Quotes from John Calvin

Sometimes it seems things go by too quickly. We are so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take the time to enjoy where we are.

The more closely we see ourselves being watched by our enemies, the more time intent we should be to avoid their slanders.

The invention of the arts, and other things which serve the common use and convenience of life, is a gift of God by no means to be despised, and a faculty worthy of commendation.

I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.

The Creation is quite like a spacious and splendid house, provided and filled with the most exquisite, and at the same time, the most abundant furnishings. Everything in it tells of God.

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

We must remember that Satan has his miracles, too.

The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.

Tears that are shed in time of affliction are rarely tears of penitence, but more likely they are shed out of self pity and pain or sorrow.

Scripture urges and warns us that whatever favors we may have obtained from the Lord, we have received them as a trust on condition that they should be applied to the common benefit of the church.

The door is closed to prayer unless it is opened with the key of trust.

It is amazing how much our lack of trust provokes God if we request of him a boon that we do not expect

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.

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

The only right stewardship is that which is tested by the rule of love.

There is no golden mean between these two extremes; either this early life must become low in our estimation, or it will have our inordinate love.

I have never seen either a drop of piety or a grain of truth or ingenuousness - nay, I have never found common sense in any Jew.

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.

All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors.

men are undoubtedly more in danger from prosperity than from adversity. for when matters go smoothly, they flatter themselves, and are intoxicated by their success

To search for wisdom apart from Christ means not simply foolhardiness but utter insanity.

For astronomy is not only pleasant, but also very useful to be known: it cannot be denied that this art unfolds the admirable wisdom of God.

The true wisdom of man consists in the knowledge of God the creator and Redeemer.

So great and boundless is God's wisdom that he knows right well how to use evil instruments to do good.