God could, if I may say so, more easily have made a new world of innocent creatures, and have governed them by the old covenant, than have established this new one for the salvation of poor sinners; but then, where had been the glory of forgiveness? It could not have been known that there was forgiveness with Him. The old covenant could not have been preserved and sinners pardoned. Wherefore, God choose to leave the covenant than sinners unrelieved, than grace unexalted and pardon unexercised... Will we continue on the old bottom of the first covenant? All we can do therein is to set thorns and briars in the way of God, to secure ourselves from His coming against us and upon us with His indignation and fury. Our sins are so, and our righteousness is no better. And what will be the issue? Both they and we shall be trodden down, consumed, and burnt up. What way, then, what remedy is left unto us? Only this of laying hold on the arm and strength of God in that covenant wherein forgiveness of sin is provided.

We can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision.

Pleasure's couch is virtue's grave.

Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I'll show you a man with detestable spiritual qualities.

When women hold off from marrying men, we call it independence. When men hold off from marrying women, we call it fear of commitment.

Eternal rest sounds comforting in the pulpit; well, you try it once, and see how heavy time will hang on your hands.

Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation ... A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind.

The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.

The politicians don't just want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless. When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both.

Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual? We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, "to be free from freedom.".

Decisions are the endless uncertainties of life that we'll not know if theyre right until the very end, so do the best you can and hope its right.

What means this heaviness that hangs upon me? This lethargy that creeps through all my senses? Nature, oppress'd and harrass'd out with care, Sinks down to rest.

Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.

The map is not the territory.

God did not write a book and send it by messenger to be read at a distance by unaided minds. He spoke a Book and lives in His spoken words, constantly speaking His words and causing the power of them to persist across the years.

A mathematician's reputation rests on the number of bad proofs he has given.

Christianity is not a voice in the wilderness, but a life in the world. It is not an idea in the air but feet on the ground going God's way. It is not an exotic to be kept under glass, but a hardy plant to bear twelve months of fruits in all kinds of weather. Fidelity to duty is its root and branch. Nothing we can say to the Lord, no calling Him by great or dear names, can take the place of the plain doing of His will. We may cry out about the beauty of eating bread with Him in His kingdom, but it is wasted breath and a rootless hope unless we plow and plant in His kingdom here and now. To remember Him at His table and to forget Him at ours, is to have invested in bad securities. There is no substitute for plain, every-day goodness.

It's very hard! Oh, Dick, my boy, It's very hard one can't enjoy A little private spouting, But sure as Lear or Hamlet lives, Up comes our master, Bounce! and gives The tragic Muse a routing.

The great mass of people will more easily fall victems to a big lie than to a small one.