Benjamin Franklin Quotes

If the tyrant forbids what God commands, you should not at all judge that you have performed your duty if you have merely refused to obey the tyrant, unless at the same time you obey the command of God.

We must obey God and not man.

I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old Revolutionary maxim. Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.

Surely, I must at all times attempt to obey the law of the state. But when the will of God and the will of the state conflict, I am compelled to follow the will of God.

The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.

When holiness is achieved by conforming to God's will, one knows intuitively that which is wrong and that which is right before the Lord. Holiness speaks when there is silence, encouraging that which is good or reproving that which is wrong.

The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.

Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.

The authority of all magistrates (with however great power and sovereignty they be vested) is as it were hedged in by these two limits set by God himself, namely Piety and Charity

The willing sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful answer to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God or man.

My obedience is not to the law but to the Great Creator.

I cannot, then, my brother believe that I err in acknowledging this one God, the author and parent of all things: whom many of my predecessors in power, led astray by the madness of error, have ventured to deny... For I myself have witnessed the end of those who lately harassed the worshipers of God by their impious edict.

Man's sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God.

I feel like God gives you what you deserve. Whatever that time is, you get what you deserve.

In restoring man from evil sovereignty, we must cheat.

No nation which has kept the commandments of God has ever perished, but I say to you that once freedom is lost, only blood - human blood - will win it back.

The theologian considers sin mainly as an offence against God; the moral philosopher as contrary to reasonableness.

Baptists are very strong believers that the civil magistrate is ordained by God to punish those who do evil.

God is concerned with nations, but nations also need to be concerned with God. No nation can have a monopoly on God, but God will bless any nation whose people seek and honor His will as revealed by Christ and declared through the Holy Spirit.

We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.

God hates violence. He has ordained that all men fairly possess their property, not seize it.

Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.

Certain I am, that Christian Religion does no where allow Rebellion.

O God and Lord, now the council condemns even Your own act and Your own law as heresy, since You Yourself did lay Your cause before Your Father as the just judge, as an example for us, whenever we are sorely oppressed.

God himself has no right to be a tyrant.