Charles R. Swindoll Quotes

You can only learn so much from books. You can only learn so much from education. Ultimately, it is the wisdom of God that will carry you through in the toughest situations of life.

Man has a viewpoint, but God has the view.

The question is, whether, like the Divine Child in the Temple, we are turning knowledge into wisdom, and whether, understanding more of the mysteries of life, we are feeling more of its sacred law; and whether, having left behind the priests and the scribes and the doctors and the fathers, we are about our Father's business, and becoming wise to God.

I'm just telling you, God permits things in our lives sometimes for reasons that we do not understand yet because of the spiritual level that we're on. We can't have any understanding of it, because we're not at a place of spiritual growth yet where we understand the deeper things of God.

A sense of our own folly is a great step towards being wise, when it leads us to rely on the wisdom of the Lord.

Paul Brunton's Notebooks are a veritable treasure-trove of philosophic-spiritual wisdom.

Note that venerable proverb: Children and fools always speak the truth. The deduction is plain: adults and wise persons never speak it.

Often God will send us what we need in a package we don't want. Why? To let us know He's God and we cannot second-guess Him. We cannot search for answers merely with our heads; we must seek Him and His provision with our hearts. Scripture cannot be interpreted from our limited human mental understanding. There must be a breath of the Spirit of God. He alone gives wise counsel and correct application.

Wisdom is the capacity to see things from God's viewpoint.

The Bible offers three metaphors that teach us God's view of life: Life is a test, life is a trust, and life is a temporary assignment.

Prayer is the act of seeing reality from God's point of view.

The nearest each of us can come to God is by loving the truth.

Allow me to offer a simple definition of wisdom. Wisdom is looking at life from God's point of view.

Religion is consciousness-raising. It raises you higher than the problem, it gives you a bird's-eye view.

There's a fire that burns away the lies, manifesting in the spiritual eye.

Miracles are like candles lit up until the sun rises, and then blown out. Therefore, I am amused when I hear sects and churches talk about having evidence of Divine authority because they have miracles. Miracles in our time are like candles in the street at midday. We do not want miracles. They are to teach men how to find out truths themselves; and after they have learned this, they no more need them than a well man needs a staff, or a grown-up child needs a walking-stool.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and they that lack the beginning have neither middle nor end

Godliness is the child of truth, and it must be nursed by its own mother.

Preceptive wisdom that has not been vivified by life has in itself no affinity for life.

Whatever separates you from the Truth, throw it away, it will vanish anyhow.

It has been wisely said that you can take a child of God, put him in a dungeon with a Bible and a candle and lock him away, and he will know more about what's going on in today's world with the Word of God than all the pundits in Washington.

As I read the Bible, it seems clear that God satisfies his "eternal appetite" by loving individual human beings. I imagine He views each halting step forward in my spiritual "walk" with the eagerness of a parent watching a child take the very first step.

That is the first thing to learn - not to seek. When you seek you are really only window-shopping. The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality, or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosophers or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself and that is why you must know yourself. Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self. To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.