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George MacDonald Quotes - Page 3

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To be kind neither hurts nor compromises.

To be kind neither hurts nor compromises.

George MacDonald
Hurt, Be Kind, Compromise
George MacDonald (2015). “The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more”, p.13660, e-artnow

Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to the honest. They are the first knock at our door of things that are not yet, but have to be, understood. . . . Doubts must precede every deeper assurance; for uncertainties are what we first see when we look into a region hitherto unknown, unexplored, unannexed.

George MacDonald
Faith, Doors, Doubt
George MacDonald (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of George MacDonald (Illustrated)”, p.13031, Delphi Classics

To have what we want is riches; but to be able to do without is power.

George MacDonald
Power, Contentment, Want
George MacDonald (1884). “Donal Grant”, p.3, CCEL

He may delay because it would not be safe to give us at once what we ask: we are not ready for it. To give ere we could truly receive, would be to destroy the very heart and hope of prayer, to cease to be our Father. The delay itself may work to bring us nearer to our help, to increase the desire, perfect the prayer, and ripen the receptive condition.

George MacDonald
Prayer, Father, Heart
George MacDonald (2016). “Unspoken Sermons, completed: MacDonald's Works”, p.172, VM eBooks

I want to help you grow as beautiful as God meant you to be when he thought of you first.

George MacDonald
Beauty, Beautiful, Want
George MacDonald (2015). “The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more”, p.8209, e-artnow

The Lord never came to deliver men from the consequences of their sins while yet those sins remained...Yet men, loving their sins and feeling nothing of their dread hatefulness, have, consistent with their low condition, constantly taken this word concerning the Lord to mean that he came to save them from the punishment of their sins.

George MacDonald
Taken, Mean, Men

The word doctrine, as used in the Bible, means teaching of duty, not theory.

George MacDonald
Teaching, Mean, Doctrine
George MacDonald (1994). “An expression of character: the letters of George MacDonald”, Eerdmans Pub Co

Never be discouraged because good things get on so slowly here; and never fail daily to do that good which lies next to your hand.

George MacDonald
Lying, Hands, Next
"The Way To Win: Showing How To Succeed In Life". Book by John Thomas Dale, 1887.

You doubt because you love truth.

George MacDonald
Doubt, Truth Love

They will pressure you into doing things that may be unsafe, use your good judgment, and remember, 'I would rather be laughed at, than cried for.'

George MacDonald
Use, May, Pressure

To cease to wonder is to fall plumb-down from the childlike to the commonplace—the most undivine of all moods intellectual. Our nature can never be at home among things that are not wonderful to us.

George MacDonald
Fall, Home, Intellectual
George MacDonald (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of George MacDonald (Illustrated)”, p.13217, Delphi Classics

You can't live on amusement. It is the froth on water - an inch deep and then the mud.

George MacDonald
Water, Amusement, Mud
George MacDonald (2015). “The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more”, p.5294, e-artnow

Those Christians who are very strict in their observances, think a good deal more of the Sabbath than of man, a great deal more of the Bible than of the truth, and ten times more of their creed than of the will of God. Of course, if they heard anyone utter such words as I have just written, they would say he was and atheist.

George MacDonald
Christian, Atheist, Men

Oh, I believe that there is no away; that no love, no life, goes ever from us; it goes as He went, that it may come again, deeper and closer and surer, and be with us always, even to the end of the world.

George MacDonald
Life, Believe, World
"Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, 1895.

We are not made for law, we are made for love.

George MacDonald
Law, Made

You've got to save your own soul first, and then the souls of your neighbors if they will let you; and for that reason you must cultivate, not a spirit of criticism, but the talents that attract people to the hearing of the Word.

George MacDonald
People, Soul, Criticism
George MacDonald (1878). “The Marquis of Lossie”

A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer.

George MacDonald
Freedom, Men, Atoms
George MacDonald (2015). “The Complete Novels of George Macdonald (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood, Wilfrid Cumbermede and many more”, p.1399, e-artnow

When we understand the outside of things, we think we have them. Yet the Lord puts his things in subdefined, suggestive shapes, yielding no satisfactory meaning to the mere intellect, but unfolding themselves to the conscience and heart.

George MacDonald
Heart, Thinking, Shapes
George Macdonald (2012). “Unspoken Sermons Series I, II, and III”, p.113, Simon and Schuster

People must not choose their neighbors; they must take the neighbors that God sends them. The neighbor is just the person who is next to you at the moment, the person with whom any business has brought you into contact.

George MacDonald
People, Community, Next

If we knew as much about heaven as God does, we would clap our hands every time a Christian dies.

George MacDonald
Christian, Hands, Heaven

I write, not for children,but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.

George MacDonald
Children, Writing, Fifty
George MacDonald, (2013). “The Day Boy and the Night Girl (Fantasy and Horror Classics)”, p.4, Read Books Ltd

We die daily. Happy those who daily come to life as well.

George MacDonald
Life, Inspire, Wells
George MacDonald (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of George MacDonald (Illustrated)”, p.3540, Delphi Classics

Beauty and sadness always go together.

George MacDonald
Beauty, Sadness, Together
George MacDonald (2015). “The Complete Poetry of George MacDonald: A Book of Strife, in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul + Rampolli: Growths from a Long-planted Root + A Hidden Life Collection and Other Poems”, p.95, e-artnow

As Christ is the blossom of humanity, so the blossom of every man is Christ perfected in him.

George MacDonald
Men, Humanity, Christ
George MacDonald (1891). “Unspoken Sermons: Third Series”, p.47, CCEL

It may be an infinitely less evil to murder a man than to refuse to forgive him. The former may be the act of a moment of passion: the latter is the heart’s choice.

George MacDonald
Passion, Heart, Men
George Macdonald (2012). “Unspoken Sermons Series I, II, and III”, p.33, Simon and Schuster

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