Prophecy Quotes

• The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world... to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

  John Ruskin

  Women, Soul, Doe

  John Ruskin, John D. Rosenberg (1964). “The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings”, p.91, University of Virginia Press

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• Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.

  Brian Tracy

  Inspirational, Confidence, Self

  Twitter post from Oct 6, 2014

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• There is no question but that if Jesus Christ, or a great prophet from another religion, were to come back today, he would find it virtually impossible to convince anyone of his credentials despite the fact that the vast evangelical machine on American television is predicated on His imminent return among us sinners.

  Peter Ustinov

  Jesus, Machines, Television

  "The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations" edited by Robert Andrews, (p. 742), 1993.

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• There is a history in all men's lives, Figuring the nature of the times deceased, The which observed, a man may prophesy, With a near aim, of the main chance of things As yet not come to life, which in their seeds And weak beginnings lie intreasured.

  William Shakespeare

  Lying, Men, May

  'Henry IV, Part 2' (1597) act 3, sc. 1, l. 80

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• Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

  James Lane Allen

  Positive, Success, Dream

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• Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.

  Umberto Eco

  Fear, Humility, Religion

  Umberto Eco (1995). “Name of the Rose”, p.503, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Among all forms of mistake, prophecy is the most gratuitous.

  George Eliot

  Mistake, Atheism, Form

  'Middlemarch' (1871-2) bk. 1, ch. 10

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• My gran'ther's rule was safer 'n 't is to crow: Don't never prophesy - onless ye know.

  James Russell Lowell

  Crow, Grans, Knows

  James Russell Lowell (1890). “The Works of James Russell Lowell: Poetical works”

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• I do not pretend to be a divine man, but I do believe in divine guidance, divine power, and in the fulfillment of divine prophecy. I am not educated, nor am I an expert in any particular field but I am sincere, and my sincerity is my credentials.

  Malcolm X

  Believe, Men, Divine Guidance

  Spike Lee, Ralph Wiley, Malcolm X (1992). “By any means necessary: the trials and tribulations of the making of Malcolm X”, Hyperion Books

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• Don't ever prophesy; for if you prophesy wrong, nobody will forget it; and if you prophesy right, nobody will remember it.

  Josh Billings

  Remember, Forget, Ifs

  Affurisms (1865).

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• The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true. The specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.

  Robert K. Merton

  Science, Errors, Self

  "The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy" (1948)

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• The Bible is God's declaratory revelation to man containing the great truths about God, about man, about history, about salvation, and about prophecy that God wanted us to know. The Bible could be trusted just as much as if God had taken the pen and written the words Himself.

  John F Walvoord

  Taken, Men, Revelations

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• I shall always consider the best guesser the best prophet.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Prophet

  "De Divinatione". Treatise by Marcus Tullius Cicero, Book II. 5, 44 B.C..

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• PROPHECY, n. The art and practice of selling one's credibility for future delivery.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Art, Future, Practice

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.189, University of Georgia Press

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• The prophet who fails to present a bearable alternative and yet preaches doom is part of the trap that he postulates. Not only does he picture us caught in a tremendous man-made or God-made trap from which there is no escape, but we must also listen to him day in, day out, describe how the trap is inexorably closing. To such prophecies the human race, as presently bred and educated and situated, is incapable of listening. So some dance and some immolate themselves as human torches; some take drugs and some artists spill their creativity in sets of randomly placed dots on a white ground.

  Margaret Mead

  Creativity, Men, Artist

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• A self-fulfilling prophecy is an assumption or prediction that, purely as a result of having been made, cause the expected or predicted event to occur and thus confirms its own 'accuracy.'

  Paul Watzlawick

  Self, Events, Causes

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• A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, "You are mad; you are not like us."

  Anthony the Great

  Religious, Time, Crazy

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• Man has an incurable habit of not fulfilling the prophecies of his fellow men.

  Alistair Cooke

  Men, Fellow Man, Habit

  Alistair Cooke (2015). “Talk About America: 1951–1968”, p.39, Open Road Media

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• Ages when custom is unsettled are necessarily ages of prophecy. The moralist cannot teach what is revealed; he must reveal what can be taught. He has to seek insight rather than to preach.

  Walter Lippmann

  Age, Taught, Insight

  Walter Lippmann, Clinton Rossiter, James Lare (1982). “The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal Democracy”, p.482, Harvard University Press

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• Oh, to be alive in such an age, when miracles are everywhere, and every inch of common air throbs a tremendous prophecy, of greater marvels yet to be.

  Walt Whitman

  Air, Miracle, Age

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• As a child of God, you must realize that you are on the winning side of prophecy; until you win it is not over!

  Chris Oyakhilome

  Children, Winning, Sides

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• The fact that creative powers come from an area of the mind that seems to be independent of the conscious will, and often emerge with a good deal of emotional disturbance in their wake, provides the chief analogy between prophecy and the arts... Some people pursue wholeness and integration, others get smashed up, and fragments are rescued from the smash of an intensity that the wholeness and integration people do not reach.

  Northrop Frye

  Art, Independent, Emotional

  "The Collected Works of Northrop Frye, Volume 19: 'The Secular Scripture' and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1976-1991". Book by Northrop Frye, November 1, 2005.

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• Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.

  Neil Armstrong

  Years, Littles, Next Year

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• No mighty trance, or breathed spell Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.

  John Milton

  Cells, Inspire, Pale

  John Milton (1844). “I. Prose Works: Poetical works. II.”

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• With prophecies the commentator is often a more important man than the prophet.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Men, Important, Prophet

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook H 23, 1799.

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