"Men have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge, in studies of natural things; but this is nothing to that joy which arises from divine light shining into the soul. This spiritual light is the dawning of the light of glory in the heart. There is nothing so powerful as this to support persons in affliction, and to give the mind peace and brightness in this stormy and dark world. This knowledge will wean from the world, and raise the inclination to heavenly things. It will turn the heart to God as the fountain of good, and to choose him for the only portion. This light, and this only, will bring the soul to a saving close with Christ. It conforms the heart to the gospel, mortifies its enmity and opposition against the scheme of salvation therein revealed: it causes the heart to embrace the joyful tidings, and entirely to adhere to, and acquiesce in the revelation of Christ as our Savior."
— Jonathan Edwards

"Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life."
— Jonathan Edwards

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"Boredom is the root of all evil - the despairing refusal to be oneself."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception; it is an eternal loss for which there is no reparation, either in time or in eternity."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"It is perhaps the misfortune of my life that I am interested in far too much but not decisively in any one thing; all my interests are not subordinated in one but stand on an equal footing."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth — look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"Leap of faith – yes, but only after reflection"
— Søren Kierkegaard

"The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting not with man, but with God."
— Søren Kierkegaard

""If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us…”"
— John Bunyan

"The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think."
— Aristotle

"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal."
— Aristotle

"We read to know that we are not alone."
— C.S. Lewis

"I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity."
— C.S. Lewis

"In addition to my numerous other acquaintances I have still one more intimate friend—my melancholy. In the midst of pleasure, in the midst of work, he beckons to me, calls me aside, even though I remain present bodily. My melancholy is the most faithful sweetheart I have had—no wonder that I return the love!"
— Søren Kierkegaard

"On the secretly blushing cheek is reflected the glow of the heart"
— Søren Kierkegaard

"What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"And when the hourglass has run out, the hourglass of temporality, when the noise of secular life has grown silent and its restless or ineffectual activism has come to an end, when everything around you is still, as it is in eternity, then eternity asks you and every individual in these millions and millions about only one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into the ranks as if I had been bought by a peddling shanghaier of human beings? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn't it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager—I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?"
— Søren Kierkegaard

"You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts."
— Kahlil Gibrán

"I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind. I should not be ungrateful to these teachers."
— Kahlil Gibrán

"To belittle, you have to be little."
— Kahlil Gibrán (The Prophet)

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable."
— Kahlil Gibrán

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."
— Albert Camus

"Never lend books -- nobody ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are those which people have lent me."
— Anatole France

"When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it."
— Anatole France

"No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong."
— François de La Rochefoucauld

"It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves."
— François de La Rochefoucauld

"One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger."
— François de La Rochefoucauld (Maxims)

"How can you expect another to keep a secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?"
— François de La Rochefoucauld

"True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen."
— François Duc de La Rochefoucauld

"The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it."
— François de La Rochefoucauld

"Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily."
— François de La Rochefoucauld

"Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it. "
— François de La Rochefoucauld

"We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us."
— François de La Rochefoucauld

"When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere"
— de la Rochefoucauld

"We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones."
— François de La Rochefoucauld

"He who lives without folly is not as wise as he may think."
— François de La Rochefoucauld

"Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them."
— François de La Rochefoucauld

"A First Sign of the Beginning of Understanding is the Wish to Die."
— Franz Kafka

"When the rich wage war it's the poor who die."
— Jean-Paul Sartre

"Everything has been figured out, except how to live."
— Jean-Paul Sartre

"L'enfer c'est les autres."
— Jean-Paul Sartre

"A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it."
— J.R.R. Tolkien (The Children of Húrin)

"A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble."
— Charles Spurgeon

"If you can't see His way past the tears, trust His heart."
— Charles Spurgeon

"Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself, be sure of that!"
— Charles Spurgeon

"All the devils in hell and tempters on earth could do us no injury if there were no corruption in our own natures."
— Charles Spurgeon