58 Harry Emerson Fosdick Quotes

Harry Emerson Fosdick quotes

1. 'I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it. I renounce war, and never again, directly or indirectly, will I sanction or support another. '

2. 'A good sermon is an engineering operation by which a chasm is bridged so that the spiritual goods on one side- the 'unsearchable riches of Christ' -are actually transported into personal lives upon the other.'

3. 'A person wrapped up in himself makes a small package.'

4. 'Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.'

5. 'Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it.'

6. 'Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. '

7. 'Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to. '

8. 'Every human life involves an unfathomable mystery, for man is the riddle of the universe, and the riddle of man is his endowment with personal capacities.'

9. 'God is not a cosmic bell-boy for whom we can press a button to get things done.'

   Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

10. 'Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.'

11. 'He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.'

12. 'He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end.'

13. '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. '

14. 'Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye, and you will be drawn toward it.'

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

15. '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.'

16. 'It is by acts and not by ideas that people live. '

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

17. 'Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.'

18. 'Life consists not simply in what heredity and environment do to us but in what we make out of what they do to us.'

19. '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.'

20. Our power is not so much in us as through us.

21. 'Picture yourself vividly as winning, and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success.'

22. 'Preaching is personal counseling on a group basis.'

23. '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. '

24. 'Religion is not a burden, not a weight, it is wings.'

25. 'Some Christians carry their religion on their backs. It is a packet of beliefs and practices which they must bear. At times it grows heavy and they would willingly lay it down, but that would mean a break with old traditions, so they shoulder it again. But real Christians do not carry their religion, their religion carries them. It is not weight, it is wings. It lifts them up, it sees them over hard places. It makes the universe seem friendly, life purposeful, hope real, sacrifice worthwhile. It sets them free from fear, futility, discouragement, and sin---the great enslaver of men's souls. You can know a real Christian when you see him, by his bouyancy.'

26. 'The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth.'

27. 'The half is greater than the whole.'

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

28. 'The men of faith might claim for their positions ancient tradition, practical usefulness, and spiritual desirability, but one query could prick all such bubbles: Is it scientific? That question has searched religion for contraband goods, stripped it of old superstitions, forced it to change its categories of thought and methods of work, and in general has so cowed and scared religion that many modern-minded believers... instinctively throw up their hands at the mere whisper of it... When a prominent scientist comes out strongly for religion, all the churches thank Heaven and take courage, as though it were the highest possible compliment to God to have Eddington believe in Him. Science has become the arbiter of this generation's thought, until to call even a prophet and a seer 'scientific' is to cap the climax of praise.'

29. 'The steady discipline of intimate friendship with Jesus results in men becoming like Him.'

30. 'The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.'

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

31. 'To keep the Golden Rule we must put ourselves in other people's places, but to do that consists in and depends upon picturing ourselves in their places. '

32. 'Whatever you laugh at in others, laughs at yourself.'

1. Nothing in human life, least of all in religion, is ever right until it is beautiful.

2. Life asks not merely what you can do; it asks how much can you endure and not be spoiled.

3. It is cynicism and fear that freeze life; it is faith that thaws it out, releases it, sets it free.

4. The all but unanimous judgment seems to be that we, the democracies, are just as responsible for the rise of the dictators as the dictatorships themselves, and perhaps more so.

5. Atheism is a theoretical formulation of the discouraged life...

6. The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this. Irritations set into his shell. He does not like them. But when he cannot get ride of them, he uses the irritation to do the loveliest thing an oyster ever has a chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only one prescription: make a pearl. It may have to be a pearl of patience, but anyhow, make a pearl. And it takes faith and I love to do it.

7. The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst.

8. No one can be wrong with man and right with God.

9. No man need stay the way he is.

10. Every year the inventions of science weave more inextricably the web that binds man to man, group to group, nation to nation.

11. It is not marriage that fails; it is people that fail. All that marriage does is to show people up.

12. Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye and you will be drawn toward it. Picture yourself vividly as winning and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success.

13. Nothing else matters much...not wealth, nor learning, nor even health...without this gift: the spiritual capacity to keep zest in living. This is the creed of creeds, the final deposit and distillation of all important faiths: that you should be able to believe in life.

14. God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things.

15. Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye and you will be drawn toward it. Picture yourself vividly as winning and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success. Great living starts with a picture, held in your imagination, of what you would like to do or be.

16. I hate war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatreds it arouses...

17. No virtue is more universally accepted as a test of good character than trustworthiness .

18. The process has now run full circle: Preaching originates in personal counseling; preaching is personal counseling on a group basis; personal counseling originates in preaching. Personal counseling imparts to the preacher a practical familiarity with human nature which he would not otherwise obtain.

19. The finest quality of our characters do not come from trying but from the mysterious and yet most effective capacity to be inspired.

20. Peace is an awareness of reserves from beyond ourselves, so that our power is not so much in us as through us. Peace is the gift, not of volitional struggle, but of spiritual hospitality.

21. We cannot all be great, but we can always attach ourselves to something that is great.

22. It is by acts (actions) and not by ideas (mere thoughts) that people [really] live.

23. Great living starts with a picture, held in your imagination, of what you would like to do or be.

24. The more we know about this universe, the more mysterious it is. The old world that Job knew was marvelous enough, and his description of its wonders is among the noblest poetry of the race, but today the new science has opened to our eyes vistas of mystery that transcend in their inexplicable marvel anything the ancients ever dreamed.

25. He who picks up one end of a stick picks up the other. He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end.

26. All altruism springs from putting yourself in the other person's place.