John Wesley Quotes

Riches naturally beget pride, love of the world, and every temper that is destructive of Christianity.

This earthly body is slow and heavy in all its motions, listless and soon tired with action. But our heavenly bodies shall be as fire; as active and as nimble as our thoughts are.

I cannot help leaving my books behind me whenever God calls me hence; but in every other respect, my own hands will be my executors.

As no good is done, or spoken, or thought by any man without the assistance of God, working in and with those that believe in him, so there is no evil done, or spoken, or thought without the assistance of the devil, who worketh with strong though secret power in the children of unbelief. All the works of our evil nature are the work of the devil.

O, Begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises... Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days... Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer.

Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.

Reading Christians are growing Christians. When Christians cease to read, they cease to grow.

Nay, if there be any mistakes in the Bible, there may as well be a thousand. If there be one falsehood in that book, it did not come from the God of truth

The wicked will gnaw their tongues for anguish and pain; they will curse God and look upwards. There the dogs of hell, pride, malice, revenge, rage, horror, despair, continually devout them.

I desired as many as could to join together in fasting and prayer, that God would restore the spirit of love and of a sound mind to the poor deluded rebels in America.

Untold millions are still untold.

Gay and costly apparel directly tends to create and influence lust.... The fact is plain and undeniable, it has the effect both on the wearer and beholder. You kindle a flame, which, at the same time consumes both yourself and your admirers.

Beware, lastly, of imagining you shall obtain the end without using the means conducive to it.

One of the principal rules of religion is, to lose no occasion of serving God. And, since he is invisible to our eyes, we are to serve him in our neighbour; which he receives as if done to himself in person, standing visibly before us.

One of the greatest evidences of God's love to those that love him is, to send them afflictions, with grace to bear them.

Preach 90% Law and 10% grace.

There is no love of God without patience, and no patience without lowliness and sweetness of spirit.

I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation.

Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergymen or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon Earth.

When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man, when he gets all he can and saves all he can, does not give all he can, I have more hope for Judas Iscariot than for that man!

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can.

Giving up witchcraft is, in effect, giving up the Bible.

Get all you can without hunting your soul, your body, or your neighbor. Save all you can, cutting off every needless expense. Give all you can. Be glad to give, and ready to distribute; laying up in store for yourselves a good foundation against the time to come, that you may attain eternal life.

When Poetry thus keeps its place as the handmaiden of piety, it shall attain not a poor perishable wreath, but a crown that fadeth not away.

The bible knows nothing of solitary religion.

Think not the bigotry of another is any excuse for your own.

People who wish to be offended will always find some occasion for taking offense.

Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.

The wearing of costly array is directly opposite to being adorned with good works. Nothing can be more evident than this; for the more you lay out on your own apparel, the less you have left to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to lodge the stranger, to relieve those that are sick and in prison.

Give me 100 men that hate nothing but sin, and love Jesus Christ, and we'll shake England for God.

You have nothing to do but to save souls; therefore spend and be spent in this work.

I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

The longer I live, the larger allowances I make for human infirmities. I exact more from myself and less from others.

The giving up of (a belief in) witchcraft is in effect the giving up of (a beilief in) the Bible.

This Book had to be written by one of three people: good men, bad men or God. It couldn't have been written by good men because they said it was inspired by the revelation of God. Good men don't lie and deceive. It couldn't have been written by bad men because bad men would not write something that would condemn themselves. It leaves only one conclusion. It was given by divine inspiration of God.

Every one, though born of God in an instant, yet undoubtedly grows by slow degrees.

No circumstances can make it necessary for a man to burst in sunder all the ties of humanity.

The man who never fasts is no more in the way to heaven than the man who never prays.

The first priority of my life is to be holy, and the second goal of my life is to be a scholar.

Let it be observed, that slovenliness is no part of religion; that neither this, nor any text of Scripture, condemns neatness of apparel. Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.

Is it not common to say to a child, 'Put your finger in that candle, can you bear it even for one minute?' How then will you bear Hell-fire? Surely it would be torment enough to have the flesh burnt off from only one finger; what then will it be to have the whole body plunged into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone?

Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God.

Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.

Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he comes in the clouds of heaven.

The bottom of the soul may be in repose, even while we are in many outward troubles; just as the bottom of the sea is calm, while the surface is strongly agitated.

Making an open stand against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness which overspreads our land as a flood is one of the noblest ways of confessing Christ in the face of His enemies.

They say I killed six or seven men for snoring. Well, it ain't true. I only killed one man for snoring.

You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go not only to those that need you, but to those that need you most. It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance.