. – George Mueller
No man ever repented of being a Christian on his death bed. – Hannah More
Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him. – Hudson Taylor
Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life... We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to Him. – Henri Nouwen
It is a great sign of true repentance when a man approves of the justice of his own punishment. — Hugo Grotius
Suspect everything that is prosperous unless it promotes piety and charity and humility. – Isaac Taylor
Where there is humility there is majesty; where there is weakness, there is might; where there is death, there is life. If you want to get these things don't disdain those. — Augustine
When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man when he gets all he can and saves all he can, does not give all he can, I have more hope for Judas Iscariot than for that man! – John Wesley
One leak will sink a ship; and one sin will destroy a sinner. – John Bunyan
Resolved, never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life. — Jonathan Edwards
If your heart takes more pleasure in reading novels, or watching TV, or going to the movies, or talking to friends, rather than just sitting alone with God and embracing Him, sharing His cares and His burdens, weeping and rejoicing with Him, then how are you going to handle forever and ever in His presence…? You’d be bored to tears in heaven, if you’re not ecstatic about God now! – Keith Green
This much is sure in all churches, forgetting party labels; the smallest meeting numerically is the prayer-meeting. If weak in prayer we are weak everywhere. — Leonard Ravenhill
Could a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die? Could a fireman sit idle, let men burn and give no hand? Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you damned? – Leonard Ravenhill
Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason–I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other–my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen. — Martin Luther
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading. — Oswald Chambers
We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results. – R. A. Torrey
This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it. — Richard Baxter
We shall have all eternity in which to celebrate our victories, but we have only one swift hour before the sunset in which to win them. — Robert Moffatt
Truth without enthusiasm, morality without emotion, ritual without soul, are things Christ unsparingly condemned. Destitute of fire, they are nothing more than a godless philosophy, an ethical system, and a superstition. — Samuel Chadwick
As in Paradise, God walks in Scripture, seeking man. – Ambrose
In the Kingdom of God, service is not a stepping-stone to nobility: it is nobility, the only kind of nobility that is recognized. – T.W. Manson
To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer. – Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. — Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)
By the time the average Christian gets his temperature up to normal, everybody thinks he has a fever! — Watchman Nee
Our prayers lay the track down on which God’s power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails. — Watchman Nee
One verse in every six in the first three Gospels relates either directly or indirectly to money. Sixteen of our Lords forty-four parables deal with the use of misuse of money. A loving, joyful, liberal giving to the Lord’s work is an acid test of a spiritual heart, pleasing to God. — William Allen
You must pray with all your might. That does not mean saying your prayers, or sitting gazing about in church or chapel with eyes wide open while someone else says them for you. It means fervent, effectual, untiring wrestling with God…This kind of prayer be sure the devil and the world and your own indolent, unbelieving nature will oppose. They will pour water on this flame. — William Booth
Prayer – secret, fervent, believing prayer – lies at the root of all personal godliness. — William Carey
I will cause a boy who drives a plow to know more of the scriptures than the pope. – William Tyndale (1494-1536)
You can have no greater sign of confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough. — William Law (1686-1761)
No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown. – William Penn (1644-1718)
It is a crime to put a citizen of Rome in bonds; it is an atrocity to scourge him; to put him to death is well-nigh parricide; what shall I say it is to crucify him? — Language has no word by which I may designate such an enormity. – Cicero (106-43 BC)
A man is as big as the things that make him angry. – Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all the others. – Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will. – Jawaharal Nehru
After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box. – Italian proverb
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. — Frederick Douglass
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. – Aristotle
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. – Albert Einstein
In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.
Nails could not have kept Jesus on the cross had love not held Him there.
It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright. – Benjamin Franklin (Maxims prefixed to Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1757)
The BIBLE = Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.
Better the storm with Christ than smooth waters without Him.
FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real – Jerry W. Wilkes
People use duct tape to fix everything; God used nails.
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. – Martin Luther King Jr.
There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity. -- Tom Peters
The greater the man, the greater the courtesy.
Error is always in a hurry. – English proverb
Nothing is more harmful to a new truth than an old error. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Prophets were twice stoned – first in anger, after their death, with a handsome slab in the graveyard. – Christopher Morley
Toward no crimes have men showed themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief. – James Russell Lowell
A barrage of words does not make the soul happy, but a good life gladdens the mind and a pure conscience generates a bountiful confidence in God. – Thomas à Kempis
A life without a purpose is a languid, drifting thing. Every day we ought to renew our purpose… – Thomas à Kempis
A man who truly knows himself realizes his own worthlessness, and takes no pleasure in the praises of men. – Thomas à Kempis
Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a little book. – Thomas à Kempis
Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither praise nor blame. – Thomas à Kempis
Man proposes, but God disposes. (Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit.) – Thomas à Kempis
I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. – Thomas à Kempis
If Christ is amongst us, then it is necessary that we sometimes yield up our own opinion for the sake of peace. – Thomas à Kempis
If you cannot sing like the lark and the nightingale, sing like the raven and the frogs in the pond. They sing as God has given them to sing. – Thomas à Kempis
If you gave more frequent thought to your death than to a long life, you would unquestionably be more eager to amend your life. – Thomas à Kempis
If you wish to draw profit, read with humility, simplicity, and faith, and never with the design of gaining a reputation for learning. – Thomas à Kempis
If you wish to stand and progress as you ought, hold yourself an exile and a pilgrim on the earth. – Thomas à Kempis
It is better for you to live privately and take care of yourself than it is to neglect your soul even though you could work wonders in the world. – Thomas à Kempis
It is vanity to desire a long life, and to have little care for a good life.” – Thomas à Kempis
Many are secretly seeking their own ends in what they do, yet know it not. – Thomas à Kempis
Nothing will hinder you more than thinking only about yourself. – Thomas à Kempis
On the day of judgment, it will be demanded of us not what we have read, but what we have done. – Thomas à Kempis
Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature. – Thomas à Kempis
Quickly enough we feel and reckon up what we bear at the hands of others, but we reflect not how much others are bearing from us. – Thomas à Kempis
Satan leaves unbelievers and sinners alone because he already has them in his grip; he goes after believers who are faithful and devout. – Thomas à Kempis
Seek a suitable time for thy meditation, and think frequently of the mercies of God to thee. – Thomas à Kempis
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi (Thus passes the glory of the world). – Thomas à Kempis
Take pains to be patient in bearing the faults and weaknesses of others, for you too have many flaws that others must put up with. – Thomas à Kempis
The man who is not yet wholly dead to self, is soon tempted, and is overcome in small and trifling matters. – Thomas à Kempis
The more and better thou knowest, the more heavy will be thy judgment unless thy life be also more holy. – Thomas à Kempis
To account nothing of one's self, and to think always kindly and highly of others, this is great and perfect wisdom. – Thomas à Kempis
Who struggles more than those who strive to overcome themselves? – Thomas à Kempis
You do not grow in holiness because of the praise you receive, nor do you become evil because of the blame poured upon you. – Thomas à Kempis
You will never find peace unless you are united with Christ in the very depths of your heart. – Thomas à Kempis
The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works. – Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1907
The Beatitudes seem merely mild and beautiful precepts for unworldly people and of very little use for the stern world in which we live. We soon find, however, that they contain the dynamite of the Holy Spirit; they explode like spiritual mines… – Oswald Chambers
There is a difference between devotion to principles and devotion to a person. Jesus Christ never proclaimed a cause; He proclaimed person devotion to Himself—“for My sake.” – Oswald Chambers
“You are the salt of the earth.” Some modern teachers seem to think our Lord said, You are the sugar of the earth, meaning that gentleness and winsomeness without curativeness is the ideal of the Christian… – Oswald Chambers
[There is] a powerful temptation to make us pretend we are not salt, to make us put our light under a bushel and cover our city with a fog, but Jesus will have nothing in the nature of covert discipleship. – Oswald Chambers
The Sermon on the Mount in quite unlike the Ten Commandments in the sense of being absolutely unworkable unless Jesus Christ can remake us. – Oswald Chambers.
Jesus says our disposition must be right to its depths, not only our conscious motives but our unconscious motives. Now we are beyond our depth. Can God make me pure in heart? Blessed be the name of God, He can! – Oswald Chambers
The pure individual is not the one who has never been tried, but the one who knows what evil is and has overcome it. – Oswald Chambers
Deliverance from sin is not deliverance from conscious sin only, it is deliverance from sin in God’s sight, and He can see into a region I know nothing about. – Oswald Chambers
Jesus never teaches us to curb and suppress the wrong disposition; He gives us a totally new disposition, He alters the mainspring of action.– Oswald Chambers
There is only one way in which as a disciple you will know that Jesus has altered your disposition, and that is by trying circumstances. – Oswald Chambers
If we are born again of the Holy Spirit and have the life of Jesus in us by means of His Cross, we must show it in the way we walk and talk and transact all our business.– Oswald Chambers
What is lust? The impatience of desire—I must have it at once. Love can wait seven years; lust cannot wait two seconds. – Oswald Chambers.
Jesus Christ by His Spirit alters our standard of honor, and disciples will never care what people say of us but will care tremendously what people say of Jesus Christ; we realize that our Lord’s honor, not our own honor, is at stake in our lives. – Oswald Chambers
Scandal should be treated as you treat mud on your clothes. If you try and deal with it while it is wet, you rub the mud into the texture, but if you leave it till it is dry you can flick it off with a touch—it is gone without a trace. Leave scandal alone, never touch it. – Oswald Chambers
Personal insult will be an occasion in the saint for revealing the incredible sweetness of the Lord Jesus. – Oswald Chambers
The miracle of regeneration is necessary before we can live the Sermon on the Mount. – Oswald Chambers
We are so afraid of being fanatical; would to God we were as afraid of being inadequate. – Oswald Chambers
Always make allowances for people when they first enter into life; they have to err on the fanatical line. The danger is lest they stay too long in the stage of fanaticism. When fanaticism oversteps the bounds, it becomes spiritual lunacy. – Oswald Chambers
Sects produce a passion for souls; the Holy Spirit produces a passion for Christ. The great, dominating passion all through the New Testament is for our Lord Jesus Christ. – Oswald Chambers.
Jesus says, Pray because you have a Father, not because it quietens you, and give Him time to answer. – Oswald Chambers
Physical sloth will upset spiritual devotion quicker than anything else. – Oswald Chambers
Put your life through discipline but do not say a word about it. – Oswald Chambers
Fasting from food may be difficult for some, but it is child’s play compared with fasting for the development of God’s purpose in your life. Fasting means concentration. – Oswald Chambers
The conflict for the Christian is not a conflict with sin, but a conflict over the natural life being turned into the spiritual life. – Oswald Chambers
Jesus Christ is not teaching ordinary integrity, but supernormal integrity, a likeness to our Father in heaven. – Oswald Chambers
When men and women are born from above we are inclined to become moral police officers who unconsciously present ourselves as better than others, as intolerable spiritual prigs. – Oswald Chambers.
Refuse to be swamped by the cares of this world, cut out nonessentials and continually revise your relationship to God and see that you are absolutely concentrated on Him. – Oswald Chambers
When a person is born from above a new disposition is given to him or her, but not a new character. – Oswald Chambers
Character cannot be summed up by what one does in spots, but only by what one is in the main trend of one’s existence. – Oswald Chambers
Criticism makes you hard and vindictive and cruel and leaves you with the flattering unction that you are a superior person. – Oswald Chambers
Which of us would dare stand before God and say, “My God, judge me as I have judged other people?” – Oswald Chambers
If I have let God remove the plank from my own outlook by His mighty grace, I will carry with me the implicit, sunlight confidence that what God has done for me He can easily do for you, because you have only a splinter—I had a log of wood! – Oswald Chambers
When we follow Jesus Christ the domineering attitude and the dictatorial attitude go, and concentration on Jesus comes in. – Oswald Chambers.
Humility and holiness always go together. – Oswald Chambers
Our Lord warns that the devout life of a disciple is not a dream, but a decided discipline that calls for the use of all our powers. – Oswald Chambers
As soon as we depend upon anything other than our relationship to God, the possibility of pretense comes in, pious pretense, not hypocrisy… but a desperately sincere effort to be right when we know we are not. – Oswald Chambers
If we say we are right with God, the world has a perfect right to watch our private lives and see if we are so. – Oswald Chambers
Human nature is fond of labels, but a label may be the counterfeit of confession. It is so easy to be branded with labels, much easier in certain stages to wear a ribbon or badge than to confess. – Oswald Chambers
Build up your character bit by bit by attention to My words, says Jesus, then when the supreme crisis comes, you will stand like a rock. – Oswald Chambers.
… If you have not been building yourself up on the Word of God, you will go down, however strong your will. – Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: God’s Character and the Believer’s Conduct
Because we do not rest we lose our way... Poisoned by the hypnotic belief that good things come only through unceasing determination and tireless effort, we can never truly rest. And for want of rest our lives are in danger. – Wayne Muller
A good journey begins with knowing where we are and being willing to go somewhere else. – Richard Rohr
In silence all of our usual patterns assault us... That is why most people give up rather quickly. When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, the first things to show up were the wild beasts. – Richard Rohr
I should be much more afraid of being mistaken and then finding out that Christianity is true than of being mistaken in believing it to be true. — Blaise Pascal
I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers… I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that. — Thomas Nagel
In the world it calls itself Tolerance; but in hell it is called Despair… It is the sin which believes nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing… lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it would die for. — Dorothy Sayers
The Christianity of the New Testament simply does not exist… Christendom is… the betrayal of Christianity. — Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
With God's help I am becoming myself. —Søren Kierkegaard
It is very distressing that God does not exist, because all possibility of finding values in a heaven of ideas disappears along with Him. — Jean-Paul Sartre
Men despise religion... They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is. — Blaise Pascal
Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know. It is our will that decides how and up on which subjects we shall use our intelligence…—Aldous Huxley
Not to know what happened before you were born, that is to be always a boy, too be forever a child. — Cicero (106-43 BC)
Real science arose only once: in Europe. China, Islam, India, and ancient Greece and Rome each had a highly developed alchemy. But only in Europe did alchemy develop into chemistry… By the same token… only in Europe did astrology lead to astronomy.—Rodney Stark
The gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.—Victor Frankl
The people who hanged Christ never… accused him of being a bore—on the contrary, they though him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium.—Dorothy Sayers
We want… not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven—a senile beneficence who… whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, "a good time was had by all." — C. S. Lewis
No sin is small. No grain of sand is small in the mechanism of a watch. — Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)
The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives. — Albert Schweitzer
Inner silence depends on a continual seeking, a continual crying in the night, a repeated bending over the abyss... For He is found when He is sought, and when He is no longer sought, He escapes us. – Thomas Merton
Genuine brokenness pleases God more than pretend spirituality. — John Ortberg
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page. – Louis Charles Fougeret de Monbron
One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore. — Andre Gide
Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. —Ibn Battuta
We tell others how much we work, how much we still have to get done, and how overwhelmed we are with the exhaustion of our labor. We admire busyness, speed, and productivity, yet we envy those whose leisure time is abundant. We are mad—crazy mad—and we know it. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
For many Sabbath keepers, [the Sabbath] is a day of duty, diligence, and spiritual focus that eschews play and pleasure for Bible reading, prayer, naps, and tedious religious services that seem designed to such the air out of the soul. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
To vacate is to empty—that is, to get rid of something. When we… take a vacation, we are not merely taking time off from work; we are flushing away the cares of the world as we indulge in the diversions of our empty space… [But] this is not Sabbath; it is vacating our work in order to fill ourselves with passing pleasure. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
[Sabbath is] not a day off, but a day of celebration and delight. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Sabbath is not about time off or a break in routine. It is not a minivacation to give us a respite so we are better prepared to go back to work. The Sabbath is far more than a diversion; it is meant to be an encounter with God’s delight. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
If we need to get downtime or chill, then we should use another day and not the Sabbath. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Boasting about work is a national [American] pastime… Sabbath yanks us off our high horse, and for that reason alone few wish to dismount. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The proud, exhausted addict believes he can cheat the fate of Sisyphus. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The dark side of pride is that the work addict secretly believes he can out-master the fates and find a way to achieve what others have failed to do. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Like any addiction, pride spins us deeper into the bondage of slavery, requiring other diversions to keep us from facing out plight. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
We are driven because our work brings us power and pride that dulls our deeper desire for delight. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
…Sabbath is not merely the cessation of work; it is turning from work to something utterly different from what we normally call rest. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
[In Gen 2:1-3] it should be obvious that God rests not because he was weary from his labor. In this sense, rest must have a meaning other than taking a well-deserved break to stoke the fires for the next creative output. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
It is often too painful to receive and to celebrate. In part, the pain is because we know our momentary dance will not last. It is easier to hold on to sorrow than to let go of joy. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
We are to bask in beauty, to surround our senses with color, texture, taste, fragrance, fire, sound, sweetness, and delight. And if we are to do so, each and every day, with joy, then how much more are we to do so on the Sabbath, when God stood back and marveled at his own creation?. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Early in the Industrial Revolution, the clock became the most transformative tool to turn humanity from the agrarian view of the rhythm of seasons and calendar to the power of precise, managed, and controlled time. “The clock, not the steam-engine, is they key machine of the modern industrial age” [Lewis Mumford]. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
We rush at great speed; and the faster we move, the less human we become. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Speed becomes a drug that helps us escape our empty, dull, time-addicted lives. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
There is no notion more at odds with the Sabbath than a day of forced quiet, spiritual exercises, and religious devotion and attendance. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
[Unfortunately] there seem to be many who long not only for a day off, but to be free from the entanglements of relationships. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Jürgen Moltmann writes, “The true meaning of Sabbath is ecological. Related to it is also an esthetic aspect: Only someone who comes to rest and has nothing planned is able to perceive the beauty of things. He or she sees the flowers and the sunset, a painting or a vase or a beloved person with unintentional/unexpected pleasure." —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The agenda-ridden, task-driven focus that we use the other six days needs to be put to rest in order to receive the surprising bounty of the unexpected. We must plan to enter the realm where plans no longer hold sway. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The Sabbath is the weekly entry into a taste of lavish, sensuous delight. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
[Rabbi] Abraham Heschel warns us that the Sabbath is “not a day to shoot fireworks or to turn somersaults, but an opportunity to mend our tattered lives; to collect rather than to dissipate time." —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
It is impossible to receive the day when one is exhausted with the debris of judging oneself and others. How can I celebrate a Sabbath… when my heart is riddled with the weariness of suspicion?. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Worry makes no attempt to move into the unknown with conviction and courage… For this reason, worry is anti-Sabbath. Sabbath requires the release of worry and invites us to trust. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Sabbath is not an escape from death. Instead, Sabbath is the promise that death doesn’t win. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
… Sabbath is not a night to watch television or to descend into comfortable chairs and breeze away the evening in a tired stupor reading a magazine. Peace is not an absence of conflict or tension; it is the union of distinctly different things into a whole that is far, far greater than its parts. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
If I am worrying, I am not full of wonder; if I am only working, I am far from worship. I will not see glory in the face of another if my heart is full of worry. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Sabbath silence opens the heart to meditation and prayer. These doors are openings to enter into the holy time to hear God. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Sabbath is a threshold we cross into eternity; therefore, prayer takes on a different tone than on the other six days. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The Sabbath and its 7x7 perfection, the Jubilee, is the most revolutionary event in the Scriptures. It resets our equilibrium in a world that is chronically imbalanced by the burden of the curse. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
All who serve the powerful, including beasts and land, are set free for a day. It is not a break or a respite to regain strength to live under the yoke for another burdensome six days. Instead, it is a weekly reminder, to all, that injustice and inequality [are] to be overthrown by delight and joy. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The Sabbath is a time to celebrate repentance and to delight in its fruit—freedom. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The Sabbath is also the promise regarding our future glory in the new heavens and earth, a righteously just and compassionate society. Yet the future is trivialized if the Sabbath is just a day off. It is to be viewed as a day that offers a taste of the radical day of redemptive justice. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Sabbath celebrates the God who frees the heart from slavery. God has not only redeemed us from Egypt, but he has turned our hearts toward eternity. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The Sabbath turns us to God—it is a day of turning toward God which is the heartbeat of repentance. Further, the Sabbath is the celebration of freedom for ourselves—and if for us, then for all who reside under our roofs. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The Sabbath is the childlike play in the new garden because Jesus has humbly and courageously entered the garden of Gethsemane. A new garden party has begun in the Sabbath, and to not play and delight is rebellion against the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Our war is not with flesh and blood; our reluctance to Sabbath is not a fight with busyness, drivenness, or time. We are caught in and fight battles against delight. Delight unnerves us; God’s call to delight terrifies us. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
Do we really believe that Sabbath delight is God’s heart for us? Are we willing to silence the rabble of idols and foul spirits to hear the intoxicating joy of God? We will never know Sabbath delight unless God delivers us from drowning in the noise and grime of our soiled days. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The Sabbath is salt and light for the remainder of the week. We are invited to remember the Sabbath all week long and to anticipate its observance ahead. —Dan B. Allender, Sabbath
The former nun Karen Armstrong wrote rather simplistically: "It is wonderful not to have to cower before a vengeful deity, who threatens us with eternal damnation is we do not abide by his rules" [The History of God, 2011]. Conor Cunningham—a religious scholar—responded: "Imagine if Hitler rather than an ex-nun had written those words" [Darwin's Pious Idea, 2010]. To stress either divine kindness to divine severity at the expense of the other results in a skewed moral picture. Neither the critic from without (like Armstrong) nor the critic from within strikes the right balance. — Paul Copan, Is God a Vindictive Bully?
People who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God... If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel. — John Piper, God is the Gospel
Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened. – Dr. Seuss
God can use a crooked stick to draw a straight line. — Martin Luther
The odd thing about the soul its that while it is powerful and resilient, it is also reclusive. You can go years without really feeling the force of its yearning. You are enjoying the pleasures of life, building your career. It's amazing how untroubled you can be, year after year, while your soul is out there somewhere far away. — David Brooks, The Two Mountains
Where Christ is, there he always goes against the flow. — Luther
The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. — Hubert H. Humphrey
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.
Slow success builds character, fast success builds ego. — Ratan Tata
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." — Edmund Burke
Gratitude turns what we have enough. — Aesop
If he isn't who he said he is, then he doesn't matter at all. If he is who he said he is, then He's all that matters. — Anon., New Hampshire
The evangelistic message which deals with man as the sinner but not the sinned against, is not remaining true to the Bible as the Word of God.
If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them. ― George Orwell (1903-1950)

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