John Calvin Quotes
-
The door is closed to prayer unless it is opened with the key of trust.
-
Let this point therefore stand: that those whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught truly rest upon Scripture, and that Scripture itself is self-authenticated. . . . Therefore, illumined by his power, we believe neither by our own nor by any one else's judgment that Scripture is from God; but above human judgment we affirm with utter certainty (just as if we were gazing upon the majesty of God himself) that it has flowed to us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men.
-
The whole life of Christians ought to be an exercise of piety, since they are called to sanctification. It is the office of the law to remind them of their duty and thereby to excite them to the pursuit of holiness and integrity. But when their consciences are solicitous how God may be propitiated, what answer they shall make, and on what they shall rest their confidence, if called to his tribunal, there must then be no consideration of the requisitions of the law, but Christ alone must be proposed for righteousness, who exceeds all the perfection of the law.
-
Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
-
Faith is tossed about by various doubts, so that the minds of the godly are rarely at peace.
-
If God contains the fullness of all good things in Himself like an inexhaustible fountain, nothing beyond Him is to be sought by those who strike after the highest good and all the elements of happiness.
-
... let everyone regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses.
-
Man with all his shrewdness is as stupid about understanding by himself the mysteries of God, as an ass is incapable of understanding musical harmony.
-
The Lord has given us a table at which to feast, not an altar on which a victim is to be offered; He has not consecrated priests to make sacrifice, but servants to distribute the sacred feast.
-
The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life.
-
The blood of Christ is necessary to purge the faults clinging to our best works.
-
Whatever a person may be like, we must still love them because we love God.
-
If God does nothing random, there must always be something to learn.
-
Angels transcend every religion, every philosophy, every creed. In fact Angels have no religion as we know it... Their existence precedes every religious system that has ever existed on Earth.
-
There is no knowing that does not begin with knowing God.
-
It is only the goodness of God sensibly experienced by us which opens our mouth to celebrate His praise.
-
When I took the leap, I had faith I would find a net; Instead I learned I could fly.
-
I have never seen either a drop of piety or a grain of truth or ingenuousness - nay, I have never found common sense in any Jew.
-
No one will calmly and quietly submit to bear the cross except those who have learned to seek their happiness beyond this world.
-
Our physical illnesses serve us for medicines to purge us from worldly affections and retrench what is superfluous in us, and since they are to us the messengers of death, we ought to learn to have one foot raised to take our departure when it shall please God.
-
We ought always to beware of making the smallest claim for ourselves.
-
When we recognize the rod of a father, should we not show ourselves docile children rather than rebelliously desperate men who have been hardened in their evil doings?
-
We unjustly defraud God of his right, unless each of us lives and dies in dependence on His sovereign pleasure.
-
Pagan philosophers set up reason as the sole guide of life, of wisdom and conduct; but Christian philosophy demands of us that we surrender our reason to the Holy Spirit; and this means that we no longer live for ourselves, but that Christ lives and reigns within us (Rom 12:1; Eph 4:23; Gal 2:20).