John Calvin Quotes
-
For it is better, with closed eyes, to follow God as our guide, than, by relying on our own prudence, to wander through those circuitous paths which it devises for us.
-
The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.
-
Where riches hold the dominion of the heart, God has lost His authority.
-
We are surrounded by God’s benefits. The best use of these benefits is an unceasing expression of gratitude.
-
I gave up all for Christ, and what have I found? Everything in Christ.
-
Nothing is more dangerous than to be blinded by prosperity.
-
Unless God's Word illumine the way, the whole life of men is wrapped in darkness and mist, so that they cannot but miserably stray.
-
The Fanaticism which discards the Scripture, under the pretense of resorting to immediate revelations is subversive of every principle of Christianity. For when they boast extravagantly of the Spirit, the tendency is always to bury the Word of God so they may make room for their own falsehoods.
-
For what is idolatry if not this: to worship the gifts in place of the Giver himself?
-
There is nothing in afflictions which ought to disturb our joy.
-
All men were created to busy themselves with the labor for the common good.
-
Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain.
-
A dog barks and stands at bay if he sees any one assault his master. I should be indeed remiss, if, seeing the truth of God thus attacked, I should remain dumb, without giving one note of warning.
-
In forming an estimate of sins, we are often imposed upon by imagining that the more hidden the less heinous they are.
-
Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments.
-
When pain and suffering strike, our faith is well founded if it is standing on the promises of God. For all of God's promises have strong confirmation in Christ.
-
Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments.
-
Let us fall before the majesty of our great God, acknowledging our faults, and praying that he will make us ever more conscious of them.
-
For Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing is omitted that is both necessary and useful to know, so nothing is taught but what is expedient to know. Therefore we must guard against depriving believers of anything disclosed about predestination in Scripture, lest we seem either wickedly to defraud them of the blessing of their God or to accuse and scoff at the Holy Spirit for having published what it is in any way profitable to suppress.
-
We cannot rely on God's promises without obeying his commandments.
-
This is the highest honour of the Church, that, until He is united to us, the Son of God reckons himself in some measure imperfect. What consolation is it for us to learn, that, not until we are along with him, does he possess all his parts, or wish to be regarded as complete! Hence, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, when the apostle discusses largely the metaphor of a human body, he includes under the single name of Christ the whole Church.
-
Scripture is like a pair of spectacles which dispels the darkness and gives us a clear view of God.
-
Elisabeth, again, while she praises her, is so far from hiding the Divine glory, that she ascribes everything to God. And yet, though she acknowledges the superiority of Mary to herself and to others, she does not envy her the higher distinction, but modestly declares that she had obtained more than she deserved.
-
It having been said above that God bends all the reprobate, and even Satan himself, at his will, three objections are started. First, that this happens by the permission, not by the will of God. To this objection there is a twofold reply, the one, that angels and men, good and bad, do nothing but what is appointed by God; the second, that all movements are secretly directed to their end by the hidden inspiration of God.