34 quotes
I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.
Riverside Sermons (1958)
Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.
At very best, a person wrapped up in himself makes a small package.
On Being a Real Person (1943)
The present world situation smells to heaven!
He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end.
Living Under Tension (1941)
You can know a real Christian when you see him, by his buoyancy.
Twelve Tests of Character (1923)
Already all of us must have heard about the people who call themselves the Fundamentalists. Their apparent intention is to drive out of the evangelical churches men and women of liberal opinions.
Life consists not simply in what heredity and environment do to us but in what we make out of what they do to us.
On Being a Real Person (1943)
Peace is an awareness of reserves from beyond ourselves, so that our power is not so much in us as through us. Peace is the gift, not of volitional struggle, but of spiritual hospitality.
On Being Fit to Live With : Sermons on Post-War Christianity (1946)
Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it.
He Came from Galilee (1974)
Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to.
Wisdom for Our Time (1961)
Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.
Riverside Sermons (1958)
Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.
What immeasurable folly!
Well, they are not going to do it; certainly not in this vicinity.
Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye and you will be drawn toward it. Picture yourself vividly as defeated and that alone will make victory impossible.
Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world — making the most of one's best.
One of the widest gaps in human experience is the gap between what we say we want to be and our willingness to discipline ourselves to get there.
Living Under Tension (1941)
God is not a cosmic bell-boy for whom we can press a button to get things done.
As I See Religion (1932)
Hating people is like burning down your own home to get rid of a rat.
As I See Religion (1932)
He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.
Riverside Sermons (1958)