Some of my Favorite Quotes
Evolution
“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, p.75)
“But, as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?” (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, p.163)
“But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed on the earth, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory.” (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, p.323)
“All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between major groups are characteristically abrupt.” (Stephen J. Gould, The Return of Hopeful Monsters, p. 23.)
“The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persist as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils ….We fancy ourselves as the only true students of life’s history, yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that we never see the very process we profess to study.” (Stephen J. Gould, Evolution’s Erratic Pace, Natural History, vol. 86 (May 1987), p. 14.)
“There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.” (Mark Twain)
Catholicism
“”We need not shrink from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly employed in pagan worship and in the rites paid to the dead. But the Church from a very early period took them into her service, just as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendour of religious ceremonial. We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments, etc. were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular; they were common to almost all cults.” (Cath. Ency., III, 246).” (Catholicism Against Itself, O.C. Lambert)
“”The Pope himself is subject to error like other men; his infallibility comes from the Spirit of God, which on certain occasions protects him from error in faith and morals. He has no infallibility in merely historical or scientific questions. Even in matters of faith and morals he has no inspiration, and must use the same means of theological inquiry open to other men. He may err as a private doctor; nor is any immunity from error granted to books which he may write and publish. Even when he speaks with Apostolic authority he may err” (Cath. Dic., 677).” (Catholicism Against Itself, O.C. Lambert)
“”Once he does so, he has no further use for his reason. He enters the Church, an edifice illuminated by the superior light of revelation and faith. He can leave reason, like a lantern, at the door” (Explanation of Catholic Morals,76).” (Catholicism Against Itself, O.C. Lambert)
Talking too much
“In fact, it is generally found, that those who have the most discourse have the least knowledge. Words are too often the substitute for thinking, rather than the medium of thought.” – Charles Bridges, Ecclesiastes, p. 251
“It is not a severe criticism to say that there are ministers whose words stand in a very large proportion to their thoughts.” – Charles Spurgeon
“Empty wagons make more noise than full and weighty ones.” – Elder Leon Clevenger
“Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about themselves, and small people talk about others.” – John C. Maxwell
“Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” – Bernard M. Baruch
“The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent.’ – Alfred Brendel
“When you have nothing to say, say nothing.” – Charles Caleb Colton
“Not every person that speaks less than you do is more ignorant than you are.” – Unknown
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” – Plato
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.” – Unknown
“Silence is wisdom when speaking is folly.” – Unknown
More good ones
“Here were the charms of music to allure them into a compliance and the terrors of the fiery furnace to frighten them into a compliance….Note, That way that sense directs the most will go; there is nothing so bad which the careless world will not be drawn to by a concert of music, or driven to by a fiery furnace. And by such methods as these false worship has been set up and maintained” – Matthew Henry commenting on Daniel 3.
“We must also put away all notion of self-importance. God will not bless the man who thinks himself great. To glory even in the work of God the Holy Spirit in yourself, is to tread dangerously near to self-adulation. “Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth,” and be very glad when that other has sense enough to hold his tongue.” (Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students , p. 223-224)
“Treat a man as he appears to be, and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“We must never think the worse of any truth of God, nor be more shy of owning it, for its being held by men otherwise corrupt.” – Matthew Henry on Acts 23:6
“How frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into.” – Robinson Crusoe, p. 387
“Think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.” – Aristotle
“Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.” – Winston Churchill
“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.” – Thomas Sowell
“My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.” – Montaigne, French Philosopher
“Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” – Thomas Carlyle
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.” – Jerzy Gregorek
“Service is a reward, not a punishment. This idea is foreign to people who dislike their work and only put up with it until retirement. We think that faithful work should be rewarded by a vacation for the rest of our lives. But God offers us something very different: more work, more responsibilities, increased opportunities, along with greater abilities, resources, wisdom, and empowerment. We will have sharp minds, strong bodies, clear purpose, and unabated joy. The more we serve Christ now, the greater our capacity will be to serve him in Heaven.” (Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 234)
“When Christ calls me Home I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school.” (Adoniram Judson)
“It’s fine if you don’t like coffee, but to suggest that coffee is inherently unspiritual is . . . well, heresy.” (Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 308)
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” (Jim Elliot)
“How many times have we whined and groaned about the very circumstances God used to save us? How many times have we prayed that God would make us Christlike, then begged him to take from us the very things he sent to make us Christlike? How many times has God heard our cries when we imagined he didn’t? How many times has he said no to our prayers when saying yes would have harmed us and robbed us of good?” (Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 450)
“Life on Earth matters not because it’s the only life we have, but precisely because it isn’t — it’s the beginning of a life that will continue without end. It’s the precursor of life on the New Earth.” (Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 459)
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” (C.S. Lewis)
“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” (Francis Chan)
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” (Patrick Henry)
“Is it not a curious thing that, whenever God means to make a man great, he always breaks him in pieces first?” (Charles Spurgeon)
“Worshipping the LORD does not require creativity.” (Sette Wagner)
“The pastor, when facing his congregation on Sunday morning, dare not think of the effect his sermon may have on his job, his salary, or his future relation to the church. Let him but worry about tomorrow and he becomes a hireling and no true shepherd of the sheep. No man is a good preacher who is not willing to lay his future on the line every time he expounds the Word. He must let his job and his reputation ride on each and every sermon or he has no right to think that he stands in the prophetic tradition.” (A.W. Tozer)
“Imagine a virus so deadly you have to be medically tested to find out you have it and a vaccine so safe you have to be forced by the government to take it.” (Unknown)
“Wisdom is not measured by the number of years a man has lived, but by the decisions he makes.” (C.E. Wagner)
“Corruption in doctrine works best when it is unfettered by any explicit statement of that doctrine. Error loves ambiguities. It does not desire to state its position clearly, either because it has no distinct position to state, or if stated, it would stand convicted of iniquities in the eyes of all honest and God fearing men.” (Martin L. Wagner, Free Masonry, An Interpretation, p.539)
“When words lose their meaning, people lose their freedom.” (Confucius)
“Be good and you’ll be lonesome.” (Mark Twain)
“The choices of life, not the compulsions, reveal character.” (A.W. Tozer)
“It’s more important to make a difference than a fortune.” (C.E. Wagner)
“Wise men speak proverbs; fools supply the subject matter.” (C.E. Wagner)
“Those that are in the way of God and their duty may expect that Providence will protect them, but this will not excuse them from taking all prudent methods for their own safety. God will keep us, but then we must not wilfully expose ourselves. Providence must be trusted, but not tempted.” (Matthew Henry commenting on Jos 2:21)
“You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” (Jerry West)
“Those who won’t listen have to feel.” (Leon Wagner)
“When you’ve got kids, that’s all you’ve got.” (Leon Wagner)
“A lazy man would rather break his back than make two trips.” (Gerald Wagner)
“Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.” – (Warren Buffett)
“If you buy things you don’t need, you will soon sell things you need.” – (Warren Buffett)
“The only men who have temporary eternal life are those who live in the corners of circular two-story ranch houses.” – (C.E. Wagner, The True Grace of God, p.187)
“No man is free who is not master of himself.” (Epictetus)
“He who knows much about others may be learned, but he who understands himself is more intelligent. He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.” (Lao-Tzu)
“He is rich – not who possesses much, but who desires little.” (Brentius)
“Nature is content with little, grace with less, but lust with nothing.” (Matthew Henry)
“It’s what you do when you have nothing to do that reveals what you are.” (Unknown)
“An idle Christian is the raw material of which backsliders are made.” (Brian Dupont)
“If thou livest well and teachest well, thou wilt be a judge of all; if thou teachest well and livest ill, thine own only.” (Pusey)
“‘To think no evil, where no evil seems,’ is the duty of a Christian; but to refuse to see it, where it most evidently appears, is an imposition on the understanding itself.” (Adam Clark)
“Grace teaches us, in the midst of life’s greatest comforts, to be willing to die, and, in the midst of its greatest crosses, to be willing to live.” (Matthew Henry)
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” (J.W. von Goethe)
“No wise man ever wished to be younger.” (Jonathan Swift)
“For the unlearned, old age is winter; for the learned, it is the season of harvest.” (Hasidic saying)
“We grow neither better nor worse as we get old, but more like ourselves.” (May Lamberton Becker)
“One of the evidences of emotional maturity is the ability (and the willingness) to overrule ephemeral feelings and govern our behavior with the intellect and the will.” (James Dobson, When God Doesn’t Make Sense, p. 47)
“Money is like manure, good for nothing if it be not spread.” (Matthew Henry, Job 27:11-23)
“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than wickedness. Evil can be protested against, exposed, and, if necessary, it can be prevented by force. Evil always harbors the germ of self-destruction by inducing at least some uneasiness in people. We are defenseless against stupidity. Nothing can be done to oppose it, neither with protests nor with violence. Reasons cannot prevail. Facts that contradict one’s prejudice simply don’t need to be believed, and when they are inescapable, they can simply be brushed aside as meaningless, isolated cases.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, On Stupidity)
