88 John Calvin Quotes

John was a 16th century pastor and apologetic author. Hi writing consisted mostly of great commentaries of almost all the books of the Bible, which started with Romans and ended with Exodus and Deuteronomy 23 years later. John was a big believer in a separation of church and state and some of his writings were the first steps to introducing this belief.

Search within the 88 John Calvin Quotes
88
Since no man is excluded from calling upon God the gate of salvation is open to all. There is nothing else to hinder us from entering, but our own unbelief.
- John Calvin
121

87
The word hope I take for faith; and indeed hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith.
- John Calvin
112




86
However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts.
- John Calvin
105

85
Seeing that a pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness.
- John Calvin
103

84
Whatever a person may be like, we must still love them because we love God.
- John Calvin
101




83
Against the persecution of a tyrant the godly have no remedy but prayer.
- John Calvin
101

82
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.
- John Calvin
101

81
We must make the invisible kingdom visible in our midst.
- John Calvin
100

80
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.
- John Calvin
6

79
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.
- John Calvin
4

78
For men have no taste for (God's power) till they are convinced of their need of it and they immediately forget its value unless they are conditionally reminded by awareness of their own weakness.
- John Calvin
4

77
The fanaticism which discards the Scripture, under the pretense of resorting to immediate revelations is subversive of every principle of Christianity. For when they boast extravagantly of the Spirit, the tendency is always to bury the Word of God so they may make room for their own falsehoods.
- John Calvin
2

76
Those who disrupt the body of Christ and split its unity into schisms are quite excluded from the hope of salvation, so long as they remain in dissidence of this kind.
- John Calvin
2

75
Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols.
- John Calvin
2

74
Justification is the main hinge on which salvation turns.
- John Calvin
2

73
Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain.
- John Calvin
2

72
Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.
- John Calvin
2

71
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.
- John Calvin
1

70
There is no work, however vile or sordid, that does not glisten before God.
- John Calvin
1




69
Faith is a knowledge of the benevolence of God toward us, and a certain persuasion of His veracity.
- John Calvin
1

68
Those who fall away have never been thoroughly imbued with the knowledge of Christ but only had a slight and passing taste of it.
- John Calvin
1

67
Christ is much more powerful to save, than Adam was to destroy.
- John Calvin
1

66
Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments.
- John Calvin
1

65
There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence.
- John Calvin
1

64
There cannot be a surer rule, nor a stronger exhortation to the observance of it, than when we are taught that all the endowments which we possess are divine deposits entrusted to us for the very purpose of being distributed for the good of our neighbor.
- John Calvin
1

63
The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself.
- John Calvin
1

62
Knowledge of the sciences is so much smoke apart from the heavenly science of Christ.
- John Calvin
1

61
The Lord has given us a table at which to feast, not an altar on which a victim is to be offered; He has not consecrated priests to make sacrifice, but servants to distribute the sacred feast.
- John Calvin
1

60
The external observance of the Sabbath rest is a Jewish ceremonial ordinance and no longer binding on Christians. Sabbatarians surpass the Jews three times over in a crass and carnal Sabbatarian superstition.
- John Calvin
0

59
As Christ is the end of the Law and the Gospel and has within Himself all the treasures of wisdom and understanding, so also is He the mark at which all heretics aim and direct their arrows.
- John Calvin
0

58
Let us know, then, that the true meaning of Scripture is the natural and obvious meaning; and let us embrace and abide by it resolutely. Let us not only neglect as doubtful, but boldly set aside as deadly corruptions those pretended expositions which lead us away from the natural meaning.
- John Calvin
0

57
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.
- John Calvin
0

56
I have not so great a struggle with my vices, great and numerous as they are, as I have with my impatience. My efforts are not absolutely useless; yet I have never been able to conquer this ferocious wild beast.
- John Calvin
0

55
I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.
- John Calvin
0

54
Faith...is a steady and certain knowledge of the Divine benevolence towards us, which being founded on the truth of the gratuitous promise in Christ, is both revealed to our minds, and confirmed to our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.
- John Calvin
0

53
Hypocrisy can plunge the mind of a man into a dark abyss, when he believes his own self-flattery instead of God's verdict.
- John Calvin
0

52
Whether or not each believer has a single angel assigned to him for his defense, I dare not positively affirm.
- John Calvin
0

51
The one who judges according to the word and law of the Lord, and forms his judgments by the rule of charity, always begins with subjecting himself to examination, and preserves a proper medium and order in his judgments.
- John Calvin
0

50
Faith consists, not in ignorance, but in knowledge, and that, not only of God, but also of the divine will.
- John Calvin
0

49
You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy.
- John Calvin
0

48
For where love is wanting, the beauty of all virtue is mere tinsel, is empty sound, is not worth a straw, nay more, is offensive and disgusting.
- John Calvin
0

47
Many falsely suppose that the feelings, which God has implanted in us as natural, proceed only from a defect. Accordingly the perfecting of believers does not depend on their casting off all feelings, but on their yielding to them and controlling them, only for proper reason.
- John Calvin
0

46
Whenever God reproves us, not only in words, but in reality, and reminds us of our sins, we do not so suffer for one fault as to be free for the future, but that until we from the heart repent, He ever sounds in our ears these words, Still God will contend with you: and a real contention is meant.
- John Calvin
0

45
All our words ought to be filled with true sweetness and grace; and this will be so if we mingle the useful with the sweet.
- John Calvin
0

44
We should therefore learn that the only good we have is what the Lord has given us gratuitously; that the only good we do is what He does in us; that it is not that we do nothing ourselves, but that we act only when we have been acted upon, in other words under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit.
- John Calvin
0

43
Therefore the Christian heart, since it has been thoroughly persuaded that all things happen by God's plan, and that nothing takes place by chance, will ever look to him as the principal causes of things, yet will give attention to the secondary causes in their proper place.
- John Calvin
0

42
For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by His fatherly care, that He is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond Him - they will never yield Him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in Him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to Him.
- John Calvin
0

41
Let us consider this settled, that no one has made progress in the school of Christ who does not joyfully await the day of death and final resurrection.
- John Calvin
0

40
Lawful worship consists in obedience alone.
- John Calvin
0

39
There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.
- John Calvin
0





Total Quotes Found: 88