Peter Marshall Quotes

May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.

Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.

The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. I am rather tired of hearing about our rights and privileges as Americans. The time is come - it is now - when we ought to hear about the duties and responsibilities of our citizenship. America's future depends upon her accepting and demonstrating God's government.

God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty.

Lord, where we are wrong, make us willing to change; where we are right, make us easy to live with.

You are leaving port under sealed orders and in a troubled period. You cannot know whither you are going or what you are to do. But why not take the Pilot on board who knows the nature of your sealed orders from the outset, and who will shape your entire voyage accordingly? He knows the shoals and the sand banks, the rocks and the reefs, He will steer you safely into that celestial harbor where your anchor will be cast for eternity. Let His almighty nail-pierced hands hold the wheel, and you will be safe.

Most of us know perfectly well what we ought to do; our trouble is that we do not want to do it.

No tabloid will ever print the startling news that the mummified body of Jesus of Nazareth has been discovered in old Jerusalem. Christians have no carefully embalmed body enclosed in a glass case to worship. Thank God, we have an empty tomb. The glorious fact that the empty tomb proclaims to us is that life for us does not stop when death comes. Death is not a wall, but a door.

A different world cannot be built by indifferent people.

Unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.

The modern challenge to motherhood is the eternal challenge--that of being a godly woman. The very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other type of women: beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career women, talented women, divorced women. But so seldom to we hear of a godly woman--or of a godly man either, for that matter. I believe women come nearer to fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else.

In the name of Jesus Christ, who was never in a hurry, we pray, O God, that You will slow us down, for we know that we live too fast. With all of eternity before us, make us take time to live---time to get acquainted with You, time to enjoy Your blessings, and time to know each other.

Above all, we should question the consumer ethic, which uses up non-renewable resources, creates inequality and injustice, generates pollution, destroys other species and upsets the balance of nature. The consumer ethic not only defiles the environment by creating undesirable change in the biosphere but also corrupts the mind and body by defining pleasure in terms of ownership and absorption. Waste itself is a human concept; everything in nature is eventually used. If human beings carry on in their present ways, they will one day be recycled along with the dinosaurs.

We pray Thee, O Christ, to keep us under the spell of immortality. My we never again think and act as if Thou were dead. Let us more and more come to know Thee as a living Lord who hath promised to them that believe: "Because I live, ye shall live also." Help us to remember that we are praying to the Conqueror of Death, that we may no longer be afraid nor dismayed by the world's problems and threats, since Thou hast overcome the world. In Thy strong name, we ask for Thy living presence and Thy victorious power. Amen.

The proof of how real Jesus knew hell to be is that He came to earth to save us from it.

If God does not enter your kitchen, there is something wrong with your kitchen. If you can't take God into your recreation, there is something wrong with your play. We all believe in the God of the heroic. What we need most these days is the God of the humdrum, the commonplace, the everyday.

God hasn't given up on you. He can still do great things for you, in you, and through you. God is ready and waiting and able. What about you, and me?

Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work.

Let us not fool ourselves - without Christianity, without Christian education, without the principles of Christ inculcated into young life, we are simply rearing pagans.

It is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail.

Give according to your income lest God make your income according to your giving.

The use of the right word, the exact word, is the difference between a pencil with a sharp point and a thick crayon.

If you hug to yourself any resentment against anybody else, you destroy the bridge by which God would come to you.

The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration.

Christianity is a power religion. Christ has the power to re-create men from the inside out, as every man who has ever met Him knows.

Anarchism as a political philosophy seeks to dissolve all forms of authority and power, and if possible, wishes their complete abolition.

Enthusiasm is not contrary to reason; it is reason - on fire.

Get off, you look ugly (to a blood splattered player during a game)

The resurrection never becomes a fact of experience until the risen Lord lives in the heart of the believer.

Godly enthusiasm is not a fire of our own kindling...If a man, however, has caught fire, let me not quench the Spirit by dampening the ardor of his pure devotion. Enthusiasm is not contrary to reason; it is reason - on fire.

The aim is not therefore to liberate some 'essential self' by throwing off the burden of government and the State, but to develop the self in creative and voluntary relations with others.

Whatever its future success as a historical movement, anarchism will remain a fundamental part of human experience, for the drive for freedom is one of our deepest needs and the vision of a free society is one of our oldest dreams. Neither can ever be fully repressed; both will outlive all rulers and their States.