Philip Yancey Quotes

Our Father and Our God, unto thee, O Lord we lift our souls.

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

I'd make a bad preacher.

Born again?! No, I'm not. Excuse me for getting it right the first time.

People come up to me and say, 'Can I just thank you for writing my life?' And I reply, 'I'm glad someone else is as idiotic as I am.'

I am just an ordinary Catholic.

Discipleship does not come from positions of prominence, wealth, or advanced learning. The disciples of Jesus came from all walks of life.

I'm pretty much a good Catholic girl at heart and I believe in family. I also have a basic belief that God takes care of me. I believe in prayer, even though I'm not that religious. I just have that foundation from my family. I mean when you think that you're just a human being and one of God's creatures, you can't take anything that seriously.

I cannot follow you Christians; for you try to crawl through your life upon your knees, while I stride through mine on my feet.

You gotta love these Christians, they're humble people.

I'm really happy that I was raised Catholic because it's given me years of material.

I'm about as big a star as the Baha'i faith has got, which is pretty pathetic.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console, To be understood as to understand, To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

I recommend that the people of this Commonwealth on November 26 refrain from their usual avocations and pursuits and assemble at their chosen place of worship, to praise the name of God and magnify Him with thanksgiving…. Let us thank him with Christian humility for health and prosperity…. Pray that our paths through life be directed by the example and instructions of the Redeemer, who dies that we might enjoy the blessings of eternal life in the world to come.

I ask everyone in Russia to pray for me, beginning with the bishops, whose whole life is a single prayer. I ask prayers also of those who humbly do not believe in the efficacy of their prayers, as well as of those who do not believe in prayer at all and even consider it useless.

In real life I don't chant. Nor do I believe in idol worship.

Believe it or not, I swear I'm just a human being.

To this day I always say my prayers on my knees 'cause I think maybe they get there sooner.

... Simone Weil is a mystery that should keep us all humble, and I need it more than most. Also she's the example of the religious consciousness without a religion which maybe sooner or later I will be able to write about.

All our prayers are addressed in the handwriting of the heart.

We can have no power from Christ unless we live in a persuasion that we have none of our own.

My artistic goal was to write something that's one hundred percent real and true to me and to this world. I tried to touch on truths that really connect with people from every avenue of life. Ultimately, when you write from a vantage point of faith, humility and openness to the world around you, people have to respond because those same truths are instilled in them. Honestly, I don't have any agenda other than being sincere, real, and passionate about these songs and the music I make.

Adam was a gardener, and God, who made him, sees that half of all good gardening is done upon the knees.

Ask for what you want, but be willing to take what God gives you. It may be better than what you asked for.

Never trust a theologian who doesn't have a sense of humor.