“Afflictions make the heart more deep, more experimental, more knowing and profound, and so, more able to hold, to contain, and beat more.”

And, indeed, this is one of the greatest mysteries in the world; namely, that a righteousness that resides in heaven should justify me, a sinner on earth!

Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.

The best prayers have often more groans than words.

Humility is the light of the understanding.

Our sins, when laid upon Christ, were yet personally ours, not his; so his righteousness, when put upon us, is yet personally his, not ours.

To seek yourself in this world is to be lost; and to be humble is to be exalted.

I seek a place that can never be destroyed, one that is pure, and that fadeth not away, and it is laid up in heaven, and safe there, to be given, at the time appointed, to them that seek it with all their heart. Read it so, if you will, in my book.

It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit because there is no winter there.

It is the opener of the heart of God, and a means by which the soul, though empty, is filled.

Old truths are always new to us, if they come with the smell of heaven upon them.

He that lives in sin and looks for happiness hereafter is likehimthat soweth cockleand thinkstofill hisbarnwith wheat or barley.

Sleep is sweet to the labouring man.

Great grace and small gifts are better than great gifts and no grace.

The truths that I know best I have learned on my knees. I never know a thing well, till it is burned into my heart by prayer.

I will stay in prison till the moss grows on my eye lids rather than disobey God.

I love to hear my Lord spoken of, and wherever I have seen the print of His shoe in the earth, there have I coveted to put mine also.

My heavens! I’ve been talking prose for the last forty years without knowing it.

There is a pleasure in being mad, which none but madmen know.

Learning to cultivate an awareness of the known and unknown within one’s being often leads to a healthier and more realistic sense of self.

Confidence is the feeling we have before knowing all the facts.

What shall I do to be for ever known, And make the age to come my own?

Good Heavens! For more than forty years I have been speaking prose without knowing it.

It is better to will the good than to know the truth.

I know and love the good, yet, ah! the worst pursue.