Top 25 Quotes by George MacDonald of 380 - Page 5

Right gladly would He free them from their misery, but He knows only one way: He will teach them to be like himself, meek and lowly, bearing with gladness the yoke of His Father's will. This in the one, the only right,

Right gladly would He free them from their misery, but He knows only one way: He will teach them to be like himself, meek and lowly, bearing with gladness the yoke of His Father's will. This in the one, the only right, the only possible way of freeing them from their sin, the cause of their unrest.

George MacDonald

Father, Yoke, Unrest

George MacDonald (1989). “Discovering the character of God”, Bethany House Pub

The kingdom of heaven is not come even when God's will is our law; it is fully come when God's will is our will.

George MacDonald

Christian, Prayer, Law

For when is the child the ideal child in our eyes and to our hearts? Is it not when with gentle hand he takes his father by the beard, and turns that father's face up to his brothers and sisters to kiss? when even the lovely selfishness of love-seeking has vanished, and the heart is absorbed in loving?

George MacDonald

Brother, Children, Father

George MacDonald (2007). “Unspoken Sermons”, p.21, Cosimo, Inc.

Attitudes are more important than facts.

George MacDonald

Inspiring, Attitude, Inspiration

It is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other, that originates and perfects and assures their blessedness. I knew that love gives to him that loveth, power over any soul beloved, even if that soul know him not, bringing him inwardly close to that spirit; a power that cannot be but for good; for in proportion as selfishness intrudes, the love ceases, and the power which springs therefrom dies. Yet all love will, one day, meet with its return.

George MacDonald

Spring, Two, Giving

"Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women". Book by George MacDonald, 1858.

...it is so silly of people to fancy that old age means crookedness and witheredness and feebleness and sticks and spectacles and rheumatism and forgetfulness! It is so silly! Old age has nothing whatever to do with all that. The right old age means strength and beauty and mirth and courage and clear eyes and strong painless limbs.

George MacDonald

Strong, Silly, Mean

George Macdonald (2015). “MacDonalds’ Fairy-Tale Treasure Chest”, p.101, Simon and Schuster

Each is but a means to an end; in the perfected end we find the intent, and there God — not in the laws themselves, except as his means of revealing himself. For that same reason, human science cannot discover God. For human science is but the backward undoing of the tapestry-web of God's science, it works with its back to him, and is always leaving him — his intent.

George MacDonald

Leaving, Evolution, Revelations

"Discovering the character of God".

Endurance must conquer, where force could not reach.

George MacDonald

Endurance, Conquer, Force

George MacDonald (2015). “George MacDonald: The Complete Fantasy Collection - 8 Novels & 30+ Short Stories and Fairy Tales (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Lilith, Phantastes, The Princess and Curdie, At the Back of the North Wind, Portent, The Lost Princess, Adela Cathcart, Dealings with the Fairies and many more”, p.444, e-artnow

If you care to see God, be pure. If you will not be pure, you will grow more and more impure.

George MacDonald

Sin, Grows, Determine

"The Hope of the Gospel".

The Root of All Rebellion: It is because we are not near enough to Thee to partake of thy liberty that we want a liberty of our own different from thine.

George MacDonald

Roots, Liberty, Different

George MacDonald, Clive Staples Lewis (1990). “George MacDonald: an anthology”

Obedience is the key to every door.

George MacDonald

Keys, Doors, Obedience

George MacDonald (2015). “MALCOLM & THE MARQUIS’S SECRET: Complete Marquise of Lossie Collection (Adventure Classic): The Fisherman's Lady”, p.738, e-artnow

In very truth, a wise imagination, which is the presence of the spirit of God, is the best guide that man or woman can have; for it is not the things we see the most clearly that influence us the most powerfully; undefined, yet vivid visions of something beyond, something which eye has not seen nor ear heard, have far more influence than any logical sequences whereby the same things may be demonstrated to the intellect. It is the nature of the thing, not the clearness of its outline, that determines its operation. We live by faith, and not by sight.

George MacDonald

Wise, Eye, Men

George MacDonald (1883). “The Imagination, and Other Essays”

I do not myself believe there is any misfortune. What men call such is merely the shadowside of a good.

George MacDonald

Believe, Men, Misfortunes

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.5717, e-artnow

O Christ, my life, possess me utterly. Take me and make a little Christ of me. If I am anything but thy father's son, 'Tis something not yet from the darkness won. Oh, give me light to live with open eyes. Oh, give me life to hope above all skies.

George MacDonald

Father, Eye, Son

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.12938, e-artnow

I learned that it is better, a thousandfold , for a proud man to fall and be humbled, than to hold up his head in his pride and fancied innocence. I learned that he that will be a hero, will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work, is sure of his manhood. In nothing was my ideal lowered, or dimmed, or grown less precious; I only saw it too plainly, to set myself for a moment beside it.

George MacDonald

Hero, Fall, Pride

"MacDonalds’ Fairy-Tale Treasure Chest".

I firmly believe people have hitherto been a great deal too much taken up about doctrine and far too little about practice. The word "doctrine," as used in the Bible, means teaching of duty, not theory.

George MacDonald

Christian, Believe, Teaching

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

We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there is one thing much more necessary.' What is that, grandmother?' To understand other people.' Yes, grandmother. I must be fair - for if I'm not fair to other people, I'm not worth being understood myself. I see.

George MacDonald

Grandmother, People, Anxious

George MacDonald (2015). “George MacDonald: The Complete Fantasy Collection - 8 Novels & 30+ Short Stories and Fairy Tales (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Lilith, Phantastes, The Princess and Curdie, At the Back of the North Wind, Portent, The Lost Princess, Adela Cathcart, Dealings with the Fairies and many more”, p.106, e-artnow

The world...is full of resurrections... Every night that folds us up in darkness is a death; and those of you that have been out early, and have seen the first of the dawn, will know it - the day rises out of the night like a being that has burst its tomb and escaped into life.

George MacDonald

Night, Darkness, Dawn

The first thing a kindness deserves is acceptance, the second, transmission.

George MacDonald

Kindness, Acceptance, Firsts

I learned that he that will be a hero will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work is sure of his manhood.

George MacDonald

Hero, Men, Doers

George MacDonald (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of George MacDonald (Illustrated)”, p.161, Delphi Classics

It was part of war; men died, more would die, that was past, and what mattered now was the business in hand; those who lived would get on with it. Whatever sorrow was felt, there was no point in talking or brooding about it, much less in making, for form's sake, a parade of it. Better and healthier to forget it, and look to tomorrow.The celebrated British stiff upper lip, the resolve to conceal emotion which is not only embarrassing and useless, but harmful, is just plain commons sense

George MacDonald

War, Men, Past

I am an optimistic fatalist. This world and all its beginnings will pass on into something better.

George MacDonald

Optimistic, World, This World

But for money and the need of it, there would not be half the friendship in the world. It is powerful for good if divinely used. Give it plenty of air and it is sweet as the hawthorn; shut it up and it cankers and breeds worms.

George MacDonald

Friendship, Sweet, Money

George MacDonald (2015). “THOMAS WINGFOLD, CURATE + PAUL FABER, SURGEON + THERE AND BACK - The Complete Series: The Curate's Awakening, The Lady's Confession & The Baron's Apprenticeship”, p.451, e-artnow