If he have faith, the believer cannot be restrained. He betrays himself. He breaks out. He confesses and teaches this gospel to the people at the risk of life itself.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
The missionary is no longer a man, a conscience. He is a corpse, in the hands of a confraternity, without family, without love, without any of the sentiments that are dear to us. Emasculated, in a sense, by his vow of chastity, he offers us the distressing spectacle of a man deformed and impotent or engaged in a stupid and useless struggle with the sacred needs of the flesh, a struggle which, seven times out of ten, leads him to sodomy, the gallows, or prison.
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
God is definitely out of the closet.
—Marianne Williamson (b.1952) American Activist, Author, Lecturer
There is no arguing with the pretenders to a divine knowledge and to a divine mission. They are possessed with the sin of pride, they have yielded to the perennial temptation.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator
Preach the gospel everywhere you go, and, if necessary, use words.
—Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) Italian Monk, Founder of the Franciscan Order
A minister asked a little boy how to get to the Post Office. After the little boy told him, the minister said, Why don’t you come to church tonight? I’m giving instructions on how to get to heaven. After thinking a minute, the boy replied, I don’t think so. You don’t even know how to get to the Post Office.
—Unknown
He preaches well that lives well.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
The good rain, like a bad preacher, does not know when to leave off.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The world has more winnable people than ever before but it is possible to come out of a ripe field empty-handed.
—Donald McGannon (1920–84) American Broadcasting Executive
Some plague the people with too long sermons; for the faculty of listening is a tender thing, and soon becomes weary and satiated.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
The Christian missionary may preach the gospel to the poor naked heathen, but the spiritual heathen who populate Europe have as yet heard nothing of Christianity.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
The salvation of a single soul is more important than the production or preservation of all the epics and tragedies in the world.
—C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) Irish-British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
But, good my brother, do not, as some ungracious pastors do. Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven whilst like a puffed and reckless libertine himself the primrose path of dalliance treads and wrecks not his own.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people’s attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day; I’d rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way: The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear, fine counsel is confusing, but example’s always clear.
—Edgar Guest (1881–1959) English-American Poet, Radio/TV Personality
That we should practice what we preach is generally admitted; but anyone who preaches what he and his hearers practice must incur the gravest moral disapprobation.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than fifty preaching it.
—Knute Rockne (1888–1931) American College Football Coach
There are three things that can destroy a preacher, the glory, the gold, and the girls.
—U.S. Proverb
The object of preaching, is, constantly to remind mankind of what they are constantly forgetting; not to supply the defects of human intelligence, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions; to recall mankind from the bypaths where they turn into that broad path of salvation which all know, but few tread.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Nothing makes one so vain as being told one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The clergyman is expected to be a kind of human Sunday.
—Samuel Butler
Evangelism is selling a dream.
—Guy Kawasaki (1954–84) American Investor
A man who is good enough to go to heaven is not good enough to be a clergyman.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Few sinners are saved after the first 20 minutes of a sermon.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The world looks at preachers out of church to know what they mean in it.
—Richard Cecil
The Christian ministry is the worst of all trades, but the best of all professions.
—John Newton (1725–1807) English Clergyman, Writer
Go practice if you please with men and women: leave a child alone for Christ’s particular love’s sake!
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
One filled with joy preaches without preaching.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
As each Sister is to become a Co-Worker of Christ in the slums, each ought to understand what God and the Missionaries of Charity expect from her. Let Christ radiate and live his life in her and through her in the slums. Let the poor, seeing her, be drawn to Christ and invite him to enter their homes and their lives. Let the sick and suffering find in her a real angel of comfort and consolation. Let the little ones of the streets cling to her because she reminds them of him, the friend of the little ones.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
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