Quotes from George MacDonald

Faith is that which, knowing the Lord's will, goes and does it; or, not knowing it, stands and waits, content in ignorance as in knowledge, because God wills; neither pressing into the hidden future, nor careless of the knowledge which opens the path of action. It is its noblest exercise to act with uncertainty of the result, when the duty itself is certain, or even when a course seems with strong probability to be duty.

It was now to Aggie as if they were all dead and in the blessed world together, only she had brought with her an ache which it would need time to tune. All pain is discord.

A gathered mountain of misplaced worships would be swept into the sea by the study of one good book; and while what was good in an inferior book would still be admired, the relative position of the book would be altered and its influence lessened

Yea, the fear of God will cause a man to flee, not from him, but from himself; not from him, but to him, the Father of himself, in terror lest he should do Him wrong or his neighbour wrong.

but he takes our sins on himself, and while he drives them out of us with a whip of scorpions he will yet make them work his ends. He defeats our sins, makes them prisoners, forces them into the service of good, chains them like galley-slaves to the rowing-benches of the gospel-ship

Tell me this, said Peter: why do people talk about going down hill when they begin to get old? It seems to me that then first they begin to go up hill.

Justice demands your punishment, because justice demands, and will have, the destruction of sin.

There is more of the marvellous in an old library than ever any magic could work!

It is a good thing to desire to share a good thing, but it is not well to be unable alone to enjoy a good thing. It is our enjoyment that should make us desirous to share. What is there to share if the thing be of no value in itself? To enjoy alone is to be able to share. No participation can make that of value which in itself is of none. It

The faith which will remove mountains is that confidence in God which comes from seeking nothing but his will.

And we had met at last in this same cave of greenery, while the summer night hung round us heavy with love, and the odours that crept through the silence from the sleeping woods were the only signs of an outer world that invaded our solitude.

to teach is the best way to learn, but that the imperfect are the best teachers of the imperfect.

Until you repent and believe afresh, believe in a nobler Christ, namely the Christ revealed by himself, and not the muffled form of something vaguely human and certainly not all divine, which the false interpretations of men have substituted for him, you will be, as, I repeat, you are, the main reason why faith is so scanty in the earth, and the enemy comes in like a flood.

All that the children want is their Father.

What it is, I can not tell; I only know it is not that which the young fool calls it, still less that which the old sinner thinks it.

bloweth where it listeth

He did not accept the good news of God; he strained it to his heart, and was jubilant over it.

The right teacher would have his pupil easy to please, but ill to satisfy; ready to enjoy, unready to embrace; keen to discover beauty, slow to say, Here I will dwell.

Our God, we will trust thee. Shall we not find thee equal to our faith? One day, we shall laugh ourselves to scorn that we looked for so little from thee; for thy giving will not be limited by our hoping.

You would not even know you were in heaven if you were in it; you would not see it around you if you sat on the very footstool of the throne.

It is the one terrible heresy of the church, that it has always been presenting something else than obedience as faith in Christ.

Our Lord was not in the habit of explaining away his hard words. He let them stand in all the glory of the burning fire wherewith they would purge us.

It is the soul that makes the body. When we are sons of God in heart and soul, then shall we be the sons of God in body too: we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

The fault lay with those who had brought him up to the church as to the profession of medicine, or the bar, or the drapery business—as if it lay on one level of choice with other human callings.