"A more-self-contained, energetic, sincere artist I never saw. His talent amazed me; unfortunately he is an utterly untamed personality, not altogether wrong in holding the world to be detestable, but who does not make it any more enjoyable either for himself or others by his attitude."

-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), speaking of Ludwig van Beethoven

"If you are on the wrong train, it's no use running along the corridor in the other direction."

- - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"It is a poor sort of faith that imagines Christ defeated by anything men can do."

-- Joy Davidman

"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

-- Anne Lamott

"What are these churches now if they are not
the tombs and sepulchres of God?"

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Faith is the human attitude of receptivity which takes what God, in his grace, holds out."

-- Ralph Martin

“Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”

-- George Bernard Shaw

"Many would be cowards if they had courage enough."

-- Thomas Fuller
English clergyman & historian (1608 - 1661)

"The church wants so much to be the Chaplain of American Culture that they are willing to bless anything that the American Culture decrees as good."

-- David Roseberry

"But when once Christ had called him, Peter had no alternative: he must leave the ship and come to Him. In the end, the first step of obedience proves to be an act of faith in the word of Christ.

But we should completely misunderstand the nature of grace if we were to suppose that here was no need to take the first-step, because faith was already there.

Against that, we must boldly assert that the step of obedience must be taken before faith can be possible. Unless he obeys, a man cannot believe."

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”

-- Moshe Dyan

"The soul must long for God in order to be set aflame by God’s love; but if the soul cannot yet feel this longing, then it must long for the longing. To long for the longing is also from God."

-- Meister Eckhart

"Quando omni flunkus moritati"
(if all else fails, play dead)

-- anonymous...and doubtful.

"Force is always, and everywhere, a sign of fear--that is, a sign of weakness. Behind the vast armies and navies which we call the great powers of the world, there is fear. Fear it is that drives us out to war. Fear is the father of ferocity, and the forger of the sword. From the Creative point of view, which is God's point of view, force is weakness, and only Love is power."

-- G. A. Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929),
The Wicket Gate [1923]

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

"Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others."

-- Edward Abbey

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."

--Edward R. Murrow

"We usually think of the preacher and worship leaders as performers and the congregation as the audience. That’s a misnomer. In fact, the preacher, worship leaders and each person in the congregation are performers. God is the audience."

-- Soren Kierkegaard

When the Bible speaks of "following Jesus," it is proclaiming a discipleship which will liberate mankind from all man-made dogma, from every burden and oppression, from every anxiety and torture which afflicts the conscience. If they follow Jesus, men escape from the hard yoke of their own laws, and submit to the kindly yoke of Jesus Christ. But does this mean that we can ignore the seriousness of His command? Far from it! We can only achieve perfect liberty and enjoy fellowship with Jesus when His command, His call to absolute discipleship, is appreciated in its entirety.

Only the man who follows the command of Jesus without reserve, and submits unresistingly to His yoke, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard--unutterably hard--for those who try to resist it.

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

"Everything preaches."

-- Martin Luther