Justice and Sovereignty

In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?

Source: St. Augustine, Unsourced
Taken From: Superclass, David Rothkpf, 2008, pg 145

On Truth

...the mind is below truth, not above it, and it is bound not to descant upon it, but to venerate it; that truth and falsehood are set before us for the trial of our hearts...

Source: John Henry Newman (Cardinal), An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 2007
Taken From: LRC Blog, January 14th, 2011

Fooled

There are two ways to be fooled: One is to believe what isn’t so; the other is to refuse to believe what is so. 

Source: Søren Kierkegaard (unsourced)
Taken From: LRC Blog, Jan 14th 2011

Run John Run

Run, John, run the law commands,
But gives me neither feet nor hands;
Far better news the gospel brings:
It bids me fly; it gives me wings.

Source: John Bunyan, Unsourced

Roots and Wings

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings.

Hodding Carter (Unsourced, Apparently borrowed from Reverend Henry Ward Beecher)

Confidence in Character

Confidence that God is who He says he is and will do what He has promised

Unknown, Common Saying

Heaven and Hell

The project of bringing heaven down to earth always results in bringing hell up from below.

Lesslie Newbigin (1986
Source:  Foolishness to the Greeks: the Gospel and Western culture pg117 - Link

Sense of Sin

It is the saints who have a sense of sin, the sense of sin is the measure of a soul's awareness of God.

Father Danièlou (1950-70, Unsourced)

Faults

Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognise them

Blaise Pascal (~1660s, Pensées)

God's Help

It is the diligent hand that gathers in, because its works are blessed. . . . And now, not any further, and more particularly to add, how it is most God's glory, and man's good, that we should help ourselves, that God may help us.

Samuel Moodey in 1715, "The Debtors Monitor."
Source:  http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3370987
Taken From:  http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north956.html 

Grace Abuse

You ask me about forgiveness now, but will you even want it later, especially if it involves repentance?

Philip Yancy (1997, What's So Amazing About Grace)

Religion Tyranny

It was a great relief to be in a country where salacious sex literature cannot be sold; where putrid motion pictures and gangster films cannot be shown. The new Germany has burned great masses of corrupting books and magazines along with its bonfires of Jewish and communistic libraries

Baptist World Alliance Congress reports about Hitler's regime (Watchman-Examiner XXII 37 September 13, 1934)

Loving the Most

I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least

Dorothy Day (unsourced)

Power and Wisdom

Today the real test of America's power and wisdom is not our capacity to make war but our capacity to prevent it.

Reverend Dale Turner  (1/11/2003, The Seattle Times)

Grace Abuse

...forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete: and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness.

Philip Yancy (1997, What's So Amazing About Grace)

Heart of the Law

I have come to see legalism in its pursuit of false purity as an elaborate scheme of grace avoidance.  You can know the law by heart without knowing the heart of it.

Philip Yancy (1997, What's So Amazing About Grace)

Why do Christians hate so much?

I've been in politics long enough to expect criticism and hostility, but I was unprepared for the hatred I get from Christians.  Why do Christians hate so much?

Bill Clinton (as told by Phillip Yancey, 1994)

Church and State

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1963, Strength to Love)

Sour-Faced Saints

From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, spare us, O Lord,

Teresa of Ávila (The New Catholic Treasury of Wit and Humor)

Trivialities

What trivialities do we obsess over, what weighty matters of the law - justice, mercy, faithfulness - might we be missing?  Does God care more about nose rings or about urban decay?  Grunge music or world hunger?  Worship styles or a culture of violence?

Philip Yancy (1997, What's So Amazing About Grace)