Quotes from George MacDonald

Nothing is so ruinous to progress in which effort is needed, as satisfaction with apparent achievement. It always stops momentum.

Truth is one, and he who does the truth in the small thing is of the truth; he who will do it only in a great thing, who postpones the small thing near him to the great farther from him, is not of the truth.

You say you didn't mean any harm: did you mean any good, Curdie?

Nay, how many who love never come nearer than to behold each other as in a mirror; seem to know and yet never know the inward life; never enter the other soul; and part at last, with but the vaguest notion of the universe on the borders of which they have been hovering for years?

Age is not all decay: it is the ripening, the swelling of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.

The thing most alien to the true idea of humanity is the notion that our well-being lies in surpassing our fellows. We have to rise above ourselves, not above our neighbors, to take all the good of them not from them, and give them all our good in return. That which cannot be freely shared can never be possessed.

Nor will God force any door to enter in. He may send a tempest about the house; the wind of His admonishment may burst doors and windows, yea, shake the house to its foundations; but not then, not so, will He enter. The door must be opened by the willing hand, ere the foot of Love will cross the threshold.

The more originating, living, visible truth, embracing all truths in all relations, is Jesus Christ. He is true: He is the live Truth.

Verily the God that knows how not to reveal himself, must also know how best to reveal himself! If there be a calling child, there must be an answering Father!

he was more grateful for Truffey's generous forgiveness than he would have been for the richest living in Scotland. Such forgiveness is just giving us back ourselves—clean and happy. And for what gift can we be more grateful?

God is just!' said a carping theologian to me the other day. 'Yes,' I answered, 'and he cannot be pleased that you should call that justice which is injustice, and attribute it to him!

There are not many people who can think about beautiful things and do common work at the same time. But then there are not many people who have been to the back of the north wind.

Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy. Cometh white-robed Sorrow, stooping and wan, and flingeth wide the doors she may not enter. Almost we linger with Sorrow for very love.

There can be no better auxiliary against our own sins than to help our neighbour in the encounter with his.

they must at last grow weary of their mutual repugnance, and begin to love one another! for love, not hate, is deepest in what Love 'loved into being.

Would it not be better to reject it altogether if it not be fit to be believed heart and soul?

I think it far better for a man to go wrong upon his own honest judgment, than to go right upon anybody else's judgment, however honest also.

Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at once, but he needs his mother more than his dinner. Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer…. So begins a communion, a taking with God, a coming-to-one with Him, which is the sole end of prayer, yea, of existence itself in its infinite phases.

All a man has to do, is to better what he can. And if he will settle it with himself, that even renown and success are in themselves of no great value, and be content to be defeated, if so be that the fault is not his; and so go to his work with a cool brain and a strong will, he will get it done; and fare none the worse in the end, that he was not burdened with provision and precaution.

You must consider that you are but a part of the whole, and that whatever you do to hurt the whole, or injure any of its parts, will return upon you who form one of those parts.

350] 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. [351] Two Silly Young Women

The cessation of labor affords but the necessary occasion; makes it possible, as it were, for the occupant of an outlying station in the wilderness to return to his Father's house for fresh supplies…. The child-soul goes home at night, and returns in the morning to the labors of the school.

It seemed quite natural that the little lady should be there; for many things we never could believe, have only to happen, and then there is nothing strange about them.

Chained is the Spring. The night-wind bold Blows over the hard earth; Time is not more confused and cold, Nor keeps more wintry mirth. Yet blow, and roll the world about; Blow, Time—blow, winter's Wind! Through chinks of Time, heaven peepeth out, And Spring the frost behind.