Inspirational Quotes A - F
Actions
"Well done is better than well said." [Benjamin Franklin]
"He who can not command his thoughts will soon lose command of his actions." [Woodrow Wilson]
"Our enemies come nearer the truth in their judgments of us than we do in our judgments of ourselves." [La Rochefoucauld]
Adversity
"A friend loves at all times, And a brother is
born for adversity." [Proverbs 17:17]
"We ought as much to pray for a blessing upon our daily rod as upon or daily
bread." [John Owen]
"Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he
is honest or not."
[Henry Fielding]
Affliction
"The greatest affliction of life is never to be afflicted."
[Anonymous]
"Great trials seem to be necessary preparation for great duties."
[Thompson]
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are
seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." [Apostle
Paul - 2 Corinthians 4:17, 18]
Adultery
"We recognize adultery in the slums, but not in Hollywood. Illegitimacy has become respectable and is subsidized by the welfare state." [Vance Havner]
Aspiration
"O for a closer walk with God, A calm and heavenly frame,
A light to shine upon the road that leads me to the Lamb!" [Cowper]
"My life shall be a challenge - not a compromise." [Charles E. Cowman]
"It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly
alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must
hunger after them." [Eliot]
Atheism
"Atheism is
the death of hope and the suicide of the soul." [Anonymous]
"Atheism in not simply
beyond reason, it is contrary to reason." [Dave Hunt]
"Atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man." [Bacon
Attitude
"Attitude is your paintbrush; it colors every situation." [Ann Turnage]
"The only thing you can really control in life is your own attitude." [unknown]
Bible
"The Bible has always been regarded as part of the Common
Law of England." [William Blackstone]
"The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all
that oppose it." [Napoleon Bonaparte]
"The American nation from its first settlement in Jamestown to this hour is
based upon and permeated by the Bible." [James Brewer]
"No lawyer can afford to be ignorant of the Bible." [Rufus Choate]
"The Bible is a supernatural book and can
be understood only by supernatural aid." [A. W. Tozer]
"A knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a
college course without the Bible. " [Unknown]
Bitterness
"Bitterness grows in us when we fail to see the trouble
and pain in our lives from God's point of view, and when our expectations
of what life should be diverge from the reality of what life really is."
[Nancy Leigh Moss]
"It [bitterness] even shows in our faces - it's amazing how our countenances
reveal the telltale signs of bitterness and unforgiveness. You can just look at
some people today and see the lines etched by years of harbored hurt turned to
bitterness." [Nancy Leigh Moss]
Burdens
"Life has burdens that no one can escape. Christianity
does not remove the load: it teaches us how best to bear burdens that fall
rightfully to us." [Anonymous]
"Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit
the righteous to be moved." [Psalm 55:22]
Change
"No matter how much you may change or how life may change,
God never changes, and His promises never fail." [Warren W. Wiersbe]
"Things will never be the
same - they could actually turn out better." [Jan Johnson]
"Change is a process not an event." [Barbara Johnson]
"The world changes - circumstances change, we change - but God's Word never
changes"
[Warren
W. Wiersbe]
"Nothing paralyzes our lives like the attitude that things can never change.
We need to remind ourselves that God can change things...outlook determines
outcome. If we see only the problems, we will be defeated; but if we see
the possibilities in the problems, we can have victory."
[Warren
W. Wiersbe]
Character
"Some day, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great
temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real
struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in
the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or
gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued
process." [Phillips Brooks]
"God is more concerned
about our character than our comfort. His goal is not to pamper us physically
but to perfect us spiritually." [unknown]
"The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt
until they are too strong to be broken." [Samuel Johnson]
"God is more concerned about what are than
what we do because what we are determines what we do." [Robert Flatt]
"Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small
ones." [Phillips Brooks]
"There
is no substitute for character. You can buy brains but you cannot buy
character."
[Robert A. Cook]
"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." [C. H. Spurgeon]
“The test of your character is what it takes to stop you.” [Dr. Bob
Jones, Sr.]
"Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity." [War Cry]
"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become of it." [John Ruskin]
"Our character is determined by what we do if every restraint were removed." [Mrs. Charles E. Cowman]
"Integrity is the best of all protectors…we cannot be more secure than when fortified by a good conscience.” [John Calvin]
"Have character! Don't BE
one." [Barbara Johnson]
"God is more interested in developing our character than making us
comfortable." [Robert Flatt]
GOD'S GLORY
"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." [C. S. Lewis]
Choices
"To depart from righteousness is to choose a life of crushing
burdens, failures, and disappointments, a life caught in the toils of endless
problems that are never resolved." [Dallas Willard]
"We may not be responsible for all the
things that happen to us, but we are responsible for the ways we react when they do
happen." [unknown]
"Choices are the hinge of destiny" [Edwin Markham]
"It is never right to do wrong. It is never wrong to do right." [Robert Flatt]
"Choices not chance determine your destiny." [Barbara Johnson]
"Choose to love rather than hate,
Choose to smile rather than frown,
Choose to build rather than destroy,
Choose to persevere rather than quit,
Choose to praise rather than gossip,
Choose to heal rather than wound,
Choose to give rather than grasp,
Choose to go rather than delay,
Choose to forgive rather than curse,
Choose to pray rather than despair." [unknown]
Christian
(on being a)
"Christianity means to the merchant that he should be honest; to the judge it
means that he should be just; to the servant, that he should be faithful; to the
school boy, that he should be diligent; to the street-sweeper, that he should
sweep clean; to every worker, that his work shall be well done." [Anon]
"For what constitutes a Christian is not; accepting the Christian’s creed, but accepting Christ as Savior and Lord. It is a question of personal loyalty and love." [Sir Robert Anderson]
Christianity
"The only way to keep to
keep Christianity out of the school system is to keep Christians out of it."
[Harold Wiltz]
"The church is so subnormal that if it ever got back to the New Testament normal
it would seem to people to be abnormal." [Vance Havner]
True Christianity is "essentially
dogmatic...Jesus Christ was not 'broad-minded' in the popular sense of the word;
He was not prepared to accept as valid all views on every subject. Jesus Christ
was not afraid to dissent from official doctrines He knew to be wrong [or not
politically correct] and to expose error." [John R. Stott]
"True Christianity, it should be emphasized, speaks to all of life, not
just to a narrowly 'religious' concerns."
[John W. Whitehead]
"The complacency of Christians is the scandal of Christianity."
[A. W. Tozer]
Church
"Most people would not want to live where
there are no churches but many people live as though there were no
churches." [Vance Havner]
"In other days people chose a church on the basis of their doctrinal
convictions. Now, lacking doctrinal convictions, they chose for social reasons."
[Vance Havner]
Circumstances
"Real contentment must come from
within. You and I can not change or control the world around us, but we can
change and control the world within us." (Warren W. Wiersbe)
"Faith has nothing to do with circumstances, it
deals entirely with the Word of God." [Mrs. Charles E. Cowman]
Common Sense
"Common sense is in spite of, not the
result of, education." [Hugo]
"Common sense is in spite of, not because of age." [Lord Thurlow]
Complaining
"Strong minds suffer without complaining;
weak minds complain without suffering." [Mrs. Charles E. Cowman]
Comfort
"We feel comforted and renewed when we help others" [Jan Johnson]
Contentment
"It is right to be contented with what we have, but never
with what we are." [Sir James MacKintosh]
"I am always content with what happens; for I know that what God chooses is
better that what I chose."
[Epictetus]
"A contented person is one who enjoys the scenery along the detour." [unknown]
"Contentment makes a poor person rich and discontent makes a rich person poor."
[Benjamin Franklin]
Controversy
"Controversy, it should be stressed, flows from the collision of truth with
falsehood. Controversy, however, should not result from the manner in
which the truth is presented. In other words, in a confrontational situation,
controversy should be the result of the message, not the messenger." [John W.
Whitehead]
Country
Our
forefathers came to certain conclusions and decided upon certain courses of
action which have been a great blessing to the world. Before we can understand
their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed. We
must think the thoughts which they thought. Their intellectual life centered
around the meeting-house. They were intent upon religious worship. While there
were always among them men of deep learning, and later those who had
comparatively large possessions, the mind of the people was not so much
engrossed in how much they knew, or how much they had, as in how they were going
to live. While scantily provided with other literature, there was a wide
acquaintance with the Scriptures. Over a period as great as that, which measures
the existence of our independence, they were subject to this discipline not only
in their religious life and educational training, but also in their political
thought. They were a
people who came under the influence of a great spiritual development and
acquired a great moral power.
No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of
Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live
in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did
not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the
spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity,
overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp.
If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we
must be like minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan
materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that
are holy."
(Calvin
Coolidge, The Inspiration of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926)
Convictions
"There is a streak of stubbornness in a man's makeup that
is often mistaken for religious conviction." (Ronald Bridges)
Courage
"Courage is
resistance to
fear, mastery of
fear - not the absence of
fear." (Mark Twain)
"Courage is fear that has run
to God in prayer." (Anonymous)
Creation
"The probability of life originating from an accident is
comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an
explosion in a printing shop." (Edwin Conklin)
Discipleship
"I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed! I have the
Holy Spirit's power! The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The
decision has been made-I'm a disciple of His! I won't look back, let up, slow
down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and
my future is secure. I'm finished with low living, sight walking, smooth knees,
colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed
goals. I no longer need preeminence, position, promotions, plaudits, or
popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised,
regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, depend on His presence, walk by
patience, am uplifted by prayer, and labor with power. That's what it means to
be a disciple of Jesus!!" [A national pastor who was later martyred in Zimbabwe
Africa].
"The cost of nondiscipleship is far greater - even when this life alone is
considered - than the price paid to walk with Jesus...Nondiscipleship costs
abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything
in the light of God's overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands
firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and
withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life
Jesus said he came to bring [John 19:10]." [Dallas Willard]
Discouragement
Neither let mistakes and wrong directions — of which every man, in his studies and elsewhere, falls into many — discourage you. There is precious instruction to be got by finding that we are wrong. Let a man try faithfully, manfully to be right, he will grow daily more and more right. It is, at bottom, the condition which all men have to cultivate themselves. Our very walking is an incessant falling — a falling and a catching of ourselves before we come actually to the pavement! — it is emblematic of all things a man does. (Thomas Carlyle.)
Enemies
"In the New testament our enemies are those who
harbor hostility against us, not those against whom we cherish hostility,
for Jesus refuses to reckon with such a possibility." [Dietrich Bonhoeffer]
"The Christian army is unlike
any other army in the world; it shoots its own wounded." (Jim Slevcove)
Error
"You don't endorse error, you allow it."
(Jack Hyles)
Evangelism
"The poor quality of Christian that grows out of our modern evangelistic meeting may be accounted for by the absence of real repentance accompanying the initial spiritual experience of the converts. And the absence of repentance is the result of an inadequate view of sin and sinfulness held by those who present themselves in the inquiry room. " (A. W. Tozer)
Evil
"The existence of evil does not eliminate the possibility
of God, but the existence of God guarantees the elimination of evil."
Excuses
"It is easy to make excuses when we ought to be making opportunities." [Warren Wiersbe]
"I never knew a man that was good at making excuses who was good at anything else." [Benjamin Franklin]
Example
"One example is worth a
thousand arguments." [Gladstone]
"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word,
in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." [Apostle Paul - 1
Timothy 4:12)
If you want your neighbor to see what the Christ spirit will do for him, let him
see what it has done for you. (H. Beecher)
Experience
"There's only one thing more painful then
learning by experience and that is not learning from experience." (Barbara
Johnson)
Faith
"Faith makes the uplook good, the outlook bright,
the inlook favorable, and the future glorious." (V. Raymond Edman)
"We cannot remind ourselves too often that it is not our believing in things
that makes them true. We believe them because they are true." [Handel H. Brown]
"But without faith it is impossible to
please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6
NKJV)
"God raises the level of the impossible." [Corrie Ten Boom]
"He that knows nothing will believe anything." [Thomas Fuller]
“Sight is not faith, and hearing is not faith, neither is feeling faith; but believing when we neither see, hear, nor feel is faith; and everywhere the Bible tells us our salvation is to be by faith. Therefore we must believe before we feel, and often against our feelings, if we would honor faith.” [Hannah Whitall Smith]
"It is not faith and works; it is not faith or works; it is faith that works." [Anonymous]
"Faith is not a sense, nor sight, nor reason, but taking God at His word." [Evans]
Faithfulness
"Faithfulness in the small things will lead to blessing in
the big things." [Warren W. Wiersbe]
Fears
"God delights to disappoint man's fears." [Mrs. Charles E. Cowman]
Forbearance
"We anticipate a time when the love of truth shall have come
up to our love of liberty, and men shall be cordially tolerant and earnest both
at once." [Brooks]
"By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded, And a gentle tongue breaks a bone."
[Solomon - Proverbs 25:15]
"Learn from Jesus to love and to forgive. Let the blood of Jesus, which implores
pardon for you in heaven, obtain it from you for your brethren here upon earth."
[Valpy]
To bear injuries, or annoying and vexatious events, meekly, patiently,
prayerfully, and with self-control, is more than taking a city." [Simmons]
"Cultivate forbearance till your heart yields a fine crop of it. Pray for a
short memory as to all" unkindness. [Spurgeon]
Forgiveness
"Forgiveness
from others is charity; from God, grace; from oneself, wisdom." [William
A. Ward]
"Christians are ready to forgive the repentant neighbor, but sometimes they
are remarkably unwilling to ask his forgiveness." [Andrew W. Blackwood, Jr.]
"Forgiveness
saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits."
[Megiddo Message]
"Forgiveness is an act of the will, and
the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart."
[Corrie Ten Boom]
"The more we hold on to our hurts, anger and bitterness, the more we become slaves to unforgiveness." [Nancy Leigh Moss]
