George MacDonald Quotes

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A man's real belief is that which he lives by. What a man believes is the thing he does, not the thing he thinks.

George MacDonald

Real, Believe, Men

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It is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down. For the needs of today we have corresponding strength given. For the morrow we are told to trust. It is not ours yet. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear.

George MacDonald

Men, Worry, Needs

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No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in the wilderness. Most of the Epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire. The greatest poets have "learned in suffering what they taught in song." In bonds Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterwards wrote, and we may thank Bedford Jail for the Pilgrim's Progress. Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a person, He put them in the fire.

George MacDonald

Bible, God, Christian

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I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God's thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking.

George MacDonald

Thinking, Born, Made

George MacDonald (2015). “The Complete Novels of George Macdonald (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood, Wilfrid Cumbermede and many more”, p.1848, e-artnow

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Never tell a child 'you have a soul.' Teach him, you are a soul; you have a body.

George MacDonald

Children, Soul, Body

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The love of our neighbor is the only door out of the dungeon of self.

George MacDonald

Love, Doors, Self

George MacDonald (1887). “God's Words to His Children: Sermons Spoken and Unspoken”

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It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.

George MacDonald

Power, Men, People

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Any faith in Him, however small, is better than any belief about Him, however great.

George MacDonald

God, Faith, Believe

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Forgiveness unleashes joy. It brings peace. It washes the slate clean. It sets all the highest values of love in motion.

George MacDonald

Forgiveness, Joy, Clean

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Past tears are present strength.

George MacDonald

Past, Tears

James Hogg, R. L. Stevenson, George MacDonald (2014). “Scottish Supernatural Classics: The Three Perils of Man, Thrawn Janet and Other Stories, Phantastes and Lilith”, p.868, Palimpsest Book Production Limited

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In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably.

George MacDonald

Men, Doe, Succeed

George MacDonald (2007). “Unspoken Sermons”, p.248, Cosimo, Inc.

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People must not choose their neighbors; they must take the neighbors that God sends them. The neighbor is just the person who is next to you at the moment, the person with whom any business has brought you into contact.

George MacDonald

People, Community, Next

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Free will is not the liberty to do whatever one likes, but the power of doing whatever one sees ought to be done, even in the very face of otherwise overwhelming impulse. There lies freedom, indeed.

George MacDonald

Lying, Liberty, Likes

George Macdonald (1870). “The Miracles of Our Lord”, p.56

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It is by loving and not by being loved that one can come nearest to the soul of another.

George MacDonald

Love, Inspirational, Soul

George MacDonald (2015). “The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more”, p.494, e-artnow

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God is nearer to you than any thought or feeling of yours... Do not be afraid.

George MacDonald

Jesus, Feelings, Jesus Christ

George MacDonald (2015). “The Complete Novels of George Macdonald (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood, Wilfrid Cumbermede and many more”, p.1847, e-artnow

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Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have, this day, done one thing because He said, Do it! or once abstained because He said, Do not do it! It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe, in Him, if you do not do anything He tells you.

George MacDonald

Believe, Asking, Done

George Macdonald (2012). “Unspoken Sermons Series I, II, and III”, p.212, Simon and Schuster

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"But if God is so good as you represent Him, and if He knows all that we need, and better far than we do ourselves, why should it be necessary to ask Him for anything?" I answer, "What if He knows prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God's idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need - the need of Himself?"

George MacDonald

God, Christian, Religious

George Macdonald (2012). “Unspoken Sermons Series I, II, and III”, p.128, Simon and Schuster

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The truly wise talk little about religion and are not given to taking sides on doctrinal issues. When they hear people advocating or opposing the claims of this or that party in the church, they turn away with a smile such as men yield to the talk of children. They have no time, they would say, for that kind of thing. They have enough to do in trying to faithfully practice what is beyond dispute.

George MacDonald

Wise, Children, Party

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Do not measure God's mind by your own.

George MacDonald

God, Mind

George MacDonald (1871). “David Elginbrod”, p.399

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He who seeks the Father more than anything He can give, is likely to have what he asks, for he is not likely to ask amiss.

George MacDonald

Father, Giving, Asks

George Macdonald (1981). “Lilith”, p.6, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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Never be discouraged because good things get on so slowly here; and never fail daily to do that good which lies next to your hand.

George MacDonald

Lying, Hands, Next

"The Way To Win: Showing How To Succeed In Life". Book by John Thomas Dale, 1887.

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God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity still in the cloud, the oil still in the earth. How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.

George MacDonald

Adversity, Men, Clouds

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Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best, and man will not take it.

George MacDonald

God, Men, Giving

George MacDonald (2015). “The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more”, p.13293, e-artnow

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He may delay because it would not be safe to give us at once what we ask: we are not ready for it. To give ere we could truly receive, would be to destroy the very heart and hope of prayer, to cease to be our Father. The delay itself may work to bring us nearer to our help, to increase the desire, perfect the prayer, and ripen the receptive condition.

George MacDonald

Prayer, Father, Heart

George MacDonald (2016). “Unspoken Sermons, completed: MacDonald's Works”, p.172, VM eBooks

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All about us, in earth and air, wherever the eye or ear can reach, there is a power ever breathing itself forth in signs, now in daisy, now in a wind-waft, a cloud, a sunset; a power that holds constant and sweetest relation with the dark and silent world within us. The same God who is in us, and upon whose tree we are the buds, if not yet the flowers, also is all about us- inside, the Spirit; outside, the Word. And the two are ever trying to meet in us.

George MacDonald

Faith, Flower, Inspiration

George MacDonald (1978). “The World of George Macdonald: Selections from His Works of Fiction”, Shaw

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Born: December 10, 1824
Died: September 18, 1905
Occupation: Author
Cite this Page: Citation

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