Mortification Quotes

• If we could have a little patience, we should escape much mortification; time takes away as much as it gives.

  Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne

  Patience, Giving, Optimism

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• The good Lord send out a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we are in a sad condition!

  John Owen

  Spirit, Sin, Lord

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• A man may be carried on in a constant course of mortification all his days; and yet perhaps never enjoy a good day of peace and consolation.

  John Owen

  Good Day, Men, May

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world.

  John Owen

  Self, Soul, Substance

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Mortification of Sin”, Lulu.com

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• If any man would come after me, let him deny himself." The disciple must say to himself the same words Peter said of Christ when he denied him: "I know not this man." Self-denial is never just a series of isolated acts of mortification or asceticism. It is not suicide, for there is an element of self-will even in that. To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self denial can say is: "He leads the way, keep close to him.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Suicide, Men, Self

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.88, Simon and Schuster

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• The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin.

  John Owen

  Sin, Believer, Ought

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

  John Owen

  Sin, Killing, Daily Work

  John Owen (1842). “The Mortification of Sin in Believers: Containing the Necessity, Nature and Means of It; with a Resolution of Sundry Cases of Conscience Thereto Belonging”, p.9

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• Where there is no great mortification there is no great sanctity.

  Philip Neri

  Attachment, Sanctity

  St Philip Neri (2009). “The Maxims and Sayings of St Philip Neri”, p.54, St Athanasius Press

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• All other ways of mortification are vain, all helps leave us helpless; it must be done by the Spirit.

  John Owen

  Done, Way, Spirit

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone; but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times and in all conditions, even where there is least suspicion.

  John Owen

  Water, May, Quiet

  John Owen (2001). “Temptation and Sin”, p.11, Sovereign Grace Publishers,

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• The vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh...The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin...Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

  John Owen

  Spiritual, Deeds, Flesh

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• Of course, everyone's parents are embarrassing. It goes with the territory. The nature of parents is to embarrass merely by existing, just as it is the nature of children of a certain age to cringe with embarrassment, shame, and mortification should their parents so much as speak to them on the street.

  Neil Gaiman

  Children, Parenting, Age

  Neil Gaiman (2009). “Anansi Boys”, p.7, Harper Collins

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• When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone.

  John Owen

  May, Sin

  John Owen (1851). “The Works ...”, p.11

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• Never before has a civilization reached such a degree of a contempt for life; never before has a generation, drowned in mortification, felt such a rage to live.

  Raoul Vaneigem

  Civilization, Umpires, Degrees

  Guy Debord, Ivan Chtcheglov, Asger Jorn, Raoul Vaneigem, Mustapha Khayati (2014). “Situationism: A Compendium”, p.127, Bread and Circuses Publishing

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• Now nothing can prevent this but mortification; that withers the root and strikes at the head of sin every hour, so that whatever it aims at it is crossed in.

  John Owen

  Roots, Sin, Hours

  John Owen (2001). “Temptation and Sin”, p.12, Sovereign Grace Publishers,

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• Mortification is the soul's vigorous opposition to self, wherein sincerity is most evident.

  John Owen

  Self, Soul, Sin

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• The vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh.

  John Owen

  Spiritual, Comfort, Deeds

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.

  Mother Teresa

  Giving, Television, Penance

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• I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.

  Jane Austen

  Forgiveness, Pride, Mrs Bennet

  Jane Austen (1853). “Pride and Prejudice”, p.16

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• [A person’s] utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value.

  David Hume

  Art, Nature, Equal

  David Hume (1875). “Essays Moral, Political, and Literary”, p.197

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• Whoever the kid had been, whoever had had the grand attitude, has finally heeded the admonishment of parents, teachers, governments, religions, and the law: )You just change your attitude now please, young man.

  William Saroyan

  Teacher, Attitude, Kids

  William Saroyan (1968). “I used to believe I had forever, now I'm not so sure”

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• He can make the dry parched ground of my soul to become a pool and my thirsty barren heart as springs of water. Yes he can make this habitation of dragons this heart which is so full of abominable lusts and fiery temptations to be a place of bounty and fruitfulness unto Himself

  John Owen

  Spring, Heart, Dragons

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• To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Courage, Failure, Inspiration

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• To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self-denial can say is, 'He leads the way, keep close to Him.'

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Self, Denial, Asceticism

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.43, SCM Press

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• He who wishes to find Jesus should seek Him, not in the delights and pleasures of the world, but in mortification of the senses.

  Alphonsus Liguori

  Jesus, Attachment, Wish

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