Divine Will Quotes

• In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.

  Abraham Lincoln

  God, Party, Civil War

  "Meditation on the DivineWill," ca. 2 Sept. 1862

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• In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Party, Different

  Ulysses S. Grant, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Stephen Crane, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Modern Library Civil War Bookshelf 5-Book Bundle: Personal Memoirs, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Red Badge of Courage, Jefferson Davis: The Essential Writings, The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln”, p.2780, Modern Library

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• God can not be for, and against the same thing at the same time.

  Abraham Lincoln

  God, Civil War, Can Not

  "Meditation on the DivineWill," ca. 2 Sept. 1862

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• The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party - and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Time, War, Party

  "Meditation on the DivineWill," ca. 2 Sept. 1862

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• Faith consists, not in ignorance, but in knowledge, and that, not only of God, but also of the divine will.

  John Calvin

  Ignorance, Divine

  John Calvin (2009). “Institutes of the Christian Religion Vol. 1: Translated from the Original Latin, and Collated With the Author's Last Edition in French”, p.491, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Just as at sea those who are carried away from the direction of the harbor bring themselves back on course by a clear sign, on seeing a tall beacon light or some mountain peak coming into view, so Scripture may guide those adrift on the sea of the life back into the harbor of the divine will.

  Gregory of Nyssa

  Light, Mountain Peaks, Views

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• Be comforted with this divine thought that your spiritual and physical pains are the test of the Divine Will.

  Pio of Pietrelcina

  Spiritual, Pain, Tests

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• It is man's duty to live in conformity with the divine will, and this means, firstly, bringing his life into line with 'nature's laws', and secondly, resigning himself completely and uncomplainingly to whatever fate may send him. Only by living thus, and not setting too high a value on things which can at any moment be taken away from him, can he discover that true, unshakeable peace and contentment to which ambition, luxury and above all avarice are among the greatest obstacles.

  Seneca the Younger

  Taken, Mean, Ambition

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• For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will.

  Adolf Hitler

  War, Men, Essence

  Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• What discord we should bring into the universe if our prayers were all answered. Then we should govern the world and not God. And do you think we should govern it better? It gives me only pain when I hear the long, wearisome petitions of people asking for they know not what. . . . Thanks-giving with a full heart-and the rest silence and submission to the divine will!

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Prayer, Pain, Heart

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1888). “Longfellow's Days: The Longfellow Prose Birthday Book : Extracts from the Journals and Letters of H. W. Longfellow”

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• It is my unmistakable belief that not a blade of grass moves but by the divine will.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  God, Moving, Belief

  Mahatma Gandhi (1974). “Collected Works”

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• It is very much easier to work than to pray. Most of the missionaries are earnest workers. But are we all that we should be in the matter of prayer? Let us not suppose that just any sort of praying will do for China. We must all wrestle with God. 'I will not let Thee go unless Thou bless China.' It must come to this if the conversion of the Chinese is ever to be an accomplished fact. Such is my conviction. Let me remind you that the greatest importunity is not incompatible with the profoundest submission to the Divine will.

  Griffith John

  Prayer, Chinese, Matter

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• Total surrender to the will of God actually is sacrificing oneself as a burnt offering to God. The proof of this state is dying to oneself, - to one's own opinions, wishes and feelings or tastes, in order to live by Divine intellect, in conformity with the Divine will and in partaking of God. In the forefront of this endeavor is our Lord and Savior. He surrendered the whole of Himself to God the Father, and us in Himself, 'For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones' (Eph. 5:30). So let us hasten in His footsteps?

  Lorenzo Scupoli

  Christian, Father, Sacrifice

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• One of the most interesting and harmful delusions to which men and nations can be subjected is that of imagining themselves special instruments of the Divine Will.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Interesting, Ego

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.146, Routledge

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• Contentment, then, is the product of a heart resting in God. It is the soul’s enjoyment of that peace that passes all understanding. It is the outcome of my will being brought into subjection to the Divine will. It is the blessed assurance that God does all things well, and is, even now, making all things work together for my ultimate good.

  Arthur W. Pink

  Blessed, Heart, Understanding

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• True poetry is born of scrutiny,
  Scrutiny, the son of meditation,
  Meditation, the son of lore,
  Lore, the son of inquiry,
  Inquiry, the son of investigation,
  Investigation, the son of knowledge,
  Knowledge, the son of understanding,
  Understanding, the son of wisdom,
  Wisdom, the son of surrender to the Divine Will
  Thus it is with the poet himself: his art is powerful, protecting, elevating, and his judgement straight and strong

  Stephen R. Lawhead

  Art, Strong, Powerful

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• Let's just call things what they are. When a man's love of finery clouds his moral judgment, that is vanity. When he lets a demanding palate make his moral choices, that is gluttony. When he ascribes the divine will to his own whims, that is pride. And when he gets angry at being reminded of animal suffering that his own daily choices might help avoid, that is moral cowardice.

  Matthew Scully

  Pride, Animal, Men

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• The Bread that we need each day to grow in eternal life, makes of our will a docile instrument of the Divine Will; sets the Kingdom of God within us; gives us pure lips, and a pure heart with which to glorify his holy name

  Edith Stein

  Heart, Holy Eucharist, Names

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• There is nothing which Nature so clearly reveals, and upon which science so strongly insists, as the universal reign of law, absolute, universal, invariable law... Not one jot or tittle of the laws of Nature are unfulfilled. I do not believe it is possible to state this fact too strongly... Everything happens according to law, and, since law is the expression of Divine will, everything happens according to Divine will, i.e. is in some sense ordained, decreed.

  Joseph LeConte

  Believe, Science, Expression

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• When shall it be that we shall taste the sweetness of the Divine Will in all that happens to us, considering in everything only His good pleasure, by whom it is certain that adversity is sent with as much love as prosperity, and as much for our good? When shall we cast ourselves undeservedly into the arms of our most loving Father in Heaven, leaving to Him the care of ourselves and of our affairs, and reserving only the desire of pleasing Him, and of serving Him well in all that we can?

  Jane Frances de Chantal

  Father, Adversity, Heaven

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• There is no ground for supposing that matter and energy existed before [the Big Bang] and were suddenly galvanized into action. For what could distinguish that moment from all other moments in eternity? It is simpler to postulate creation ex nihilo-Divine will constituting Nature from nothingness.

  E. T. Whittaker

  Supposing That, Atheism, Bangs

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• The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God's will, and actually fulfill God's will, and not let God's word be desecrated. For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will.

  Adolf Hitler

  Letting Go, Religious, War

  Adolf Hitler (1971). “Mein Kampf”, Mariner Books

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• I should be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies to conquer a people numerous and warlike, whose manners and religion are very different from ours, who live in sierras and mountains, without fixed settlements, and where by divine will I have placed under the sovereignty of the King and Queen our Lords, an Other World, whereby Spain, which was reckoned poor, is become the richest of countries. Columbus is coming from the Indies as a prisoner to Cadiz.

  Christopher Columbus

  Country, Kings, Queens

  Letter to Dona Juana de Torres, Oct. 1500

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• Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at the discretion of Mahomet; each revelation is suited to the emergencies of his policy or passion; and all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim that any text of Scripture is abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage.

  Edward Gibbon

  Passion, Perfect, Saving

  Edward Gibbon (1830). “The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire. By Edward Gibbon, Esq. Printed From The Edition In Twelve Volumes. With An Introductory Memoir Of The Author, By William Youngman”, p.913

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• In one of the Upanishads it says, when the glow of a sunset holds you and you say 'Aha,' that is the recognition of the divinity. And when you say 'Aha' to an art object, that is a recognition of divinity. And what divinity is it? It is your divinity, which is the only divinity there is. We are all phenomenal manifestations of a divine will to live, and that will and the consciousness of life is one in all of us, and that is what artwork expresses.

  Joseph Campbell

  Art, Sunset, Divinity

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