Quotes by Theologians - Page 11

God is to me that creative Force behind and in the universe who manifests Himself as energy as life as order as beauty as thought as conscience as love.
Henry Sloane Coffin
God to be God must transcend what is. He must be the maker of what ought to be.
Rufus M. Jones
Lord who art always the same give that I know myself give that I know Thee.
St. Augustine
I wouldn't put it past God to arrange a virgin birth if he wanted to but I very much doubt if he would because it seems to be contrary to the way in which he deals with persons and brings his wonders out of natural personal relationships.
Right Rev. David Jenkins
Seek happiness for its own sake and you will not find it seek for duty and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine.
Tyron Edwards
The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose aiming at something outside self.
Hugh Black
Aim at heaven and you get earth thrown in aim at earth and you get neither.
C.S. Lewis
Life exists for the love of music or beautiful things.
G.K. Chesterton
The true object of human life is play.
G.K. Chesterton
One principle reason why men are so often useless is that they ... divide and shift their attention among a multitude of objects and pursuits.
Nathaniel Emmons
There is one thing which gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of something around the corner.
G.K. Chesterton
The divine essence itself is love and wisdom.
Emmanuel Swedenborg
A mighty fortress is our God A bulwark never failing Our helper he amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing.
Martin Luther
We must not waste life in devising means. It is better to plan less and do more.
William Ellery Channing
I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act but I do believe in a fate that falls on men unless they act.
G.K. Chesterton
Optimism unaccompanied by personal effort is merely a state of mind and not fruitful.
Edward L. Curtis
Life is essentially a series of events to be lived through rather than intellectual riddles to be played with and solved.
George A. Buttrick
To always be intending to live a new life but never to find time to set about it this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another till he is starved and destroyed.
John Tillotson
True friends ... face in the same direction toward common projects interests goals.
C.S. Lewis
Many a friendship-long loyal and self-sacrificing-rested at first upon no thicker a foundation than a kind word.
Frederick W. Faber
Since we are mortal friendships are best kept to a moderate level rather than sharing the very depths of our souls.
Hippolytus
If two friends ask you to judge a dispute don't accept because you will lose one friend on the other hand if two strangers come with the same request accept because you will gain one friend.
Saint Augustine
Nothing wounds a friend like a want of confidence.
Jean Baptiste LaCordaire
He does good to himself who does good to his friend.
Erasmus
Friendship is the allay of our sorrows the ease of our passions the discharge of our oppression the sanctuary of our calamities the counselor of our doubts the clarity of our minds the emission of our thoughts the exercise and improvement of what we dedicate.
Jeremy Taylor
There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Adversity not only draws people together but brings forth that beautiful inward friendship.
Søren Kierkegaard
We make our friends we make our enemies but God makes our next-door neighbour.
G.K. Chesterton
My helpless friend your helplessness is the most powerful plea which rises up to the tender father-heart of God. You think that everything is closed to you because you cannot pray. My friend your helplessness is the very essence of prayer.
O. Hallesby
True contentment... is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.
G.K. Chesterton
Moderation is the key to lasting enjoyment.
Hosea Ballou
Moderate desires constitute a character fitted to acquire all the good which the world can yield. He who has this character is prepared in whatever situation he is therewith to be content and has learned the science of being happy.
Timothy Dwight
If the only prayer you say in your whole life is "Thank you " that would suffice.
Meister Eckhart
The beginning of men's rebellion against God was and is the lack of a thankful heart.
Francis Schaeffer
The private and personal blessings we enjoy-the blessings of immunity safeguard liberty and integrity- deserve the thanksgiving of a whole life.
Jeremy Taylor
Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.
Karl Barth
The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.
G.K. Chesterton
The greatest saint in the world is not he who prays most or fasts most it is not he who gives alms or is most eminent for temperance chastity or justice. It is he who is most thankful to God.
William Law
Not what we say about our blessings but how we use them is the true measure of our thanksgiving.
W.T. Purkiser
Mankind by the perverse depravity of their nature esteem that which they have most desired as of no value the moment it is possessed and torment themselves with fruitless wishes for that which is beyond their reach.
Francois de Fenelon
It matters very little whether a man is discontented in the name of pessimism or progress if his discontent does in fact paralyse his power of appreciating what he has got.
G.K. Chesterton
I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before second because although they took my purse they did not take my life third because although they took my all it was not much and fourth because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed.
Matthew Henry
Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.
Abraham Heschel
You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera and grace before the play and pantomime and grace before I open a book and grace before sketching painting swimming fencing boxing walking playing dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
G.K. Chesterton
Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away hunger.
Saint Basil
Forgiveness is man's deepest need and highest achievement.
Horace Bushnell
Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost and was found is saved from being lost again.
Saint Augustine
Forgiveness is the final form of love.
Reinhold Niebuhr
Forgiveness is God's command.
Martin Luther
To be angry about trifles is mean and childish to rage and be furious is brutish and to maintain perpetual wrath is akin to the practice and temper of devils but to prevent and suppress rising resentment is wise and glorious is manly and divine.
Isaac Watts
Who loves not women wine and song Remains a fool his whole life long.
Martin Luther
To fish in troubled waters.
Matthew Henry
When fear is excessive it can make many a man despair.
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.
Albert Schweitzer
Children have a remarkable talent for not taking the adult world with the kind of respect we are so confident it ought to be given. To the irritation of authority figures of all sorts children expend considerable energy in "clowning around." They refuse to appreciate the gravity of our monumental concerns while we forget that if we were to become more like children our concerns might not be so monumental.
Conrad Hyers
Though our feelings come and go God's love for us does not.
C.S. Lewis
Faith is to believe what we do not see and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
St. Augustine
Here I stand. I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen.
Martin Luther
Agape is disinterested love. . . . Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people or any qualities people possess. It begins by loving others for their sakes. . . . Therefore agape makes no distinction between friend and enemy it is directed toward both.
Martin Luther King