Quotes from William Law

There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him.

The merit of persons is to be no rule of our charity, but we are to do acts of kindness to those that least deserve it.

Be intent upon the perfection of the present day.

Death is not more certainly a separation of our souls from our bodies than the Christian life is a separation of our souls from worldly tempers, vain indulgences, and unnecessary cares.

Receive every day as a resurrection from death, as a new enjoyment of life.

If our life is not a course of humility, self-denial, renunciation of the world, poverty of spirit, and heavenly affection, we do not live the lives of Christians.

Perfection does not consist in any singular state or condition of life, or in any particular set of duties, but in holy and religious conduct of ourselves in every state of Life.

Perhaps there cannot be a better way of judging of what manner of spirit we are of, than to see whether the actions of our life are such as we may safely commend them to God in our prayers.

The greatest saint in the world is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice. It is he who is most thankful to God.

Ask what Time is, it is nothing else but something of eternal duration become finite, measurable and transitory.

This, and this alone, is Christianity, a universal holiness in every part of life, a heavenly wisdom in all our actions, not conforming to the spirit and temper of the world but turning all worldly enjoyments into means of piety and devotion to God.

Self is the root, the tree, and the branches of all the evils of our fallen state.

The more we pay for any truth, the better is our bargain.

Love and pity and wish well to every soul in the world; dwell in love, and then you dwell in God.

What can you conceive more silly and extravagant than to suppose a man racking his brains, and studying night and day how to fly?

Nothing hath separated us from God but our own will, or rather our own will is our separation from God.

No education can be of true advantage to young women but that which trains them up in humble industry, in great plainness of living, in exact modesty of dress.

What could begin to deny self, if there were not something in man different from self?

Faith is not a notion, but a real strong essential hunger, an attracting or magnetic desire of Christ, which as it proceeds from a seed of the divine nature in us, so it attracts and unites with its like.

Humility is nothing else but a right judgment of ourselves.

If you have not chosen the kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.

God smiles when we praise and thank Him continually. Few things feel better than receiving heartfelt praise and appreciation from someone else. God loves it, too. An amazing thing happens when we offer praise and thanksgiving to God. When we give God enjoyment, our own hearts are filled with joy.

Grant that I may worship and pray unto Thee with as much reverence and godly fear, as if I saw the heavens open and all the angels that stand around Thy throne. Amen.

There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him.