Quotes from George MacDonald

In a word, why were they not men at worst, when at best they ought to be more of men than other men?--And here lay the difficulty: by no effort could I get the face before me to fit into the clerical mould which I had all ready in my own mind for it.

Human science cannot discover God; for human science is but the backward undoing of the tapestry-web of God's science.

Could we see things always as we have sometimes seen them—and as one day we must always see them, only far better—should we ever know dullness? Greatly as we might enjoy all forms of art, much as we might learn through the eyes and thoughts of other men, should we fly to these for deliverance from ennui , from any haunting discomfort? Should we not just open our own child-eyes, look upon the things themselves, and be consoled?

There are some who, if you propose to examine into anything, immediately set you down as an unbeliever in that thing. A man who wants to find out what the Bible really means, is, by those who do not believe in it a tenth part as much as he, set down as an unbeliever in the Bible; whereas it is a proof of the very strongest probability to the contrary.

Every gift of God is but a harbinger of his greatest and only sufficing gift—that of himself.

I can no more than lift my weary eyes; Therefore I lift my weary eyes—no more. But my eyes pull my heart, and that, before 'Tis well awake, knocks where the conscience lies; Conscience runs quick to the spirit's hidden door: Straightway, from every sky-ward window, cries Up to the Father's listening ears arise.

Then the great old, young, beautiful princess turned to Curdie. Now, Curdie, are you ready? she said. Yes, ma'am, answered Curdie. You do not know what for. You do, ma'am. That is enough.

The good in a true book, he would say, is the best protection against what may not be so good in it; its wrong as well as its right may wake the conscience: the thoughts of a book accuse and excuse one another. In saying so, he took the true reader for granted; to an untrue reader the truth itself is untrue.

But thou shalt at least find faith in the earth, O Lord, if thou comest to look for it now-the faith of ignorant but hoping children, who know that they do not know, and believe that thou knowest.

You must be strong with my strength and blessed with my blessedness, for I have no other to give you.-George MacDonald (what God says of us)

The next hour, the next moment, is as much beyond our grasp and as much in God's care, as that a hundred years away. Care for the next minute is just as foolish as care for the morrow, or for a day in the next thousand years—in neither can we do anything, in both God is doing everything.

Suffering While the cup of blessing may and often does run over, I doubt if the cup of suffering is ever more than filled to the brim.

There are times, and those times many, when the cares of this world-with no right to any part in our thought, seeing that they are either unreasonable or God imperfect- so blind the eyes of the soul to the radiance of the eternally true, that they see it only as if it ought to be true, not as if it must be true; as if it it might be true in the region of thought, but could not be true in the region of fact.

The truth is this: He wants to make us in his own image, choosing the good, refusing the evil. How should he effect this if he were always moving us from within, as he does at divine intervals, towards the beauty of holiness? God gives us room to be; does not oppress us with his will; "stands away from us," that we may act from ourselves, that we may exercise the pure will for good.

but i doubt if any prolonged contemplation of death is desirable for those whose business it now is to live, and whose fate it is ere long to die. It is a closing of God's hand upon us to squeeze some of the bad blood out of us, and, when it relaxes, we must live the more diligently- not to get ready for death, but to get more life.

She who is even once unjust can not complain if the like is expected of her again.

for Wisdom is justified of her children;

I'm your father's mother's father's mother.' 'Oh, dear! I can't understand that,' said the princess. 'I dare say not. I didn't expect you would. But that's no reason why I shouldn't say it.

But the man of independent feeling, except he be thus your friend, will not unlikely resent your compassion, while the beggar will accept it chiefly as a pledge for something more to be got from you; and so it will tend to keep him in beggary.

These are they who gather grace, as the mountain-tops the snow, to send down rivers of water to their fellows.

From all that is thus low and wretched, incapable and fearful, he who made the water into wine delivers men, revealing heaven around them, God in all things, truth in every instinct

Never suspecting what a noble creature he was meant to be, he never saw what a poor creature he was

The door into life generally opens behind us and the only wisdom for one haunted with the scent of unseen roses is work.-George MacDonald

Alas! this time is never the time for self-denial, it is always the next time. Abstinence is so much more pleasant to contemplate upon the other side of indulgence.