Quotes I Still Quote

I thought I'd like to share some of my long-time favorite quotes with you. I scanned through my old quote book (a bit of a precursor to the prayer and insight journals) last night and mentally selected some gems. Some of them are obvious truth. Some of them make me think out of the box. Some of them are from upstanding sources, some from unlikely sources.

And bonus points to you if you've heard me say one!

"[Faith] . . . simply means that you know the thing you ask for is coming; that it is as sure as that Jesus died, and lived again afterward. And being so sure, you simply hang on. You have not the least idea of stopping; you insist and persist, and go a bit longer, seven times, seventy times seven, and then a bit more mathematics on the basis of seven, if need be. Then you quit counting. You simply persist until the answer comes. And your confidence is that the answer will come. And the answer does come." -S.D. Gordon

"I am the Ground of thy beseeching, first it is My will that thou have it; and after I make thee to will it; and after, I make thee beseech it; and thou beseechest it. How should it then be that thou shouldst not have thy beseeching?" -Julian of Norwich, quoted by Amy Carmichael

"Our Master has never promised us success. He demands obedience. He expects faithfulness. Results are His concern, not ours. And our reputation is a matter of no consequence at all." -Amy Carmichael

"If you want to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don't bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, or seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you'll get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man." -Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"The wound, it should be observed, was to his vanity; and fortunately it is not often that people die if such hurts, or even continue a long time sick." -Lew Wallace

"Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy coolness and Thy balm; Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire, O still small voice of calm." -John G. Whittier ("Dear Lord and Father of Mankind")

"I have absolutely no feeling of a life cut short. A life abandoned to Christ cannot be cut short. 'Cut short' means not complete, interrupted, and we know that our Master does no half-way jobs." -A former classmate of William Borden's, upon hearing of his sudden death

"God's will is not a load to carry, as so many think, but is a pillow to rest on." -An "old writer," quoted by Hannah Whitall Smith

"So long as evil comes to the front, it appears an interminable, unconquerable thing; but all the time there may be a change, positive as inexplicable, at the very door. How is it that a child begins to be good? Upon what fulcrum rests the knife-edge of alteration? As indistinguishable is the moment in which the turn takes place; equally perplexing to keenest investigation the part of being in which the renovation commences. Who shall analyse repentance as a force, or as a phenomenon? You cannot see it coming. Before you know, there it is and the man is no more what he was; his life is upon other lines. The wind hath blown." -George MacDonald

"And 'lost' means, not found yet." -Amy Carmichael

"Why, surely, as a doctor, my dear Watson, you must admit that what your digestion gains in the way of blood supply is so much lost to the brain. I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix. Therefore, it is the brain I must consider." -A. Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes on fasting)

""Your life is not your own,' he said. 'Keep your hands off of it.'
'What use is it to anyone?'
'How can you tell? The example of patient suffering is in itself the most precious of all lessons to an impatient world.'" -A. Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes counseling a suicidal woman)

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." -Margaret Thatcher

"Light obeyed, increased light:
Light resisted bringeth night.
Who shall give us power to choose
If the love of light we lose?" -Joseph Cook

"It hurts because it is suffering, real suffering. It would not be suffering if it did not hurt." -Elisabeth Elliot

"The wise do not believe in the resurrection of the dead . . . So everything from the Easter morning to the Ascension had to be made up by groveling enthusiasts as part of their plan to get themselves martyred." -Antonin Scalia

"All worry is atheism, because it is a want of trust in God." -Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

"What a blessed thing it is that God thinks it worth while to test us! Workmen only spend time and trouble on materials they can make something out of. God will perfect that which concerns us, Hallelujah!" -John Stam