Christianity proves itself, as the sun is seen by its own light.—Its evidence is involved in its excellence.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
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
Through its whole history the Christian religion has developed supreme affinities for best things. For the noblest culture, for purest morals, for magnificent literatures, for most finished civilizations, for most energetic national temperaments, for most enterprising races, for the most virile and progressive stock of mind, it has manifested irresistible sympathies. Judging its future by its past, no other system of human thought has so splendid a destiny. It is the only system which possesses undying youth.
—Austin Phelps (1820–90) American Presbyterian Clergyman, Educator, Theologian
To be like Christ is to be a Christian.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Political leader, Philosopher
I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
Is your Christianity ancient history—or current events?
—Sam Shoemaker (1893–1963) American Episcopal Priest
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the oceans dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
—Frederick Martin Lehman
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
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
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
There’s not much practical Christianity in the man who lives on better terms with angels and seraphs, than with his children, servants, and neighbors.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
True Christianity is love in action.
—David O. McKay (1873–1970) American Mormon Religious Leader
The task and triumph of religion is to make men and nations true and just and upright in all their dealings, and to bring all law as well as all conduct into subjection and conformity to the law of God.
—Henry van Dyke Jr. (1852–1933) American Author, Educator, Clergyman
Christian life consists of faith and charity.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
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
The real security of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality, in its exquisite adaptation to the human heart, in the facility with which its scheme accommodates itself to the capacity of every human intellect, in the consolation which it bears to the house of mourning, in the light with which it brightens the great mystery of the grave.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
A good example is far better than a good precept.
—Dwight L. Moody (1837–99) Christian Religious Leader, Publisher
The true Christian is the true citizen, lofty of purpose, resolute in endeavor, ready for a hero’s deeds, but never looking down on his task because it is cast in the day of small things; scornful of baseness, awake to his own duties as well as to his rights, following the higher law with reverence, and in this world doing all that in his power lies, so that when death comes he may feel that mankind is in some degree better because he lived.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
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
The men who followed Him were unique in their generation. They turned the world upside down because their hearts had been turned right side up. The world has never been the same.
—Billy Graham (1918–91) American Baptist Religious Leader
By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
Christianity ruined emperors, but saved peoples.—It opened the palaces of Constantinople to the barbarians, but it opened the doors of cottages to the consoling angels of Christ.
—Alfred de Musset (1810–57) French Dramatist, Poet, Novelist
Christianity is the root of all democracy, the highest fact in the rights of men.
—Novalis (1772–1801) German Romantic Poet, Novelist
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock and roll or Christianity.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
The most pressing question on the problem of faith is whether a man, as a civilized being, can believe in the divinity of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for therein rests the whole of our faith.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–81) Russian Novelist, Essayist, Writer
Don’t feel superior just because you go to church, it doesn’t make you a Christian.
—Unknown
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
Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
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
There never was law, or sect, or opinion did so much magnify goodness as the Christian religion doth.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
He spends his life explaining from his pulpit that the glory of Christianity consists in the fact that though it is not true it has been found necessary to invent it.
—Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) (1870–1916) British Short Story Writer, Satirist, Historian
The knowledge of this marvelous period has made faith far easier from an intellectual standpoint, and has enabled us to be more patient in waiting to see the truth, not as now
—Wilfred Grenfell (1865–1940) Canadian Humanitarian, Doctor
No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a system of radical optimism.
—William Ralph Inge (1860–1954) English Anglican Clergyman, Priest, Mystic
There were honest people long before there were Christians and there are, God be praised, still honest people where there are no Christians. It could therefore easily be possible that people are Christians because true Christianity corresponds to what they would have been even if Christianity did not exist.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school for Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
The word ”Christianity” is already a misunderstanding—in reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on the Cross.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
It is the fellowship of the Cross to experience the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship he belongs to is not Christian. If any member refuses to bear that burden, he denies the law of Christ.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) German Lutheran Pastor, Theologian
Every time that I think of the crucifixion of Christ, I commit the sin of envy.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
With a strong affirmation of our goodness and a gentle understanding of our weakness, God is loving us—you and me—this moment, just as we are and not as we should be.
—Brennan Manning (1934–2013) American Theologian, Author
He who begins by loving Christianity better than truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
The steady discipline of intimate friendship with Jesus results in men becoming like Him.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
Christianity provides a unified answer for the whole of life.
—Francis Schaeffer (1912–84) American Presbyterian Religious Leader, Theologian, Philosopher
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
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
Bear the Cross cheerfully and it will bear you.
—Thomas a Kempis (1379–1471) German Religious Priest, Writer
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
You have no idea how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic. Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
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
Christianity is a missionary religion, converting, advancing, aggressive, encompassing the world; a non-missionary church is in the bands of death.
—Max Muller (1823–1900) German-Born British Philologist, Orientalist
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