Inspirational Quotes by William Barclay

“The tragedy of life and of the world is not that men do not know God; the tragedy is that, knowing Him, they still insist on going their own way.”

“God himself took this human flesh upon him.”

“In the time we have it is surely our duty to do all the good we can to all the people we can in all the ways we can.”

“Religion fails if it cannot speak to men as they are.”

“It is the simple truth to say that the New Testament books became canonical because no one could stop them doing so.”

“It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.”

“The true, the genuine worship is when man, through his spirit, attains to friendship and intimacy with God. True and genuine worship is not to come to a certain place; it is not to go through a certain ritual or liturgy; it is not even to bring certain gifts. True worship is when the spirit, the immortal and invisible part of man, speaks to and meets with God, who is immortal and invisible.”

“Not even God can teach a man who comes to the Bible with his mind made up.”

“There is a time when to avoid trouble is to store up trouble, and when to seek for a lazy and a cowardly peace is to court a still greater danger.”

“Give me a hundred men who fear nothing but God, and who hate nothing but sin, and who know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified, and I will shake the world.”

“Agape, the Christian word, means unconquerable benevolence. It means that, no matter what people may do to us by way of insult or injury or humiliation, we will never seek anything else but their highest good. It”

“But the best definition of it is to say that heaven is that state where we will always be with Jesus, and where nothing will separate us from Him any more.”

“The awful importance of this life is that it determines eternity.”

“Covetousness is therefore, a sin with a very wide range. If it is the desire for money, it leads to theft. If it is the desire for prestige, it leads to evil ambition. If it is the desire for power, it leads to sadistic tyranny. If it is the desire for a person, it leads to sexual sin.”

“An honest assessment of our own capabilities, without conceit and without false modesty, is one of the first essentials of a useful life.”

“There is a time when mercy has to be shown. It has to be shown with gracious kindliness, Paul says. It is possible to forgive in such a way that the very forgiveness is an insult. It is possible to forgive and at the same time to demonstrate an attitude of criticism and contempt. If we ever have to forgive a sinner, we must remember that we are fellow sinners. 'There, but for the grace of God, go I,' said the Methodist, George Whitefield, as he saw the criminal walk to the gallows. There is a way of forgiving which pushes people further into the gutter; and there is a way of forgiving them which lifts them out of the mire. Real forgiveness is always based on love and never on superiority.”

“Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.”

“Jesus promised His disciples three things—that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy and in constant trouble.”

“He will be the cause whereby many will rise. Long ago Seneca said that what people needed above all was a hand let down to lift them up. It is the hand of Jesus which lifts us out of the old life and into the new, out of the sin into the goodness, out of the shame into the glory.”

“Christianity does not look on this world as one which God very occasionally invades; it looks on it as a world from which he is never absent.”