Quotes from the 20th century

Christian quotes from the 20th century — with author, dates and source, from two millennia of Christian thought.

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
Mother Teresa

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.
C.S. Lewis

By gentle powers wonderfully sheltered, we quietly await what e'er may come. God is with us at evening and in morning, and most assuredly on each new day.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Jesus calls us not to a new religion, but to life.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found.
Henri Nouwen

When we pray, the circumstances often remain the same, but we become different.
Oswald Chambers

It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on the marriage that sustains your love.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
Corrie ten Boom

To pray is to draw breath from God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Prayer does not equip us for greater works – prayer is the greater work.
Oswald Chambers

In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
Henri Nouwen

I asked God for many things so that I could enjoy life. God gave me life, so that I could enjoy all things.
Gertrud von le Fort

God does not love us because we are lovable, but because his nature is love.
Oswald Chambers

We live out of the boundless riches of Christ. Some of us talk as if our heavenly Father had fobbed us off with pocket money.
Oswald Chambers

Those who wait on God lose nothing by waiting.
Corrie ten Boom

Ultimately mourning means facing what wounds us in the presence of One who can heal.
Henri Nouwen

Forgiveness means allowing the other person not to have to be God.
Henri Nouwen

The devil is a better theologian than any of us, and he is still a devil.
A.W. Tozer

The Father’s love does not force itself on the beloved.
Henri Nouwen

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because, by it, I see everything else.
C.S. Lewis

We cannot do great things on this earth, only small things with great love.
Mother Teresa

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
C.S. Lewis

God has not called us to success, only to faithfulness.
Mother Teresa

And when this cup of silence now spreads deep around us, let us hear that full sound of the world, which invisibly widens around us, the exalted song of praise of all Your children.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish; but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival.
C.S. Lewis

But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
C.S. Lewis

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Jim Elliot

Jenny, God has made me for a purpose – for China; but He has also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure
Eric Liddell

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Reinhold Niebuhr

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Darkness cannot be overcome with more darkness, only with light. Violence cannot be overcome with more violence, only with peace.
Martin Luther King Jr.

When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.
Henri Nouwen

The real reason why so few men believe in God is that they have ceased to believe that even a God can love them.
Thomas Merton

May I be the thinking heart of this barrack. I would like to be it again. I would like to be the thinking heart of an entire concentration camp.
Etty Hillesum

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.
Corrie ten Boom

God does not fulfill all our wishes, but all his promises.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created.
C.S. Lewis

In me it is dark, but with you there is light; I am lonely, but you do not leave me.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The only important thing in life are the traces of love we leave behind when we go.
Albert Schweitzer

People quoted here

Mother Teresa, C.S. Lewis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Henri Nouwen, Oswald Chambers, Corrie ten Boom, Gertrud von le Fort, A.W. Tozer, Martin Luther King Jr., Jim Elliot, Eric Liddell, Reinhold Niebuhr

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Quotes from the 20th century

People quoted here

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