favorite quotes

 

I always have a quotation for everything - 

it saves original thinking.

-Dorothy Sayers

-book quotes

-thanksgiving/contentment quotes

-missions quotes

- Christmas quotes

book quotes:

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me

 - C.S. Lewis

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.  

-Ray Bradbury

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. 
~Mark Twain

It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.   
~Oscar Wilde

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all.  ~Abraham Lincoln

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.
-St. Augustine

Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it,
except sitting in a corner by myself with a little book.
~ Thomas ã Kempis ~

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

-Emily Dickinson

When I discovered libraries, it was like having Christmas every day.
~ Jean Fritz ~

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. 
-Dr. Seuss

But for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short."
— Jane Austen

The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one
on a rainy day who doesn't know how to read.
~ Benjamin Franklin ~

I know I was writing stories when I was five. I don't know what I did before that . . . just loafed, I suppose.
-P.G. Wodehouse -

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky.
My pile of books
Are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I'll have a long beard
By the time I read them.
~ Arnold Lobel 

We read to know we are not alone. 
-C.S. Lewis 

Never judge a book by its movie.
~ J. W. Eagan ~

To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.
- Victor Hugo 

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read.  
~G.K. Chesterton

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.  Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.   

~Groucho Marx

She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.
~ Louisa May Alcott ~

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!  How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!  When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.
-Jane Austen; Pride and Prejudice
 

It is a great thing to start life with a small number
of really good books which are your very own.
~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ~

No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books.  ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Books....are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em,
then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind,
as evidence of our earlier stages of development.
~ Dorothy Sayers ~

Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes. 

~John LeCarre

I find television to be very educating.  Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book.  
~Groucho Marx

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read
and nobody wants to read.

~ Mark Twain ~

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be -
I had a mother who read to me.
~Strickland Gillilan

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond. 

― C.S. Lewis 

It is clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other way about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying, and clearly lacking any strong hand to keep them down.
― Agatha Christie

So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall.

^{- Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory}

thanksgiving/contentment quotes:

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

Rest and be thankful.   -William Wordsworth

A joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful.   - Book of Common Prayer

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought,
and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
-Gilbert Keith Chesterton

No one is as capable of gratitude
as one who has escaped
the kingdom of night.
-Elie Wiesel  

To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude,
when it is not in our power to repay it.
-Benjamin Franklin   

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time.  Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?  
~G.K. Chesterton

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

Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.  ~Estonian Proverb

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.  ~Horace

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.   
~Aldous Huxley

For flowers that bloom about our feet;
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
For song of bird, and hum of bee;
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.  
~Theodore Roosevelt

Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now.  
~A.W. Tozer

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.  ~Seneca

O Lord that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.
~William Shakespeare

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.  ~Aesop

Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer

What makes us discontented with our condition is the absurdly exaggerated idea we have of the happiness of others.
- French Proverb

If you are content, you have enough to live comfortably.
- Plautus

If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.
-John Bunyan

It is better to want what you have than to have what you want. – Proverb

My crown is in my heart, not on my head, nor decked with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen: My crown is called content: A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy.
- William Shakespeare

For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. – Apostle Paul

Being contented ought to mean in English, as it does in French, being pleased. Being content with an attic ought not to mean being unable to move from it and resigned to living in it; it ought to mean appreciating all there is in such a position.  – GK Chesterton

Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor. – Benjamin Franklin

In light of Heaven, the worst suffering on earth, a life full of the most atrocious tortures on earth, will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.
- Mother Teresa

One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give and so fail to realize your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God. - C.S. Lewis

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!  -William Shakespeare

We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.  - Harry Ironside

A thankful heart is one of the primary identifying characteristics of a believer. It stands in stark contrast to pride, selfishness, and worry. And it helps fortify the believer's trust in the Lord and reliance of His provision, even in the toughest times. No matter how choppy the seas become, a believer's heart is buoyed by constant praise and gratefulness to the Lord.  -John MacArthur

You say, "If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied." You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.  -Charles Spurgeon

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.   -Frederick Beuchner

Gratitude takes nothing for granted, it is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder, and to praise of the goodness of God.  ~Thomas Merton

missions quotes

God had an only Son, and He made Him a missionary.

-David Livingstone

The world is not impressed when Christians get rich and say thanks to God.  It is impressed when God is so satisfying that we give our riches away for Christ's sake and count it gain.

- John Piper

Would that this one book were in every language, in every land, before the eye and in the ears and hearts of all men!

- Martin Luther

I often think that God must have been looking for someone small enough and weak enough for Him to use, and that He found me.

- Hudson Taylor

The work of God goes forward through the Word of God.

- Terry Johnson

Here am I.  Send me.

- Isaiah

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.  

Worship is.  

Missions exists because worship doesn't.

- John Piper

I look upon foreign missionaries as the scaffolding around a rising building.  The sooner it can be dispensed with, the better; or rather, the sooner it can be transferred to other places, to serve the same temporary use, the better.

-Hudson Taylor

Live in love for Christ; loving His bride, furthering the Gospel, to hasten the day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess

-Terry Johnson

If God calls you to be a missionary, don't stoop to be a king.

-Jordan Grooms

So many missionaries, intent on doing something, forget that His main work is to make something of them.

-Jim Elliot

The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue.  It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner.

-Cameron Townsend

Today Christians spend more money on dog food than missions.

- Leonard Ravenhill

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

- Charles Dickens

We talk of the second coming; half the world has never heard of the first.

-Oswald J. Smith

God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.  He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations.  Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose.

- John Piper

The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.

-Hudson Taylor

His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations.  His authority in Heaven gives us our only hope of success.  And His presence with us leaves us no other choice.

-John Stott

The world is my parish.

- John Wesley

Why doesn't your God speak my language?

-Guatemalan to Cam Townsend, founder of WBT

God's work is not man working for God; it is God's own work, though often wrought through man's hands.  - Hudson Taylor

...to the glory of His name let me witness that in faraway lands, in
loneliness (deepest sometimes when it seems least so), in times of
downheartedness and tiredness and sadness, always always He is near. He does
comfort, if we let Him. Perhaps someone as weak and good-for-nothing as even
I am may read this. Don't be afraid! Through all circumstances, outside,
inside, He can keep me close.  — Amy Carmichael

People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives ... and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted. — Nate Saint

Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is — where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge. — Robert C. Shannon

Millions have never heard of Jesus. We ought not to ask, "Can I prove that I ought to go?' but, "Can I prove that I ought not to go?"

-Charles Spurgeon

Missionaries are very human folks just doing what they're asked.  Simply a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody.   - Jim Elliot

The gospel must be heard to be believed.   - Tony Philips

All the gifts which we possess have been bestowed by God and entrusted to us on condition that they be distributed for our neighbors' benefit.  ~John Calvin

Christmas quotes

And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.
― Sigrid Undset

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time.  Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs? 

~G.K. Chesterton

To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult with every year.
- E.B. White

Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you're home. 

 ~Carol Nelson

He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy. He, the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.

 ~Augustine

How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, His precepts!

 ~Benjamin Franklin

If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. May God help us ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a Comprehension of Christmas and Him, who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through his poverty, be made rich.

~Nate Saint

A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes... and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Son of God became a man to
enable men to become the sons of God.

-C.S.Lewis

Good news from heaven the angels bring,
Glad tidings to the earth they sing:
To us this day a child is given,
To crown us with the joy of heaven.
~ Martin Luther

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!

~Charles Dickens

Oh, God...
help us rightly to remember
the birth of Jesus, that
we may share in the songs
of the angels, the gladness
of the shepherds, and the
worship of the wise men.

May the Christmas morning
make us happy
to be your children.

~Robert Louis Stevenson