Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by William Law (English Clergyman)

William Law (1686-1761) was an English churchman and writer. He was the author of influential works on Christian ethics and mysticism.

Born in King’s Cliffe, Northamptonshire, Law studied at Emmanuel College-Cambridge and became a Fellow in 1711. Reluctant to sign the Oath of Allegiance to George I, he lost his fellowship.

About 1727, Law became a tutor to the father of the English historian Edward Gibbon, and for ten years, was “the much-honored friend and spiritual director of the whole family.” About 1733, Law began to study German philosopher and Christian mystic Jakob Böhme, and most of Law’s later works are explications of Böhme’s mysticism. Law’s leading contribution lies in his delineation of the Christian ethical ideal for human life and its actualization through the disciplined applications of individual mysticism.

Law won his first victories against controversy with his Three Letters (1717.) His Remarks on Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees (1723) is a work of great sarcastic wit, but it has found little recognition among Christian moral theologians. His most notable works are Practical Treatise Upon Christian Perfection (1726) and his Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728,) which greatly inspired Dr. Samuel Johnson and the Wesleys.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by William Law

Love and pity and wish well to every soul in the world; dwell in love, and then you dwell in God.
—William Law
Topics: Love

All that is sweet, delightful, and amiable in this world, in the serenity of the air, the fineness of seasons, the joy of light, the melody of sounds, the beauty of colors, the fragrancy of smells, the splendor our precious stones, is nothing else but Heaven breaking through the veil of this world, manifesting itself in such a degree and darting forth in such variety so much of its own nature.
—William Law
Topics: Nature

Nothing hath separated us from God but our own will, or rather our own will is our separation from God.
—William Law
Topics: Faith, God, Divinity

Perpetual inspiration is as necessary to the life of good- ness, holiness and happiness as perpetual respiration is necessary to animal life.
—William Law

Love has no errors, for all errors are the want for love.
—William Law
Topics: Love

If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.
—William Law
Topics: Heaven

Be intent on the perfection of the present day.
—William Law
Topics: Time, Time Management, Perfection

He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and a happy life.
—William Law
Topics: Prayer

There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him.
—William Law
Topics: Forgiveness, Prayer

The greatest saint in the world is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice. It is he who is most thankful to God.
—William Law
Topics: Blessings, Gratitude, Appreciation

Every good thought that we have, and every good action that we perform, lays us open to pride, and thus exposes us to the various assaults of vanity and self-satisfaction.
—William Law
Topics: Pride

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