Inspirational Quotes by Elton Trueblood

“God, Lincoln believed, is seen more clearly events that in nature, though He maybe seen there also. It is a majestic thing, thought Lincoln, for a person to be RESPONSIBLE.”

“Out of anguish came greatness such as does not normally come in easier times.”

“The Biblical language was so deeply embedded in the great man's mind that it became his normal way of speaking.”

“He (Lincoln) was accustomed to hearing words, many of them boring, but he was not accustomed to group silence.”

“Contradiction is the perfect evidence, he (Lincoln) thought, of human fallibility.”

“He was too perplexed to please the conventional and too reverent. to please the infidels.”

“The key to Lincoln's famous employment of humor is not that he failed to appreciate the tragic aspects of human existence, but rather that he felt these with such keeness that some relief was required.”

“The writers in the newspapers could sounds smart because they did not have the responsibilities of decision, and they could sound bold by enunciating positions which they were not required to implement.”

“Lincoln was equidistant from the heresy which makes a person believed that he can do nothing, and the opposite heresy which makes them suppose that he is the master of his own fate.”

“The question, he (Lincoln) said over and over, is not what a man's particular abilities may be, but what his rights are as a human being made in God's image.”

“In the Church he (Lincoln) saw people who, though they hated war as much as the editors did, saw with clarity what the moral alternative was.”

“The difficulty was not that of following a moral principle at personal cost; the difficulty was that of knowing what to do when there is more than one principal, and when the principles clash.”

“From the prophets of Israel Lincoln had learned the note will idea that there can be serving people, with responsibility to the entire "family of man".”

“Take all of this Book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man.”

“He (Lincoln) saw how intellectually and spiritually impoverished a person would be if he was limited to his own personal resources. The Bible, he recognized, vastly enlarged the area of experience on which an individual might depend.”

“we are so hardened to the story that is easy for us to forget how explosive and truly revolutionary the Christian faith was in the ancient Mediterranean world. The church at first had no buildings, no separated clergy, no set ritual, no bishops, no Pope, yet it succeeded in turning life upside down for millions of unknown men and women, giving them a new sense of life's meaning and superb courage in the face of persecution and sorrow. it is our tragedy that we are living in a day when much of this primal force is spent. Our temper is so different that we hardly understand what the New testament writers are saying. Once a church what's a brave and revolutionary fellowship, changing the course of history by the introduction of discordant ideas; today it is a place where people go and sit uncomfortable benches, waiting patiently until time to go home to their Sunday dinners.”

“the decision to stand unapologetically for the gospel has been tantamount to a new conversion. It brings peace; it dissolves fears; it snaps fingers at ridicule.”