317 quotes
Charles Spurgeon Quotes
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was an English Baptist preacher known as “the Prince of Preachers.” A devoted student of the Puritans, he read and recommended them constantly, and his own sermons carry the same rich imagery and searching, Christ-centred power. These are among his most quoted lines.
“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.”
“Hope itself is like a star, not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.”
“Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.”
“A Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't.”
“When your will is God's will, you will have your will.”
“Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else.”
“Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows which hope has opened.”
“By perseverance the snail reached the ark.”
“Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself, be sure of that!”
“If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.”
“A good character is the best tombstone. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.”
“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it.”
“Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.”
“If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men.”
“If you can't see His way past the tears, trust His heart.”
“It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.”
“I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages.”
“You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.”
“The Lord's mercy often rides to the door of our heart upon the black horse of affliction.”
“A Jesus who never wept could never wipe away my tears.”
“The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.”
“That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which God abhors.”
“Have your heart right with Christ, and he will turn weekdays into Sundays, meals into sacraments, homes into temples, and earth into heaven.”
“Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend.”
“A little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a great faith will bring heaven to your soul.”
“God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”
“The Christian should work as if all depended upon him, and pray as if it all depended upon God.”
“If you are renewed by grace, and were to meet your old self, I am sure you would be very anxious to get out of his company.”
“Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.”
“Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.”
“Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.”
“If we never have headaches through rebuking our children, we shall have plenty of heartaches when they grow up.”
“Let eloquence be flung to the dogs rather than souls be lost. What we want is to win souls.”
“I have a great need for Christ: I have a great Christ for my need.”
“You cannot slander human nature; it is worse than words can paint it.”
“The day we find the perfect church, it becomes imperfect the moment we join it.”
“If I am not today all that I hope to be, yet I see Jesus, and that assures me that I shall one day be like Him.”
“Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself.”
“To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly.”
“When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight.”
“Begin as you mean to go on, and go on as you began, and let the Lord be all in all to you.”
“When you see a man with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon it he keeps a very small stock of it within.”
“If Christ has died for me, I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend.”
“An ounce of heart knowledge is worth more than a ton of head learning.”
“The greatest joy of a Christian is to give joy to Christ.”
“Conversion is a turning onto the right road. The next thing to do is to walk on it.”
“Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin.”
“He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.”
“Six feet of dirt make all men equal.”
“As for His failing you, never dream of it, hate the thought of it. The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end.”
“Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.”
“Stale godliness is ungodliness. Let our religion be as warm, and constant, and natural as the flow of the blood in our veins.”
“God's thoughts of you are many, let not yours be few in return.”
“Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible.”
“Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have always met with will, either led captive by sin or held in the blessed bonds of grace.”
“O child of God, be more concentrated in heart in seeking His glory, and you will see the loving-kindness and the tender mercy of the Lord in your life.”
“Faith is not a blind thing; for faith begins with knowledge. It is not a speculative thing; for faith believes facts of which it is sure.”
“Let your cares drive you to God. I shall not mind if you have many of them if each one leads you to prayer.”
“A sheep in the midst of wolves is safe compared with the Christian in the midst of ungodly men.”
“Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. The spade of trouble digs the reservoir of comfort deeper.”
“We shall not adjust our Bible to the age; but before we have done with it, by God's grace, we shall adjust the age to the Bible.”
“Revival begins by Christians getting right first and then spills over into the world.”
“There is no repentance where a man can talk lightly of sin, much less where he can speak tenderly and lovingly of it.”
“All the devils in hell and tempters on earth could do us no injury if there were no corruption in our own natures.”
“Evil things are easy things: for they are natural to our fallen nature. Right things are rare flowers that need cultivation.”
“We are responsible for the Gospel that is preached, and for the way in which we preach it.”
“Newspapers are the Bibles of worldlings. How diligently they read them!”
“The nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart.”
“Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.”
“Man's wonder grows with his knowledge.”
“I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer is this, that I may die to self, and live wholly to Him.”
“The Word of God will be to you a bulwark and a high tower, a castle of defense against the foe.”
“Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.”
“Every promise of Scripture is a writing of God, which may be pleaded before Him with this reasonable request, 'Do as Thou hast said.”
“Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to tremendous difficulties.”
“It is not great faith, but true faith, that saves; and the salvation lies not in the faith, but in the Christ in whom faith trusts.”
“Love for God is obedience; love for God is holiness. To love God and to love man is to be conformed to the image of Christ.”
“He who does not hate the false does not love the true.”
“The more objects you set your heart upon, the more thorns there are to tear your peace of mind to shreds.”
“Prayer bends the omnipotence of heaven to your desire. Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.”
“It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.”
“Affliction hardens those whom it does not soften.”
“Let us measure ourselves by our Master, and not by our fellow-servants, then pride will be impossible.”
“The saints shall persevere in holiness, because God perseveres in grace.”
“Wherever Jesus may lead us, He goes before us. If we don't know where we are going, we know with whom we go.”
“You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing.”
“Our motto is, 'With God, anywhere; without God, nowhere.”
“His mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners after great lengths of time, then raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God!”
“When you speak of heaven, let your face light up. When you speak of hell, your everyday face will do.”
“I must take care above all that I cultivate communion with Christ.”
“True humility is a flower which will adorn any garden.”
“The Word of God is like a lion. You don't have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.”
“To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus.”
“By all means read the Puritans, they are worth more than all the modern stuff put together.”
“The worst thing thou hast to fear is the treachery of thine own heart.”
“None but God would ever have thought of justifying me. I am a wonder to myself.”
“Faith never makes herself her own plea, she rests all her argument upon the blood of Christ.”
“Humility makes us ready to be blessed by the God of all grace.”
“Remember that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance.”
“I do not preach doubtingly, for I do not live doubtingly.”
“When we cannot pray as we would, it is good to pray as we can.”
“There are no crown-bearers in heaven that were not cross-bearers here below.”
“God's law is our pleasure when the God of the law is our God.”
“The way to do a great deal is to keep on doing a little.”
“When John Knox went upstairs to plead with God for Scotland, it was the greatest event in Scottish history.”
“Forgive, as you hope to be forgiven.”
“Young people, you must pray, for your passions are strong, but your wisdom is little.”
“God never loses sight of the treasure which He has placed in our earthen vessels.”
“If I feel myself disinclined to pray, then is the time when I need to pray more than ever.”
“I would not give a penny for your love to the truth if it is not accompanied with a hearty hatred of error.”
“Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven.”
“Ministers should be stars to give light, not clouds to obscure.”
“To preach the gospel is to state every doctrine contained in God's Word, and to give every truth its proper prominence.”
“It is not great faith but true faith that saves.”
“Speech is silver, but silence is golden when hearers are inattentive.”
“It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus.”
“The iron bolt which so mysteriously fastens the door of hope and holds our spirits in gloomy prison, needs a heavenly hand to push it back.”
“You have not read till you understand the spirit of the matter.”
“A rejoicing heart soon makes a praising tongue.”
“Throw away the servility of imitation, and rise to the manliness of originality.”
“Of two evils, choose neither.”
“When we cannot trace God's hand, we must simply trust His heart.”
“Be not guided by the will-o'-the-wisp of policy, but by the pole-star of divine authority.”
“That same spirit which makes us love the praise of men makes us dread the threats of men.”
“Your own opinion of your state is not worth much. Ask the Lord to search you.”
“It is foolish to be lavish in words and niggardly in truth.”
“Jesus does not cherish an offense, loving us as well after the offense as before it.”
“Faith is the road, but communion with Jesus is the well from which the pilgrim drinks.”
“It is not your hold of Christ that saves you, but His hold of you.”
“If you will have Jesus, He has you already.”
“Prayer is the safest method of replying to a word of hatred.”
“Salvation is all of grace, which means, free, gratis, for nothing.”
“A whetstone, though it cannot cut, may sharpen a knife that will.”
“The law is for the self-righteous, to humble their pride: the gospel is for the lost, to remove their despair.”
“No man ever served God by doing things tomorrow.”
“May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock!”
“There would be nobody to receive mercy if nobody were guilty.”
“Tale-bearing emits a threefold poison; for it injures the teller, the hearer, and the person concerning whom the tale is told.”
“A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are as easy as an old shoe are generally of as little worth.”
“Take courage! Royal feet have left a blood-red track upon the road, and consecrated the thorny path for ever.”
“Nonsense does not improve by being bellowed.”
“Idleness and luxury are the devil's jackals, and find him abundant prey.”
“He is truly great in power who hath power over himself.”
“The most likely man to go to hell is the man who has nothing to do on earth.”
“Since man ceases not to be sinful, it is a great blessing that Jehovah ceases not to be merciful.”
“You know not what joys may be stored up for you in the cottage around which grace will plant the roses of content.”
“Great numbers of persons care more about their cats and dogs than about their souls.”
“If the enemy begins to love one of the king's generals, the king may half suspect that his general is turning traitor.”
“He who comes forth fresh from beholding the face of God will never fear the face of man.”
“Love should give wings to the feet of service, and strength to the arms of labour.”
“I had rather have God for my banker than all the Rothschilds.”
“There is nothing Christ dislikes more than for His people to make a showpiece of Him and not to use Him.”
“The heart is as insatiable as the grave till Jesus enters it, and then it is a cup full to overflowing.”
“Christians are not so much in danger when they are persecuted as when they are admired.”
“Faith exists in different persons in various degrees, according to the amount of their knowledge or growth in grace.”
“He comes, not because we are just, but to make us so: he justifieth the ungodly.”
“Faith is as precious to die by as to live by.”
“The Lord knows that you cannot change your own heart, and cannot cleanse your own nature; but He knows that He can do both.”
“Never go hungry while the daily bread of grace is on the table of mercy.”
“Doubt not his grace because of thy tribulation, but believe that he loveth thee as much in trouble as in times of happiness.”
“The streaming wounds of Jesus are the sure guarantees for answered prayer.”
“It is a very ill omen to hear a wicked world clap its hands and shout 'Well done' to the Christian man.”
“A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it.”
“If we remember that all the trees of earth are marked for the woodman's axe, we will not be so ready to build our nests in them.”
“A little stay on earth will make heaven more heavenly. Nothing makes rest so sweet as toil.”
“You will win as many souls as God gives you, but no one will be converted by your own power.”
“When you plead the name of Christ, you plead that which shakes the gates of hell and that which the hosts of heaven obey.”
“I, who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had been deserving.”
“Dream of yoking a gnat with an archangel, and then imagine that you can help your Lord in the work of salvation.”
“Jesus bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it.”
“Each burden we have to carry has once been laid on the shoulders of Immanuel.”
“Say not my soul, 'From whence can God relieve my care?' Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.”
“Take up your own daily cross; it is the burden best suited for your shoulder.”
“Every man, every woman, every child whose heart is right with God, may be a soul-winner.”
“A true prayer is an inventory of needs, a catalog of necessities, an exposure of secret wounds.”
“Scripture is like a lion. Who ever heard of defending a lion? Just turn it loose; it will defend itself.”
“If we cannot all feel alike, we can all feed alike on the Bread of Life.”
“It is true that we endure trials, but it is just as true that we are delivered out of them.”
“Sin has sprung from a royal though evil stock, and if it be in the heart, it will struggle for the throne.”
“Slavish fear brings not back the backslider to God, but the sweet wooings of love allure him to Jesus' bosom.”
“The more grace we have, the less we shall think of ourselves, for grace, like light, reveals our impurity.”
“A godly man often grows best when his worldly circumstances decay.”
“Be interested yourself, and you will interest others.”
“No man of God need be astonished at slander, as though some strange thing had happened unto him.”
“If you profess to be a Christian, yet find full satisfaction in worldly pleasures, your profession is false.”
“If God's mercies were to come to us unasked, they would not be half as useful as they now are.”
“We, the called and faithful and chosen, will drive away our griefs, and set up our banners of confidence in the name of God.”
“We must meditate, brothers. These grapes will yield no wine till we tread upon them.”
“God does not need your strength; He has more than enough power of His own! He asks for your weakness.”
“If we were more near to Jesus, we would be more near to one another.”
“Whether our Master shall say, 'Go' or 'Stay,' let us be equally well pleased as long as He indulges us with His presence.”
“Conceit is to be dreaded, but so is cowardice.”
“Prayer must not be our chance work, but our daily business, our habit and vocation.”
“You may lose a great deal for Christ, but you will never lose anything by Christ.”
“If ever your whole manhood was engaged in anything, let it be in drawing near unto God in public.”
“I feel myself to be a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap of sin, apart from His almighty love.”
“Humiliation of soul always brings a positive blessing with it. If we empty our hearts of self, God will fill them with his love.”
“A brother's sympathy is more precious than an angel's embassy.”
“God will not use dead tools for working living miracles.”
“As all the rivers run into the sea, so all delights centre in our Beloved.”
“May infinite wisdom cure us of the madness of self-confidence.”
“One thought fixed upon the mind will be better than fifty thoughts flittering across the ear.”
“It is a most blessed thing to have no props and no buttresses, but to stand upright on the Rock of Ages.”
“If it pleases Him to bid our patience exercise itself, shall He not do as He wills with His own!”
“Be wise and attend to obeying. Let Christ manage the providing.”
“One good deed is more worth than a thousand brilliant theories.”
“Proxy religion involves too great a risk: you had better see to your soul's matters yourself.”
“He who often thinks of God will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe.”
“To have sweet sleep we must have sweet lives, sweet tempers, sweet meditations, and sweet love.”
“To a great extent in spiritual things we get what we expect of the Lord.”
“If there could be regrets in heaven, the saints might mourn that they did not live longer here to do more good.”
“Morning dawns when the grace overcomes nature.”
“God has made all things that are in the world to be our teachers.”
“The most important daily habit we can possess is to remind ourselves of the gospel.”
“Most of us think too much of speech, which is but the shell of thought.”
“The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.”
“The most difficult book you will ever read is your own heart.”
“Wean our heart from every creature Thee to love and Thee alone.”
“The increase of the kingdom is more to be desired than the growth of a clan.”
“We can never be happy, restful, or spiritually healthy till we become holy.”
“In Him you have redemption, out of Him you are in bondage.”
“Wherever the Lord makes a provision, we are quite sure that there was a need for it.”
“Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not the apologist of sin.”
“Willful ignorance is in itself willful sin, and the evil that comes of it is without excuse.”
“It is in vain when conscience is aroused to fly to feelings and evidences for comfort.”
“There must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give thee victory.”
“All men are negligent of their souls till grace gives them reason.”
“To give to others is but sowing seed for ourselves.”
“God is full of love, for 'God is love.' God is full of goodness; the very name 'God' is short for 'good.”
“Those who feed upon the Word grow strong and peaceful and are by God's grace hidden from the strife of tongues.”
“There is a wide distinction between confessing sin as a culprit, and confessing sin as a child.”
“We ought to prepare the sermon as if all depended on us, and then trust the Spirit of God, knowing that all depends on Him.”
“Let us take all our perplexities to Him, and say, 'Lord, what will you have me to do?”
“We may explain faith till nobody understands it.”
“Happy is he who believes the promise and feels assured of its fulfillment, leaving all else in the hands of infinite wisdom and love.”
“He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet.”
“The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words, will be well understood by the Most High.”
“If some talents were withheld, the Withholder knows why. He has done all things well.”
“The best way to preach men to Christ is to preach Christ to men.”
“Faith is as much the gift of God as is the Saviour upon whom that faith relies.”
“He makes those just who are unjust, forgives those who deserve to be punished, and favors those who deserve no favor.”
“A graceless pastor is a blind man elected to a professorship of optics.”
“Down deep in His innermost soul Christ carried an inexhaustible treasury of refined and heavenly joy.”
“Get temperance of lip, life, heart, and thought.”
“The bruised Savior is the healing of bruised hearts.”
“Infinite wisdom never attempts that which is unnecessary.”
“As there is the most heat nearest to the sun, so there is the most happiness nearest to Christ.”
“If people loved good works as much as they pretend to, they would love the faith which produces them.”
“Faith is the work of God's grace in us. No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost.”
“No illustrations are half so telling as those which are taken from familiar objects.”
“The minister is not always in the act of prayer, but he is always in the spirit of it.”
“Solemn silence makes noble worship.”
“The grace that does not change my life will not save my soul.”
“He that goes before the cloud of God's providence goes on a fool's errand.”
“Do you feel yourself to be a lost, guilty sinner? Go straightway to the cross of Christ.”
“It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.”
“Common sense is as much needed in religion as anywhere else.”
“In all works of faith we may count upon Jesus' fellowship.”
“Do you not see that the word, 'God with us,' puts impossibility out of all existence?”
“Despondency is not a virtue; I believe it is a vice.”
“In the Red Sea of His own blood, our Redeemer has drowned the Pharaoh of our sins!”
“You never require a teacher to lead you into the wrong path, but you do require a kindly word to conduct you aright.”
“God had one Son without sin, but not a single child without the rod.”
“Noah was so shut in that no evil could reach him. Floods did but lift him heavenward, and winds did but waft him on his way.”
“God's promises were never meant to be thrown aside as wastepaper; He intended that they should be used.”
“Backward we are naturally to all good things, and it is a lesson of grace to learn to go forward in the ways of God.”
“Simulated ardor is a shameful form of lying.”
“Communion with Christ is a certain cure for every ill.”
“The only restorative for a guilty conscience is a sight of Jesus suffering on the cross.”
“The surest way to abstain from evil is to be fully occupied in doing good.”
“It is not a brave thing to trust God. To true believers, it is a sweet necessity.”
“We are never so free as when we own our sacred serfdom.”
“He who has loved you and pardoned you will never cease to love and pardon.”
“Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness, or more hopeful than contrition.”
“What the law could not do Jesus has done.”
“The cross of Christ is in itself an offence to the world; let us take heed that we add no offence of our own.”
“There is no spiritual favour which may not be a matter for heart-searching.”
“God's smile and a dungeon are enough for a true heart!”
“There is no motive for holiness so great as that which streams from the veins of Jesus.”
“When we deal seriously with our sin, God will deal gently with us.”
“To injure our fellow men is sin, mainly because in so doing we violate the law of God.”
“The joy of pardon has a voice louder than the voice of sin.”
“The heart is the rudder of the soul, and till the Lord take it in hand we steer in a false and foul way.”
“Faith grows by the exercise of prayer.”
“A great sinner pardoned makes a great singer.”
“Pardon of sin must ever be an act of pure mercy.”
“A heart crushed is a fragrant heart.”
“Meditation is the soul of religion.”
“Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus through another person's acquaintance with Him.”
“Too many think lightly of sin, and therefore think lightly of the Savior.”
“If there were no hell, the loss of heaven would be hell.”
“The best sermon is that in which the theme absorbs the preacher and hearers, and leaves no one either time or desire to think about the speaker.”
“To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in this world.”
“Let this be to you the mark of true Gospel preaching, where Christ is everything, and the creature is nothing.”
“God gave me this great book to preach from, and if He has put anything in it you think is not fit, go and complain to Him, not to me.”
“I am the messenger. If you do not like the message quarrel with the Bible, not with me.”
“The higher a man is in grace, the lower he will be in his own esteem.”
“It always seems inexplicable that those who claim free will so boldly for man should not also allow some free will to God.”
“Once there was free will in paradise, and a terrible mess free will made there, for it turned Adam out of the garden.”
“I do not come into this pulpit hoping that somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter.”
“You are no Christian if you do not pray. A prayerless soul is a Christless soul.”
“It is not a matter of time so much as a matter of heart. If you have the heart to pray, you will find the time.”
“He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has heaven and earth at his disposal.”
“My faith rests not in what I am, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is doing for me.”
“I am throwing all my good works overboard, and lashing myself to the plank of free grace; for I hope to swim to glory on it.”
“No water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand. And no faith is so precious as that which triumphs through adversity.”
“There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech.”
“We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God.”
“Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.”
“Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”
“To trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust him in the dark, that is faith.”
“Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.”
“A student is more affected by one book truly mastered than by twenty books he has merely skimmed.”
“I bear my witness that the worst days I have ever had have turned out to be my best days.”
“Love letters from heaven are often sent in black-edged envelopes.”
“The cloud that is black with horror is big with mercy.”
“Is there nothing to sing about today? Then borrow a song from tomorrow; sing of what is yet to be.”