John Wesley Quotes

Catch on fire and others will love to come watch you burn.

Permit me, sir, to give you one piece of advice. Be not so positive; especially with regard to things which are neither easy nor necessary to be determined. When I was young I was sure of everything. In a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before. At present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to man.

Absolute perfection belongs not to man, nor to angels, but to God alone.

The readiest way which God takes to draw a man to himself is, to afflict him in that he loves most, and with good reason; and to cause this affliction to arise from some good action done with a single eye; because nothing can more clearly show him the emptiness of what is most lovely and desirable in all the world.

I can by no means approve the scurrility and contempt with which the Romanists have often been treated. I dare not rail at, or despise, any man: much less those who profess to believe in the same Master. But I pity them much; having the same assurance, that Jesus is the Christ, and that no Romanist can expect to be saved, according to the terms of his covenant.

Thanksgiving is inseparable from true prayer; it is almost essentially connected with it. One who always prays is ever giving praise, whether in ease or pain, both for prosperity and for the greatest adversity. He blesses God for all things, looks on them as coming from Him, and receives them for His sake- not choosing nor refusing, liking or disliking,anything, but only as it is agreeable or disagreeable to His perfect will.

I observed, "Love is the fulfilling of the law, the end of the commandment." It is not only "the first and great" command, but all the commandments in one. "Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise," they are all comprised in this one word, love.

[H]is heart is ever lifted up to God at all times and in all places. In this he is
never hindered, much less interrupted, by any person or thing. In retirement
or company, in leisure, business, or conversation, his heart is ever with the
Lord. Whether he lie down or rise up, God is in all his thoughts; he walks
with God continually, having the loving eye of his mind still fixed upon Him,
and everywhere “seeing him that is invisible.”7

It is hardily credible of how great consequences before God the smallest things are; and what great inconveniences some times follow those which appear to be light faults.

the power of God came mightily upon us. Many cried out in complete joy. Others were knocked to the ground. As soon as we recovered a little from that awe and amazement at God’s presence, we broke out in praise.

To explain this a little further: Only the soul and the body are the natural constituent parts of men and women. The SPIRIT is not in the fundamental nature of humans but is the supernatural gift of God, TO BE FOUND IN CHRISTIANS ONLY.

Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn.

Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance, that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a law in all our Colonies that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villany is this!

In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church.

Thus it is unquestionably true that he who has been born of God, by “keeping himself,” does not, cannot sin; and yet, if he does not keep himself, he may commit all manner of sin with greediness.