John Calvin Quotes

It is a most blessed thing to be subject to the sovereignty of God.

The whole gospel is contained in Christ.

True faith is ever connected with hope.

Without the Gospel everything is useless and vain.

The very word baptizé, however, signifies to immerse; and it is certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient Church.

To search for wisdom apart from Christ means not simply foolhardiness but utter insanity.

For there is no one so great or mighty that he can avoid the misery that will rise up against him when he resists and strives against God.

For astronomy is not only pleasant, but also very useful to be known: it cannot be denied that this art unfolds the admirable wisdom of God.

There is no group or type of people anywhere in the world that is excluded from salvation, because God desires that the gospel be proclaimed to all without exception.

Doubtful prayer is no prayer at all.

By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which He determined with Himself whatever He wished to happen with regard to every man

Free-will cannot will good and of necessity serves sin.

Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.

Let this be our rule for goodwill and helpfulness, that whenever we are able to assist others we should behave as stewards who must someday give an account of ourselves.

The blood of Christ is necessary to purge the faults clinging to our best works.

God promised by the mouth of Isaiah that queens should be the nursing mothers of the church.

Wherever we find the Word of God surely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, there, it is not to be doubted, is a church of God.

Christ's intercession is the continual application of his death to our salvation.

The world was no doubt made, that it might be a theatre of the divine glory.

We shall never be fit for the service of God, if we look not beyond this fleeting life.

The sufferings of Christ are the means of forgiveness of sin and eternal glory

Unless we fix certain hours in the day for prayer, it easily slips from our memory.

If the gospel be not preached, Jesus Christ is, as it were, buried.

Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God.

Where is our acknowledgement of God if our thoughts are fixed on the glamour of our garments?

If grace acts in us, grace, and not we who do the work, will be crowned.

In our good works nothing is our own.

...nothing good can proceed from our will until it be formed again, and that after it is formed again in so far as it is good, it is of God, and not of us.

Whoever shall now contend that it is unjust to put heretics and blasphemers to death will knowingly and willingly incur their very guilt.

The evil in our desires typically does not lie in what we want, but that we want it too much.

Accursed is that peace of which revolt from God is the bond, and blessed are those contentions by which it is necessary to maintain the kingdom of Christ.

Involvement in public life provides the opportunity to shape our manners in accordance with civil justice.

The highest honor in the church is not government but service.

Hypocrisy can plunge the mind of a man into a dark abyss, when he believes his own self-flattery instead of God's verdict.

The Human heart is an idol factory.

The Bible is the sceptre by which the Heavenly King rules His Church.

The true wisdom of man consists in the knowledge of God the creator and Redeemer.

We unjustly defraud God of his right, unless each of us lives and dies in dependence on His sovereign pleasure.

Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.

They who prematurely put themselves forward to root out whatever is displeasing to them overthrow the judgment of God and rashly intrude upon the office of angels.

If we believe heaven to be our country, it is better for us to transmit our wealth thither, than to retain it here, where we may lose it by a sudden removal.

All truth is God's truth.

Joy and thanksgiving expressed in prayer and praise according to the Word of God are the heart of the Church's worship.

There are people who are known to be very liberal, yet they never give without scolding or pride or even insolence.

If people mean that man has in himself the power to work in partnership with God's grace they are most wretchedly deluding themselves.

Scripture urges and warns us that whatever favors we may have obtained from the Lord, we have received them as a trust on condition that they should be applied to the common benefit of the church.

Things that are seen are temporal; things that are unseen are eternal.

The more closely we see ourselves being watched by our enemies, the more time intent we should be to avoid their slanders.

There can be no courage in men unless God supports them by his Word.

Life is not found in commandments or declarations of penalties, but in the promise of mercy and only in a gratuitous promise.