Benjamin Whichcote Quotes

I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

There is no division between true religion and noble living; a religion that does not express itself in nobility of living is an empty shell.

If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man's outward actions – if he continues to be just a snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was before – then I think we must suspect that his 'conversion' was largely imaginary.

Don't fool people to think you are better than who you are. Instead of trying to act changed, pray that you will be changed.

Plain horse sense ought to tell us that anything that makes no change in the man who professes it makes no difference to God, either.

I cannot now evaluate the events that, at the end of those thirty years, made me discover the necessity of religious belief. I was not reasoned into my disposition. Though I admire the structured thought of theology, it is to religion no more than counterpoint exercises are to music.

Lord, reform Thy world, beginning with me.

The law cannot make a wicked person virtuous…God’s grace alone can accomplish such a thing.

If your religion has not changed your life, youd better change your religion.

After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.

'Physician, heal thyself' is more true in matters religious than mundane.

We're not the paragons of virtue that we'd all like to think we are. And so, to shatter that myth, God will use suffering to expose the stuff of which we're made.

Many souls fail to find God because they want a religion which will remake society without remaking themselves.

What’s the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don’t change what’s on the inside,were it really counts ?

All reform except a moral one will prove unavailing.

Many people have just enough natural religion to make them immune to the real thing.

People are not prepared or able to rejoice in suffering unless they experience a massive biblical revolution of how they think and feel about the meaning of life. Human nature and American culture make it impossible to rejoice in suffering. This is a miracle in the human soul wrought by God through His Word.

I think we cannot too strongly attack superstition, which is the disturber of society; nor too highly respect genuine religion, which is the support of it.

I want to see people do more than simply raise their hand when they come to Christ. Where are the totally changed lives?

Do not think that saintliness comes from occupation; it depends rather on what one is. The kind of work we do does not make us holy, but we may make it holy.

The call to religion is not a call to be better than your fellows, but to be better than yourself. Religion is relative to the individual.

Jesus was not sent here to teach the people to build magnificent churches and temples amidst the cold wretched huts and dismal hovels. He came to make the human heart a temple, and the soul an altar, and the mind a priest.

We Christians must look sharp that our Christianity does not simply refine our sins without removing them.

I think it's just too much trouble to be dishonest and keep up with yourself.

I think the whole concept of monotheism is a gift from the gods.