John Templeton Quotes

I try to steer away from high metaphysical belief because I think we humans do best when we realize that we don't know all that much.

The correct description is that we try every day to become more humble when we talk about divinity, we try to realize how little we know and how open minded we should be.

It's self-centered to think that human beings, as limited as we are, can describe divinity.

Sometimes I think a man could wander across the disc all his life and not see everything there is to see,' said Twoflower. 'And now it seems there are lots of other worlds as well. When I think I might die without seeing a hundredth of all there is to see it makes me feel,' he paused, then added, 'well, humble, I suppose. And very angry, of course.

We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.

I think actors should stay grounded and humble and open.

The deadening part of Bible study is when you think you've already got it all figured out.

I think we all have the same spirituality deep inside and we grow to learn more about it all the time, and we try very hard to become better people as we grow. We search all the time for the truth. We learn more about the world and we can't have thoughts like, "We are better than them" or "They are not good enough for God". This is very bad way of thinking, you know?

I don't think it's meant for man to know everything at once.

In my own pursuit of God, I often became preoccupied with ME! It was easy to think that being constantly aware of my faults and weakness was humility. It’s not! If I’m the main subject, talking incessantly about my weaknesses, I have entered into the most subtle form of pride.

How little we know of what there is to know.

The difference between the actual and the ideal force of man is happily figured in by the schoolmen, in saying, that the knowledgeof man is an evening knowledge, vespertina cognitio, but that of God is a morning knowledge, matutina cognitio.

Real theology is always rather shocking to people who already think they know what they think. I'm still shocked myself.

We are never, never so much in danger of being proud as when we think we are humble.

Too often we jump to the conclusion that something is impossible simply because we cannot see the solution. No one knows enough to be a pessimist.

You should be convinced of the authenticity of what you have, but you must also be humble enough to say that we don't know everything. And since we don't know everything, we must accept that another person may believe something else.

Sometimes I think I know everything, but I also underestimate what God really is.

One of the worst things anybody can do is assume. I think fools assume. If people have really got it together, they never assume anything. They believe, they work hard, and they prepare- but they don't assume.

Never think that you already know all. However highly you are appraised, always have the courage to say to yourself-I am ignorant.

To the humble, the Lord has given this promise: "If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me."

If you're a good fighter on the street, you don't have to tell anybody that you're good at fighting. Let someone else talk about how great you are at this or that or whatever is the case. And if no one finds out then no one finds out, that's fine too. But I think leading by example is always the strongest.

That man is truly humble who neither claims any personal merit in the sight of God, nor proudly despises brethren, or aims at being thought superior to them, but reckons it enough that he is one of the members of Christ, and desires nothing more than that the Head alone should be exalted.

Guarding knowledge is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge. You have to be able to transcend your knowledge the way people climb a ladder. If you are on the fifth step of a ladder and think that you are very high, there is no hope for you to climb to the sixth.

I had a professor one time... He said, 'Class, you will forget almost everything I will teach you in here, so please remember this: that God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and He has been speaking through asses ever since. So, if God should choose to speak through you, you need not think too highly of yourself. And, if on meeting someone, right away you recognize what they are, listen to them anyway'.

Pride, on the other hand, is the mother of all sins, and the original sin of lucifer.... An instrument strung, but preferring to play itself because it thinks it knows the tune better than the Musician