Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Richard Cecil

Every year of my life I grow more convinced that it is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and the good, and dwell as little as possible on the evil and the false.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Beauty, Concentration, Focus

The joy of religion is an exorcist to the mind; it expels the demons of carnal mirth and madness.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Religion

Solitude shows us what we should be; society shows us what we are.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Solitude

There are soft moments even to desperadoes. God does not, all at once, abandon even them.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Thought

It requires as much reflection and wisdom to know what is not to be put into a sermon, as what is.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Preaching

If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.
Richard Cecil

The very heart and root of sin is an independent spirit.—We erect the idol self, and not only wish others to worship, but worship it ourselves.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Selfishness

Method is the very hinge of business; and there is no method without punctuality.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Punctuality, Business

The only instance of praying to saints, mentioned in the Bible, is that of the rich man in torment calling upon Abraham; and let it be remembered, that it was practised only by a lost soul and without success.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Prayer

There is something in religion, when rightly apprehended, that is masculine and grand. It removes those little desires which are “the constant hectic of a fool.”
Richard Cecil
Topics: Religion

When a founder has cast a bell he does not presently fix it in the steeple, but tries it with his hammer, and beats it on every side to see if there be any flaw in it. So Christ doth not, presently after he has converted a man, convey him to heaven; but suffers him first to be beaten upon by many temptations, and then exalts him to his crown.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Trials

A wise man looks upon men as he does on horses; all their caparisons of title, wealth, and place, he considers but as harness.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Wisdom

Duties are ours, events are God’s. This removes an infinite burden from the shoulders of a miserable, tempted, dying creature. On this consideration only can he securely lay down his head and close his eyes.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Duty

Gravity must be natural and simple; there must be urbanity and tenderness in it.—A man must not formalize on everything.—He who does so is a fool; and a grave fool is, perhaps, more injurious than a light fool.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Manners

The world looks at ministers out of the pulpit to know what they mean when in it.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Preaching

Aversion from reproof is not wise. It is a mark of a little mind. A great man can afford to lose; a little, insignificant fellow is afraid of being snuffed out.
Richard Cecil

If a minister takes one step into the world, his hearers will take two.
Richard Cecil

Example is more forcible than precept.—People look at my six days in the week to see what I mean on the seventh.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Example

Philosophy is a proud, sullen detector of the poverty and misery of man. It may turn him from the world with a proud, sturdy contempt; but it cannot come forward and say, here are rest, grace, pardon, peace, strength, and consolation.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Philosophy

Recollection is the life of religion. The Christian wants to know no new thing, but to have his heart elevated more above the world by secluding himself from it as much as his duties will allow, that religion may effect its great end by bringing its sublime hopes and prospects into more steady action on the mind.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Religion

He who sows, even with tears, the precious seed of faith, hope, and love, shall doubtless come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him, because it is the very nature of that seed to yield a joyful harvest.
Richard Cecil

The history of all the great characters of the Bible is summed up in this one sentence: They acquainted themselves with God, and acquiesced His will in all things.
Richard Cecil
Topics: God

To have too much forethought is the part of a wretch; to have too little is the part of a fool.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Forethought

All extremes are error. The reverse of error is not truth but error still. Truth lies between these extremes.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Balance, Truth

God denies a Christian nothing but with a design to give him something better.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Prayer

A contemplative life has more the appearance of piety than any other; but the divine plan is to bring faith into activity and exercise.
Richard Cecil

Method is like packing things in a box; a good packer will get in half as much again as a bad one.
Richard Cecil

Wisdom prepares for the worst, but folly leaves the worst for the day when it comes.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Wisdom

The world looks at preachers out of church to know what they mean in it.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Preaching, Evangelism

God’s way of answering the Christian’s prayer for more patience, experience, hope, and love, often is to put him into the furnace of affliction.
Richard Cecil
Topics: Prayer

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