Unsorted Quotes, Devotional Bits, "Good 'uns," and Beloved Bible Passages

them count (Ziggy, Tom Wilson)

It's never too late — in fiction or in life — to revise. (Nancy Thayer)

Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation. (Oscar Wilde)

Kind words are always the right kind. (ODB)

In the kingdom of God service is not a stepping-stone to nobility: it is nobility. (T. W. Manson)

The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative, and the second is disastrous. (Margaret Fontey)

If there are a thousand steps between us and God, He will take all but one. (Max Lucado)

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches. (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Victory belongs to the most persevering. (Napoleon Bonaparte)

Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for. (Dag Hammarskjold)

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer. (Mahatma Gandhi)

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice, there is. (Chuck Reid)

Nowadays, people can be divided into three classes — the Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-Not-Paid-for-What-They-Haves. (Earl Wilson)

There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father's arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! (Spurgeon)

Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in a fiery furnace. (Oswald Chambers)

There is a passion for perfection which you rarely see fully developed but ... in successful lives it is never wholly lacking. (Bliss Carm)

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. (Helen Keller)

Fear nothing, for every renewed effort raises all former failures into lessons, all sins into experience. (Katherine Tingley)

A speech is a solemn responsibility. The man who makes a bad thirty-minute speech to two hundred people wastes only a half hour of his own time. But he wastes one hundred hours of the audience's time — more than four days — which should be a hanging offense. (Jenkin Lloyd Jones)

My father gave me these hints on speech-making: Be sincere.... be brief.... be seated. (James Roosevelt)

Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. (Margaret Mitchell)

A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. (Axel Munthe)

You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. (Augustine)

The true character of the loveliness that speaks for God is always unnoticed by the one possessing that quality. Conscious influence is prideful and unchristian. If I wonder if I am being of any use to God, I instantly lose the beauty and the freshness of the touch of the Lord. "He who believes in Me.... out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). And if I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord. (Oswald Chambers)

You never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing. (Dale Carnegie)

Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon. (Susan Ertz)

When God witholds His plan He wants us to look to His heart. (David C. Egner)

Working for the Lord on a daily basis means striving to become the best company president or restaurant dishwasher possible. (Jamie Winship)

The knife of the heavenly Surgeon never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary. "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." A mother's heart cries, "Spare my child"; but no mother is more compassionate than our gracious God. When we consider how hard-mouthed we are, it is a wonder that we are not driven with a sharper bit. The thought is full of consolation, that He who has fixed the bounds of our habitation, has also fixed the bounds of our tribulation. (Spurgeon)

If mercy be thy friend, mercy will be with thee in temptation to keep thee from yielding; with thee in trouble to prevent thee from sinking; with thee living to be the light and life of thy countenance; and with thee dying to be the joy of thy soul when earthly comfort is ebbing fast. (Spurgeon, 8/17)

A tender heart is the best defense against sin, and the best preparation for heaven. (Spurgeon, 8/15)

"Whoever has been born of God does not sin...." (1 John 3:9). Am I seeking to stop sinning or have I actually stopped? be born of God means that I have His supernatural power to stop sinning. The Bible never asks, "Should a Christian sin?" The Bible emphatically states that a Christian must not sin. The work of the new birth is being effective in us when we do not commit sin. It is not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have actually stopped sinning. (Oswald Chambers)

The Lord's strength is ever available; we have but to invoke it, and we shall find it near at hand. If by faith we are depending alone upon the strength of the mighty God of Israel, we may use our holy reliance as a plea in supplication. (Spurgeon, 8/19)

Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved. (Victor Hugo)

If a man does only what is required of him, he is a slave. If a man does more than is required of him, he is a free man. (Chinese Proverb)

Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it already. (CS Lewis)

The conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, is to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace. But to will to put it into the mind and heart by force and threats is not to put religion there, but terror. (Pascal in Pensees, 185.)

The receiving of the Word consists of two parts: attention of mind and intention of will. (William Ames)

I wake up everyday, no matter what anybody says or what goes wrong or whatever, with this overwhelming sense of gratitude. Because it may be that if I hadn't been knocked down in the way I was and forced to come to grips with what I've done, and the consequences of it, in such an awful way, I might not never ever had to really deal with it 100 percent. (Clinton)

A lady once asked John Wesley if he knew that he would die at midnight the next day, how would he spend the intervening time. He replied, "Why, madam, just as I intend to spend it now. I would preach this evening at Gloucester, and again at five tomorrow morning; after that I would ride to Tewkesbury, preach in the afternoon, and meet the societies in the evening. I would then go to Martin's house...talk and pray with the family as usual, retire myself to my room at 10 o'clock, commend myself to my Heavenly Father, lie down to rest, and wake up in glory."

To know the will of God is the greatest knowledge! To do the will of God is the greatest achievement! (George W. Truett, quoted in "Toolkit," Cell Church, Winter, 1996, p. 10.)

When God bolts the door, don't try to get in through the window. (Anonymous)

Be wise with speed. A fool at forty is a fool indeed. (Edward Young)

I happen to feel that the degree of a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting attitudes she can bring to bear on the same topic. (Lisa Alther)

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible. (Albert Einstein)

Be wiser than other people, if you can, but do not tell them so. (Lord Chesterfield)

There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks at Him and bad when it turns away from Him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demonic it will be if it rebels. It's not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels. (CS Lewis)

O Lord, grant that I may do Thy will as if it were my will. (Augustine)

Once while Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden, he was asked, "What would you do if you suddenly learned that you where to die at sunset today?" He replied, "I would finish hoeing my garden."

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:16-18)

No normal, healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he simply chooses God's will, just as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not. (Oswald Chambers)

Mom, why did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. (Theodore Roosevelt)

Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are 'patches of Godlight' in the woods of our experience. (CS Lewis)

When we trust God's promises, we won't demand explanations.(ODB)

We are born subjects, and to obey God is perfect liberty. He that does this shall be free, safe and happy. (Seneca)

What a glorious hour when God, and not His creatures; the Lord, and not His works, shall be our daily joy! Our souls shall then have attained the perfection of bliss. (Spurgeon)

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind. (Leonardo da Vinci)

Anxiety is not only a pain which we must ask God to assuage but also a weakness we must ask Him to pardon — for He's told us take no care for the morrow. (CS Lewis)

You never find yourself until you face the truth. (Pearl Bailey)

We are not taken into a conscious agreement with God's purpose — we are taken into God's purpose with no awareness of it at all. We have no idea what God's goal may be; as we continue, His purpose becomes even more and more vague. God's aim appears to have missed the mark, because we are too nearsighted to see the target at which He is aiming. (Oswald Chambers)

In the natural life our ambitions are our own, but in the Christian life we have no goals of our own. We talk so much today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, and our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament the only aspect that is brought out is the compelling purpose of God. "You did not choose Me, but I chose you...." (John 15:16). (Oswald Chambers)

A couple married for 15 years began having more than usual disagreements. They wanted to make their marriage work and agreed on an idea the wife had. For one month they planned to drop a slip in a "Fault" box. The boxes would provide a place to let the other know about daily irritations. The wife was diligent in her efforts and approach: "leaving the jelly top off the jar," "wet towels on the shower floor," "dirty socks not in hamper," on and on until the end of the month. After dinner, at the end of the month, they exchanged boxes. The husband reflected on what he had done wrong. Then the wife opened her box and began reading. They were all the same, the message on each slip was, "I love you!"

There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of one candle. (Arthur Gordon) (The actual words were written by a lonely old woman whose pet had been killed by a Nazi bomb.)

Pastor William E. Sangster told of an experience in his youth when he went on a vacation with some friends. Within a short time he had spent all the funds given him for the trip, so he wrote home for more. His father, thinking he should teach his son the value of money, did not respond to the request. Sangster's companions wondered why he had been turned down and suggested several reasons. Young William said to them, "I'll wait till I get home, and he'll tell me himself." (ODB)

Eighty percent of success is showing up. (Woody Allen)

Nothing gives one a more spuriously good conscience than keeping rules, even if there has been a total absence of all real charity and faith. (CS Lewis)

He is one and there is no second. (Richard Wurmbrand)

When we become certain that God is going to work in a particular way, He will never work in that way again. (Oswald Chambers)

We are all like the moon, we have a dark side we don't want anyone to see. (Mark Twain)

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. (Socrates)

He who is only just is cruel. Who on earth could live were all judged justly? (Lord Byron)

We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God's purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself. (Oswald Chambers, 7/28)

What is my vision of God's purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish — His purpose is the process itself. (Oswald Chambers, 7/28)

God's training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself. (Oswald Chambers)

God's purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious. (Oswald Chambers, 7/28)

Anyone can revolt. It is more difficult silently to obey our own inner promptings, and to spend our lives finding sincere and fitting means of expression for our temperament and our gifts. (Georges Rouault)

If you bow at all, bow low. (Chinese Proverb)

The imitation says, "Bear your cross, for if you try to get rid of it you will probably find another and worse one." But there is a brighter side to the same principle. When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given it its place. (CS Lewis)

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. (Frederick Buechner)

Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. (Carl Jung)

Solving the income tax — Dave Barry style
How to simplify tax law: Every April 15, lock all members of Congress in prison cells with tax forms ad the tax code. Keep them there, without food or water, until they had completed their tax returns and successfully undergone a full IRS audit. Naturally, Mr. Barry says, "this system would probably result in a severe shortage of Congresspersons.... But there might also be some drawbacks." (The LPC Monthly)

There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. (CS Lewis)

Of one thing I am certain, the body is not the measure of healing — peace is the measure. (George Melton)

When you make a mistake, admit it. If you don't, you only make matters worse. (Ward Cleaver)

Many people begin coming to God once they stop being religious, because there is only one master of the human heart — Jesus Christ, not religion. (Oswald Chambers)

I don't know who my grandfather was; I'm much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. (Abraham Lincoln)

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action. (John Dewey)

Jesus said there are times when God cannot lift the darkness from you, but you should trust Him. At times God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. Keep the thought that the mind of God is behind all things strong and growing. Not even the smallest detail of life happens unless God's will is behind it. (Oswald Chambers)

Fill your mind with the thought that God is there. And once your mind is truly filled with that thought, when you experience difficulties it will be as easy as breathing for you to remember, "My heavenly Father knows all about this!" This will be no effort at all, but will be a natural thing for you when difficulties and uncertainties arise. (Oswald Chambers)

If you can say, "Master," if you feel that His will is your will, then you stand in a happy, holy place. (Spurgeon)

No Reserve. No Retreat. No Regrets. (William Borden)

In times of revolutionary changes it is the life-long learner who is best able to adapt. (Eric Hofer)

Be aware that a halo has to fall only a few inches to be a noose. (Dan McKinnon)

When you can't have what you choose, you choose what you have. (Owen Wister)

Vigorous let us be in attaining our ends, and mild in our method of attainment. (Motto of Lord Newborough)

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. (Victor Hugo)

A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. (CS Lewis)

Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

God proved his love on the cross. When Christ hung and bled, it was God saying to the world, "I love you." (Billy Graham)

Never look for righteousness in the other person, but never cease to be righteous yourself. We are always looking for justice, yet the essence of the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is — Never look for justice, but never cease to give it. (Oswald Chambers)

There is among Christians far too much inclination to square and reconcile the truths of revelation; this is a form of irreverence and unbelief, let us strive against it, and receive truth as we find it; rejoicing that the doctrines of the Word are unhewn stones, and so are all the more fit to build an altar for the Lord. (Spurgeon)

(Exodus 20:25) God's altar was to be built of unhewn stones, that no trace of human skill or labour might be seen upon it. Human wisdom delights to trim and arrange the doctrines of the cross into a system more artificial and more congenial with the depraved tastes of fallen nature; instead, however, of improving the gospel carnal wisdom pollutes it, until it becomes another gospel, and not the truth of God at all. All alterations and amendments of the Lord's own Word are defilements and pollutions. The proud heart of man is very anxious to have a hand in the justification of the soul before God; preparations for Christ are dreamed of, humblings and repentings are trusted in, good works are cried up, natural ability is much vaunted, and by all means the attempt is made to lift up human tools upon the divine altar.... The Lord alone must be exalted in the work of atonement, and not a single mark of man's chisel or hammer will be endured. (Spurgeon)

Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand spent 14 years in prison for preaching the gospel. Although his captors smashed four of his vertebrae and either cut or burned 18 holes in his body, they could not defeat him. He testified, "Alone in my cell, cold, hungry, and in rags, I danced for joy every night." (Oswald Smith)

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. (Chinese Proverb)

There is more religion in men's science, than there is science in their religion. (Henry David Thoreau)

Gen 4:6-7 "Why are you angry?" the Lord asked him. "Why is your face so dark with rage? It can be bright with joy if you will do what you should! But if you refuse to obey, watch out. Sin is waiting to attack you, longing to destroy you. But you can conquer it!" (TLB)

A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does. (La Rochefoucauld)

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it. (Sir Winston S. Churchill)

We use God only for the sake of getting peace and joy. We seek only our enjoyment of Jesus Christ, not a true realization of Him. This is the first step in the wrong direction. All these things we are seeking are simply effects, and yet we try to make them causes. (Oswald Chambers)

Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Whoever strives to withdraw from obedience, withdraws from Grace. (Thomas a Kempis)

Just as a cautious businessman avoids tying up all his capital in one concern, so, perhaps, worldly wisdom will advise us not to look for the whole of our satisfaction from a single aspiration. (Sigmund Freud)

I find that principles have no real force except when one is well fed. (Mark Twain)

What kind of place is this? It's beautiful: Pigeons fly, women fall from the sky! I'm moving here! (Guido Orefice [Roberto Benigni])

Watching The Patriot, I was reminded of an essay in which G.K. Chesterton argued that so-called moral films — films which oversimplify history and stir partisan sentiments while shutting down people's minds — were a greater peril to society than their lowbrow, allegedly immoral counterparts. (Peter T. Chattaway)

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone. (George Elliot)

It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out. (CS Lewis)