Christianity requires two things from every man who believes in it: first, to acquire property by just and righteous means, and second, to look not only on his own things, but also on the things of others.
—Henry van Dyke Jr. (1852–1933) American Author, Educator, Clergyman
The steady discipline of intimate friendship with Jesus results in men becoming like Him.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
Christianity takes for granted the absence of any self-help and offers a power which is nothing less than the power of God.
—A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) American Christian Pastor, Preacher, Author, Editor
I doubt if there is in the world a single problem, whether social, political, or economic, which would not find ready solution if men and nations would rule their lives according to the plain teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
I love to hear my Lord spoken of, and wherever I have seen the print of His shoe in the earth, there have I coveted to put mine also.
—John Bunyan (1628–88) English Puritan Writer, Preacher
Christianity provides a unified answer for the whole of life.
—Francis Schaeffer (1912–84) American Presbyterian Religious Leader, Theologian, Philosopher
We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Faith makes a Christian. Life proves a Christian. Trial confirms a Christian. Death crowns a Christian.
—Unknown
Do you wish to find out the really sublime? Repeat the Lord’s Prayer.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear … Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) German Lutheran Pastor, Theologian
Christianity is the record of a pure and holy soul, humble, absolutely disinterested, a truth-speaker, and bent on serving, teaching, and uplifting men.—It teaches that to love the All-perfect is happiness.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
When you wonder about the mystery of yourself, look to Christ, who gives you the meaning of life. When you wonder what it means to be a mature person, look to Christ, who is the fulfillness of humanity. And when you wonder about your role in the future of the world.
—Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) Polish Catholic Religious Leader
I am always amused by Christians who try so very hard to defend their position with reason and logic. They are like standing on top of a ladder with their tools and gadgets, straining their necks looking skywards for the leaks, trying to fix the roof amidst the rain. What they do not realize, of course, is that the roof isn’t leaking—it isn’t there.
—Anonymous
No one is without Christianity, if we agree on what we mean by that word. It is every individual’s individual code of behavior by means of which he makes himself a better human being than his nature wants to be, if he followed his nature only. Whatever its symbol—cross or crescent or whatever—that symbol is man’s reminder of his duty inside the human race.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.
—Mikhail Gorbachev (b.1931) Soviet Head of State
Wherever there are walls I shall inscribe this eternal accusation against Christianity upon them—I can write in letters which make even the blind see. I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity, the one great instinct for revenge for which no expedient is sufficiently poisonous, secret, subterranean, petty—I call it the one immortal blemish of mankind.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Christianity is the only system of faith which combines religious beliefs with corresponding principles of morality.—It builds ethics on religion.
—Austin Phelps (1820–90) American Presbyterian Clergyman, Educator, Theologian
Christianity helps us face the music even when we don’t like the tune.
—Phillips Brooks (1835–93) American Episcopal Clergyman, Author
Christianity as an idea begins with thinking of God in the same way that a true son thinks of his father; Christianity as a life, begins with feeling and acting toward God as a true son feels and acts toward his father.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842–1933) American Clergyman, Civic Reformer
Christianity is more than history. It is also a system of truths. Every event which its history records, either is a truth, or suggests or expresses a truth, which man needs assent to or to put into practice.
—Noah Porter (1811–92) American Clergyman, Academic
God speaks to me not through the thunder and the earthquake, nor through the ocean and the stars, but through the Son of Man, and speaks in a language adapted to my imperfect sight and hearing.
—William Lyon Phelps (1865–1943) American Author, Critic, Scholar
Christianity, with its doctrine of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the state, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishment and its wars.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect of Jesus; but the devil is always imagined as a being of acute intellect, political cunning, and the fiercest courage. These universal and instinctive tendencies of the human mind reveal much.
—Lydia Maria Child (1802–80) American Abolitionist, Writer
Christianity, rightly understood, is identical with the highest philosophy; the essential doctrines of Christianity are necessary and eternal truths of reason.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
He comes into the world God knows how, walks on the water, gets out of his grave and goes up off the Hill of Howth. What drivel is this?
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
The distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these others, men are found seeking after God, while Christianity is God seeking after men.
—Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) English Educationalist
The Galilean is not a favorite of mine. So far from owing him any thanks for his favor, I cannot avoid confessing that I owe a secret grudge to his carpentership.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
A lot of people say to me, “Why did you kill Christ?.” “I dunno… it was one of those parties, got out of hand, you know.” “We killed him because he didn’t want to become a doctor, that’s why we killed him.”
—Lenny Bruce (1925–66) American Comedian, Writer, Social Critic, Satirist
The Three in One, the One in Three? Not so! To my own Gods I go. It may be they shall give me greater ease than your cold Christ and tangled Trinities.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
I believe in Christianity as I believe in the rising sun; not because I see it, but by it I can see all else.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women’s emancipation.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) American Social Reformer
Christianity makes suffering contagious.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The Christian is not one who has gone all the way with Christ. None of us has. The Christian is one who has found the right road.
—Charles L. Allen (1913–2005) American Methodist Minister
It has come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so much a subject of inquiry; but that it is, now at length, discovered to be fictitious.
—Samuel Butler
No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a system of radical optimism.
—William Ralph Inge (1860–1954) English Anglican Clergyman, Priest, Mystic
He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity, will revolutionize the world.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
It would be nice if someone would read this sad-eyed crowd the Sermon on the Mount, accompanied by a rousing commentary on income inequality and a need for a hike in the minimum wage. But Jesus makes his appearance here only as a corpse; the living man, the wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist, is never once mentioned, nor anything he ever had to say. Christ crucified rules, and it may be that the true business of modern Christianity is to crucify him again and again so that he can never get a word out of his mouth.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b.1941) American Social Critic, Essayist
Here I swear, and as I break my oath may eternity blast me, here I swear that never will I forgive Christianity! It is the only point on which I allow myself to encourage revenge. Oh, how I wish I were the Antichrist, that it were mine to crush the Demon; to hurl him to his native Hell never to rise again—I expect to gratify some of this insatiable feeling in Poetry.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
God is like a mirror. The mirror never changes, but everybody who looks at it sees something different.
—Harold Kushner (b.1935) American Jewish Religious Leader, Priest
No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Christian life consists of faith and charity.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
To become Christ-like is the only thing in the whole world worth caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly and all lower achievement vain.
—Henry Drummond
Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.
—Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) Italian Monk, Founder of the Franciscan Order
Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion; it is like a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.
—Billy Graham (1918–91) American Baptist Religious Leader
The God I believe in is not so fragile that you hurt Him by being angry at him, or so petty that He will hold it against you for being upset with Him.
—Harold Kushner (b.1935) American Jewish Religious Leader, Priest
Don’t feel superior just because you go to church, it doesn’t make you a Christian.
—Unknown
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker