“Favorite quotes curated over the years...”
Theologians have done more to hide the Gospel of Christ than any of its adversaries.
— George MacDonald
God hides himself
Most of the time, God remains somewhat hidden from us. Why? For one thing, God in immanence is already too close to us, to intimate, too much at one with us to be a clear-cut object, and God in transcendence is too great to be apprehended.
— Dr. Gerald G. May
no surprises
I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is.
— Albert Camus
Ghandi's rebuke
I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
— Mahatma Ghandi
on atheism #1
The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him with their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
— Brennan Manning
on atheism #2
A man is nearer to the truth to believe in no god than to believe in a wrong god.
— George MacDonald
on atheism #3
Now it is our preference that decides against Christianity, not arguments.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
on arguing
No one ever converted to Christianity because they lost the argument.
— Philip Yancey
the terror of God
The terror of God is but the other side of his love; it is love outside the house that would be inside - love that knows the house is no house, only a place, until love enters - no home, but a tent, until the Eternal dwells there.
— George MacDonald
imagination
May my imagination always be the flower, not the root.
— George MacDonald
small things
Be faithful in the small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
— Mother Teresa
on death
How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset.
— George MacDonald
a painful irony
God often conquers our enemies by conquering us.
— A. W. Tozer
why there is evil
In fact, if any person can be removed from the possibility of sin, he or she can only be some kind of robot run by pulleys, wheels, and push buttons. A person morally incapable of doing evil would be, by the same token, morally incapable of doing good. A free human will is necessary to the concept of morality. I repeat: If our wills are not free to do evil, neither are they free to do good.
— A. W. Tozer
self-sins
To be specific, the self-sins are self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others like them. They dwell too deep within us and are too much a part of our nature until the light of God is focused upon them. The grosser manifestations of these sins - egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion - are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders, even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy.
— A. W. Tozer
the nature of self
Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can be removed only by spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. We may as well try to instruct leprosy out of our system.
— A. W. Tozer
not one but two
The regenerate man often has a more difficult time of it than the unregenerate, for he is not one man but two.
— A. W. Tozer
what to be like
By all means aim for heaven but be like Jesus... and take a thief with you.
— William Booth
courageHe who kneels before God can stand before any man.
— Leonard Ravenhill
hell
Hell is one's freely chosen identity apart from God on a trajectory into infinity.
— Timothy Keller in "The Reason For God"
excuses
To stay away from Christianity because part of the Bible's teaching is offensive to you assumes that if there is a God he wouldn't have any views that upset you.
— Timothy Keller
cause and effect
Love through me, Love of God,
Make me like Thy clear air
That Thou dost pour Thy colors through,
As though it were not there.
— Amy Carmichael
paradox
The hallmark of Christian theology is paradox.
on arguing
If you argue with a madman, it is extremely probable that you will get the worst of it; for in many ways his mind moves all the quicker for not being delayed by the things that go with good judgment.
— G. K. Chesterton
well, hello?
If there is a God, it's going to be a whole lot bigger and a whole lot more incomprehensible than anything that any theologian of any religion has ever proposed.
— Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion"
atheism exposed
If there were no God, there would be no atheists.
— G.K. Chesterton
2 kinds of people
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."
— C. S. Lewis
heaven & earth
Aim at Heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither.
— C. S. Lewis
true or false?
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to the Father but through me.
— Jesus of Nazareth
the greatest commandment
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
— Jesus of Nazareth, when being tested by a religious scholar
the will
It was not for our understanding, but for our will that Christ came... for the will is the deepest, the strongest, the divinest thing in man.
— George MacDonald
the greatest sin
The greatest sin of all is to think you are not sinning at all.
— Fenelon
life
Thou art my life - I the brook, thou the spring. Because thine eyes are open, I can see. Because thou art thyself, 'tis therefore I am me.
— George MacDonald
who wins
Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win. Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins.
— Dizzy Gillespie
music and art
[Musicians] talk of nothing but money and jobs. Give me businessmen every time. They really are interested in music and art.
— Jean Sibelius, explaining why he rarely invited musicians to his home.
an artist's job
The job of an artist is always to deepen the mystery.
— Francis Bacon
critics
A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car.
— Kenneth Tynan
half-filled house
Flint must be an extremely wealthy town: I see that each of you bought two or three seats.
— Victor Borge, playing to a half-filled house in Flint, Michigan
opera
In opera, there is always too much singing.
— Claude Debussy
perks of music
One of the perks of being an unemployed musician is that you get to play much less bad music.
— Jack Daney
a critic's purpose
Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of the critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.
— D. H. Lawrence
on christian art
Christian art? Art is art; painting is painting; music is music; a story is a story. If it’s bad art, it’s bad religion, no matter how pious the subject. If it’s good art – and there the questions start coming, questions which it would be simpler to evade.
— Madeleine L'Engle
feed the lake
All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. And there are mere trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake. I don’t matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake.
— Madeleine L'Engle
on usefulness
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
'Doth God exact day labor, light denied?'
I fondly ask. But Patience to prevent
That murmur soon replies, 'God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.'
— "On His Blindness" by John Milton
tolerance
Tolerance is the last virtue of a dying society.
— Aristotle
on not knowing
What you don't have you don't need right now, what you don't know you can feel it somehow...
— Bono, from the song "Beautiful Day" by U2
the music business
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.
— Hunter S. Thompson
an artist's plan
Each artist should confine himself exclusively to working out his own plan. He appears to have his own plan somewhat stamped upon himself and his work is rigidly to reproduce himself.
— Henry Drummond
good music
What I want to use music for is a way of making things happen to me. I want to make things that create emotional or mental conditions for me, and one of the most important conditions is surrender. My yardstick for what constitutes good music is that it changes me.
— Brian Eno
practicing
Anything more than three choruses and you're just practicing.
— Charlie Parker
a prayer
God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises by your people on earth; and grant them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled forevermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
— A traditional anglican prayer.
majority rule
In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.
— Mahatma Gandhi
on the nature of satanTruly My Satan thou art but a Dunce and dost not know the Garment from the Man. Every Harlot was a Virgin once nor can thou ever change Kate into Nan. Tho thou art Worshipd by the Names Divine of Jesus and Jehovah: thou art still the Son of Morn in weary Nights decline, the lost Travellers Dream under the Hill.
from "The Gates of Paradise" by William Blake
enthusiasm
Over any extended period of time, being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline.
— Julia Cameron
art and morality
Art, like morality, consists of drawing a line somewhere.
— G. K. Chesterton
prosperity
Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is 'finding his place in it,' while actually it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build in him a sense of being really at home on earth, which is just what we want.
— Uncle Screwtape to his young protege Wormwood (via C. S. Lewis in the "Screwtape Letters")
plans
The plans are man's but the odds are God's.
— Aley Shear
heaven
Heaven is that remote music that we are born remembering.
— C.S. Lewis
humility
This is the Race that Jesus ran
Humble to God Haughty to Man
Cursing the Rulers before the People
Even to the temples highest Steeple
And when he Humbled himself to God
Then descended the Cruel Rod
If thou humblest thyself thou humblest me
Thou also dwellst in Eternity
— from "The Everlasting Gospel" by William Blake
on atheism
Atheism is a peculiar state of mind; you cannot deny the existence of that which does not exist. I cannot say, "That chair is not there," if there is no chair to say it about.
— Madeleine L'Engle
return of christ
The first thing we shall say when Christ returns is 'why you were here all along!'
— Oswald Chambers
christianity
Show the world the fruits of Christianity and it will applaud; show it Christianity and it will oppose it vigorously.
— Watchman Nee