Top 15 Isaac Watts Quotes

English hymnwriter, theologian and logician (1674-1748)

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Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English theologian, logician, and a prolific and popular hymnwriter. Known as the "Father of English Hymnody" he is credited with some 750 hymns, many of which remain in active use today.

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Alternative Names: Dr. Isaac Watts

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Tis true my form is something odd
But blaming me is blaming God
Could I create myself anew
I would not fail in pleasing you.

If I could reach from pole to pole
Or grasp the ocean with a span
I would be measured by the soul
The mind's the standard of the man.

Learning to trust is one of life's most difficult tasks.

Acquaint yourself with your own ignorance.

Do not spend the day in gathering flowers by the way side, lest night come upon you before you arrive at your journey's end, and then you will not reach it.

Once a day, especially in the early years of life and study, call yourselves to an account what new ideas, what new proposition or truth you have gained, what further confirmation of known truths, and what advances you have made in any part of knowledge.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

How shall polluted mortals dare
To sing Thy glory or Thy grace
Beneath Thy feet we lie afar
And see but shadows of Thy face.

Love is amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul my life my all

When the Eternal bows the skies
To visit earthly things,
With scorn divine he turns his eyes
From towers of haughty kings.

He bids his awful chariot roll
Far downward from the skies,
To visit every humble soul,
With pleasure in his eyes.

The Great God values not the service of men, if the heart be not in it: The Lord sees and judges the heart; he has no regard to outward forms of worship, if there be no inward adoration, if no devout affection be employed therein. It is therefore a matter of infinite importance, to have the whole heart engaged steadfastly to God.

You should therefore contrive and practice some proper methods to acquaint yourself with your own ignorance, and to impress your mind with a deep and painful sense of the low and imperfect degrees of your present knowledge, that you may be incited with labor and activity to pursue after greater measures.

In works of labour,
or of skill,
I would be busy, too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

Once a day....call yourselves to an account what new ideas, what new proposition or truth you have gained, what further confirmation of known truths, and what advances you have made in any part of knowledge.