John Calvin Quotes

When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.

For the fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.

We shall never be clothed with the righteousness of Christ except we first know assuredly that we have no righteousness of our own.

Whatever a person may be like, we must still love them because we love God.

Prayer doesn't change things - God changes things in answer to prayer.

I gave up all for Christ, and what have I found? Everything in Christ.

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.

While all men seek after happiness, scarcely one in a hundred looks for it from God.

Only those who have learned well to be earnestly dissatisfied with themselves, and to be confounded with shame at their wretchedness truly understand the Christian gospel.

When I took the leap, I had faith I would find a net; Instead I learned I could fly.

Faith is like an empty, open hand stretched out towards God, with nothing to offer and everything to recieve

Humility is the beginning of true intelligence.

If a preacher is not first preaching to himself, better that he falls on the steps of the pulpit and breaks his neck than preaches that sermon.

We should ask God to increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when it is overthrown.

God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.

Whoever is not satisfied with Christ alone, strives after something beyond absolute perfection.

Nothing is more dangerous than to be blinded by prosperity.

The happiness promised us in Christ does not consist in outward advantages-such as leading a joyous and peaceful life, having rich possessions, being safe from all harm, and abounding with delights such as the flesh commonly longs after. No, our happiness belongs to the heavenly life!

To be Christians under the law of grace does not mean to wander unbridled outside the law, but to be engrafted in Christ, by whose grace we are free from the curse of the law, and by whose Spirit we have the law engraved upon our hearts.

There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make men rejoice.

The excellence of the Church does not consist in multitude but in purity.

The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.

Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.

The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life.

We must not think that [God] takes no notice of us, when He does not answer our wishes: for He has a right to distinguish what we actually need.

It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone.

Whenever the Lord holds us in suspense, and delays his aid, he is not therefore asleep, but, on the contrary, regulates all His works in such a manner that he does nothing but at the proper time.

We are nowhere forbidden to laugh, or be satisfied with food...or to be delighted with music or to drink wine.

God works in his elect in two ways: inwardly, by his Spirit; outwardly, by his Word.

For what is idolatry if not this: to worship the gifts in place of the Giver himself?

Peace is not to be purchased by the sacrifice of truth.

There is no work, however vile or sordid, that does not glisten before God.

If God does nothing random, there must always be something to learn.

No man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open unto all men: neither is there any other thing which keepeth us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief.

The blindness of unbelievers in no way detracts from the clarity of the gospel; the sun is no less bright because blind men do not perceive its light.

We should never insult others on account of their faults, for it is our duty to show charity and respect to everyone.

Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols.

A man will be justified by faith when, excluded from righteousness of works, he by faith lays hold of the righteousness of Christ, and clothed in it, appears in the sight of God not as a sinner, but as righteous.

Our assurance, our glory, and the sole anchor of our salvation are that Christ the Son of God is ours, and we in turn are in him sons of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven, called to the hope of eternal blessedness by God's grace, not by our worth.

True wisdom consists in two things: Knowledge of God and Knowledge of Self.

Unless God's Word illumine the way, the whole life of men is wrapped in darkness and mist, so that they cannot but miserably stray.

The Lord has not redeemed you so you might enjoy pleasures and luxuries or so that you might abandon yourself to ease and indolence, but rather so you should be prepared to endure all sorts of evils.

Repentance is the true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and earnest fear of Him; and it consists in the mortification of the flesh and the renewing of the Spirit.

God tolerates even our stammering, and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us - as, indeed, without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray.

You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy.

How do we know that God has elected us before the creation of the world? By believing in Jesus Christ.

Let it stand, therefore, as an indubitable truth, which no engines can shake, that the mind of man is so entirely alienated from the righteousness of God that he cannot conceive, desire, or design any thing but what is wicked, distorted, foul, impure, and iniquitous; that his heart is so thoroughly envenomed by sin that it can breathe out nothing but corruption and rottenness; that if some men occasionally make a show of goodness, their mind is ever interwoven with hypocrisy and deceit, their soul inwardly bound with the fetters of wickedness.

For we are not all equally afflicted with the same disease or all in need of the same severe cure. This is the reason why we see different persons disciplined with different crosses. The heavenly Physician takes care of the well-being of all his patients; he gives some a milder medicine and purifies others by more shocking treatments, but he omits no one; for the whole world, without exception, is ill (Deut 32:15).

We may rest assured that God would never have suffered any infants to be slain except those who were already damned and predestined for eternal death.

Men will never worship God with a sincere heart, or be roused to fear and obey Him with sufficient zeal, until they properly understand how much they are indebted to His mercy.