Charles Spurgeon Quotes

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. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.

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.

A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats

Whatever a man depends upon, whatever rules his mind, whatever governs his affections, whatever is the chief object of his delight, is his god.

You may fear that the Lord has passed you by, but it is not so: he who counts the stars, and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting his own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature he ever made, or the only saint he ever loved. Approach him and be at peace.

The Bible is not the light of the world, it is the light of the Church. But the world does not read the Bible, the world reads Christians! “You are the light of the world.”

You and I cannot be useful if we want to be sweet as honey in the mouths of men. God will never bless us if we wish to please men, that they may think well of us. Are you willing to tell them what will break your own heart in the telling and break theirs in the hearing? If not, you are not fit to serve the Lord. You must be willing to go and speak for God, though you will be rejected.

You will never know the fullness of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything but Christ.

My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, HE is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me. Hallelujah!

If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him, for you are worse than he thinks you to be.

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. When you are so weak that you cannot do much more than cry, you coin diamonds with both your eyes. The sweetest prayers God ever hears are the groans and sighs of those who have no hope in anything but his love.

I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.

My faith rests not in what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is doing for me.

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.

There must be a divorce between you and sin, or there can be no marriage between you and Christ.

The Word of God is the anvil upon which the opinions of men are smashed.

Prayer pulls the rope below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly. Others give but an occasional pluck at the rope. But he who wins with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously, with all his might.

When your will is God's will, you will have your will.

We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously He once waited for us.

Whenever God means to make a man great, he always breaks him in pieces first.

If you wish to know God, you must know his Word. If you wish to perceive His power, you must see how He works by his Word. If you wish to know His purpose before it comes to pass, you can only discover it by His Word.

When Satan cannot get a great sin in he will let a little one in, like the thief who goes and finds shutters all coated with iron and bolted inside. At last he sees a little window in a chamber. He cannot get in, so he puts a little boy in, that he may go round and open the back door. So the devil has always his little sins to carry about with him to go and open back doors for him, and we let one in and say, 'O, it is only a little one.' Yes, but how that little one becomes the ruin of the entire man!

God does not need your strength: he has more than enough of power of his own. He asks your weakness: he has none of that himself, and he is longing, therefore, to take your weakness, and use it as the instrument in his own mighty hand. Will you not yield your weakness to him, and receive his strength?

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

It's a good thing God chose me before I was born, because he surely would not have afterwards.

We must all learn to hear what we do not like. The question is not, 'Is it pleasant?' but, 'Is it true?'

God has so made man's heart that nothing can ever fill it but God himself.

I have a great need for Christ: I have a great Christ for my need.

The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

By perseverance the snail reached the ark.

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 He be something He must be everything, and if He be not everything He is nothing to you.

Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows which hope has opened.

The more you read the Bible; and the more you meditate on it, the more you will be astonished with it.

May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock!

Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.

A prayerless church member is a hindrance. He is in the body like a rotting bone or a decayed tooth. Before long, since he does not contribute to the benefit of his brethren, he will become a danger and a sorrow to them. Neglect of private prayer is the locust which devours the strength of the church.

Nearness to God brings likeness to God. The more you see God the more of God will be seen in you.

There is an essential difference between the decease of the godly and the death of the ungodly. Death comes to the ungodly man as a penal infliction, but to the righteous as a summons to his Father's palace. To the sinner it is an execution, to the saint an undressing from his sins and infirmities. Death to the wicked is the King of terrors. Death to the saint is the end of terrors, the commencement of glory.

I am the subject of depression so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to. But I always get back again by this-I know that I trust Christ. I have no reliance but in Him, and if He falls, I shall fall with Him. But if He does not, I shall not. Because He lives, I shall live also, and I spring to my legs again and fight with my depressions of spirit and get the victory through it. And so may you do, and so you must, for there is no other way of escaping from it.

God works all things together for your good. If the waves roll against you, it only speeds your ship towards the port

Look to the cross, and hate your sin, for sin nailed your Well Beloved to the tree. Look up to the cross, and you will kill sin, for the strength of Jesus' love will make you strong to put down your tendencies to sin.

We cannot rely on ourselves, for we have learned by bitter experience the folly of self-confidence. We are compelled to look to the Lord alone. Blessed is the wind that drives the ship into the harbor. Blessed is the distress that forces us to rest in our God.

The early morning hour should be dedicated to praise: do not the birds set us the example?

Hang that question up in your houses, "What would Jesus do?" and then think of another, "How would Jesus do it?" for what he would do, and how he would do it, may always stand as the best guide to us.

I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than this, the measure of the intensity of your prayer.

When you go through a trial, the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which you lay your head.

God is our portion, Christ our companion, the Spirit our Comforter, Earth our lodge, and Heaven is our home.

We cannot always trace God's hand but we can always trust God's heart.