Inspirational Quotes by Harry Emerson Fosdick
“Every human life involves an unfathomable mystery, for man is the riddle of the universe, and the riddle of man in his endowment with personal capacities.”
topics: Life
“Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.”
“Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it.”
“It is not marriage that fails; it is people that fail. All that marriage does is to show them up.”
topics: Marriage
“Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world-making the most of one's best.”
“No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.”
“We cannot all be great, but we can always attach ourselves to something that is great.”
topics: Perseverance
“God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things.”
topics: Prayer
“Preaching is personal counseling on a group basis.”
topics: Preaching
“A person wrapped up in himself makes a small package.”
topics: Pride
“I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.”
topics: Reasoning
“We settle things by a majority vote, and the psychological effect of doing that is to create the impression that the majority is probably right. Of course, on any fine issue the majority is sure to be wrong. Think of taking a majority vote on the best music. Jazz would win over Chopin. Or on the best novel. Many cheap scribblers would win over Tolstoy. And any day a prizefight will get a bigger crowd, larger gate receipts and wider newspaper publicity than any new revelation of goodness, truth or beauty could hope to achieve in a century.”
“There need not be in religion, or music, or art, or love, or goodness, anything that is against reason; but never while the sun shines will we get great religion, or music, or art, or love, or goodness, without going beyond reason.”
“Religion is not a burden, not a weight, it is wings.”
topics: Religion
“Nothing in human life, least of all in religion, is ever right until it is beautiful.”
“No character is ultimately tested until it has suffered.”
topics: Suffering
“He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.”
topics: Suffering
“He who chooses the beginning of the road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determines the end.”
topics: Temptation
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1878-1969
Harry Emerson Fosdick was an American clergyman. He was born in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Colgate University in 1900, and Union Theological Seminary in 1904. While attending Colgate University he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1903 at the Madison Avenue Baptist Church at 31st Street. Fosdick was the most prominent liberal Baptist minister of the early 20th Century. Although a Baptist, he was Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church on West Twelfth Street and then at the historic, interdenominational Riverside Church (the congregation moved from the then-named Park Avenue Baptist Church, now the Central Presbyterian Church) in New York City.
Fosdick became a central figure in the conflict between fundamentalist and liberal forces within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s. He saw the history of Christianity as one of development, progress, and gradual change. To the fundamentalists, this was rank apostasy, and the battle lines were drawn.
Fosdick was an outspoken opponent of racism and injustice. Fosdick's sermons won him wide recognition, as did his radio addresses which were nationally broadcast. He authored numerous books, and many of his sermon collections are still in print. He is also the author of the hymn, "God of Grace and God of Glory"