Edward McKendree Bounds Quotes

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.

Few men can be said to have inimitable excellencies: let us watch them in their progress from infancy to manhood, and we shall soon be convinced that what they attained was the necessary consequence of the line they pursued, and the means they used.

I have learned God doesn't always change those people we want Him to change; instead, He often uses them to change us.

We have real difficulty here because everyone thinks of changing the world, but where, oh where, are those who think of changing themselves? People may genuinely want to be good, but seldom are they prepared to do what it takes to produce the inward life of goodness that can form the soul. Personal formation into the likeness of Christ is arduous and lifelong.

The circumstances we ask God to CHANGE are often the circumstances God is using to CHANGE US.

God uses his Word, people and circumstances to mold us. All three are indispensable for character development. God's word provides the truth we need to grow, God's people provide the support we need to grow, and circumstances provide the environment we need to grow.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

We plant sod where God wants 2 plant seed. He's more interested in growing our character than having us look finished.

Perhaps man will rise ever higher as soon as he ceases to flow out into a god.

The best strategy for building a competitive organization is to help individuals become more of who they are.

God desires to change us from the inside out. Renewing our minds, starving our self-destructive tendencies, and teaching us to form new habits.

I study the bible regularly, meet with older wiser mentors weekly, and keep a group of guys in my life who challenge me spiritually. That keeps me moving.

That in the human plan nothing is worth the making if it does not make the man.

We usually focus on what we're doing or where we're going, but God's primary concern is who we're becoming in the process.

The main thing God gets out of your life is not the achievements you accomplish. It's the person you become.

In the search for our best selves, several questions will guide our thinking: Am I what I want to be? Am I closer to the Savior today than I was yesterday? Will I be closer yet tomorrow? Do I have the courage to change for the better?

The only way we can be of use to God is to let Him take us through the crooks and crannies of our own characters.

One of the great misconceptions about spiritual growth that develops in a lot of churches is that information alone is adequate to produce transformed human beings. So if we want to have a church of spiritually mature people, let's just keep cramming more and more information into them... Information alone is not adequate for the transformation of the human personality.

If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself.

We ought, so far as it lies within our power, to aspire to immortality, and do all that we can to live in conformity with the highest that is within us; for even if it is small in quantity, in power and preciousness, it far excels all the rest.

Yet how hard most people work for mere dust and ashes and care, taking no thought of growing in knowledge and grace, never having time to get in sight of their own ignorance.

Take your well-disciplined strengths, stretch them between the two great opposing poles, because inside human beings is where God learns.

Suffering is nature's way of indicating a mistaken attitude or way of behavior, and to the nonegocentric person every moment of suffering is the opportunity for growth. People should rejoice in suffering, strange as it sounds, for this is a sign of the availability of energy to transform their characters.

Every test successfully met is rewarded by some growth in intuitive knowledge, strengthening of character, or initiation into a higher consciousness.