Henry David Thoreau Quotes

The New Testament is an invaluable book, though I confess to having been slightly prejudiced against it in my very early days by the church and the Sabbath school, so that it seemed, before I read it, to be the yellowest book in the catalogue. Yet I early escaped from their meshes. It was hard to get the commentaries out of one's head and taste its true flavor. [...] It would be a poor story to be prejudiced against the Life of Christ because the book has been edited by Christians.

The Old Testament contains fabulous elements. The New Testament consists mostly of teaching, not of narrative at all: but where it is narrative, it is, in my opinion, historical. As to the fabulous element in the Old Testament, I very much doubt if you would be wise to chuck it out.

That the system of morals propounded in the New Testament contained no maxim which had not been previously enunciated, and that some of the most beautiful passages in the apostolic writings are quotations from Pagan authors, is well known to every scholar... To assert that Christianity communicated to man moral truths previously unknown, argues on the part of the asserted either gross ignorance or wilful fraud.

When you read the Koran, you give up. At least the Bible is very beautiful because Jews have an extraordinary literary talent.

Some of the parables of the Kingdom made wonderful sense, but the exclusivity in the New Testament put me off.

As I read the New Testament, I find only one path to salvation - the path of an informed faith in Jesus Christ.

For nearly 2,000 years, most people assumed that the only sources of tradition about Jesus and his disciples were the four gospels in the New Testament.

Fear is the denomination of the Old Testament; belief is the denomination of the New.

If I try to understand what it means to be a Christian, I look at the two instructions that were given in the Bible that are paramount, and those are to love God with all your heart and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. That's it.

Would you take anybody's views on Christianity seriously if they hadn't read the New Testament? Of course you wouldn't. So I read the Koran.

That's what we have with the Old Testament and the New Testament: good storytelling.

Even if you aren't a believer, there are incredible stories in the 'good book' that I guarantee you will keep you glued to the page. The Bible is no less a part of our cultural heritage than Shakespeare is - and by the way, Shakespeare's plays are absolutely loaded with Biblical references.

Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.

The New Testament, they tell us, is founded upon the prophecies of the Old; if so, it must follow the fate of its foundation.

Then I read this: “You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-45). That's it! I was thunderstruck

I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen.

Though we may now think some sins light and little, if the Lord awaken the conscience, we shall feel even the smallest sin heavy upon our souls.

The Old and New Testaments contain but one scheme of religion. Neither part of this scheme can be understood without the other.

O Luther, you had 95 theses . . . The matter is far more terrible-there is only one thesis. The Christianity of the New Testament does not exist at all. Here there is nothing to reform.

The Gospels and the rest of the New Testament reflect the life of Jesus, what it means for us & what it means for the world.

Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.

Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.

To give a man full knowledge of morality, I would send him to no other book than the New Testament.

The New Testament is a commentary on the Old Testament, in the light of the new revelation given by Christ and the Holy Spirit.

The discipline of the Old Testament may be summed up as a discipline teaching us to abhor and flee from sin; the discipline of the New Testament, as a discipline teaching us to die to it.