John Calvin was a French theologian, pastor, and reformer who lived from 10 July 1509 to 27 May 1664 in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He played a key role in the formation of the Calvinist school of Christian theology, which is known for its doctrines on predestination and God’s absolute sovereignty over the salvation of the human soul from eternal damnation.
The Augustinian and other Christian traditions had an impact on and contributed to the development of Calvinist doctrines. Many Congregational, Reformed, and Presbyterian churches have proliferated all over the world, with Calvin serving as the primary exponent of their doctrines.
68 John Calvin Quotes
- “True wisdom consists in two things: Knowledge of God and Knowledge of Self.”
2. “It is a beastly business when people start eating without prayer, and when they are full, they run out without as much as mentioning God’s name.”
3. “There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence.”
4. “A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent”
5. “Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church?
6. “Prayers will never reach God unless they are founded on free mercy.”
7. “We should ask God to increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when it is overthrown.”
8. “Without the fear of God, men do not even observe justice and charity among themselves.”
9. “This being admitted, it is certain that not a drop of rain falls without the express command of God.”
10. “All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors.”
John Calvin Quotes on Faith
11. “They who strive to build up a firm faith in Scripture through disputation are doing things backwards.”
12. “Our true wisdom is to embrace with meek docility, and without reservation, whatever the holy scriptures have delivered.”
13. “There would be no communion between him and us if he did not first come to us with his grace.”
14. “In forming an estimate of sins, we are often imposed upon by imagining that the more hidden the less heinous they are.”
15. “We are not to look to what men in themselves deserve but to attend to the image of God which exists in all and to which we owe all honor and love.”
16. “Since he has so chosen us, we belong to him, more especially because he has bought us by the blood of his Son.”
17. “Where God thus clearly displays free mercy, have done with that empty imagination of merit.”
18. “The most accomplished in the Scripture are fools, unless they acknowledge that they have need of God for their schoolmaster all the days of their life.”
19. “The true wisdom of man consists in the knowledge of God the Creator and Redeemer.”
20. “The Must be worthless by our estimation or keep us enslaved by an intemperate love of it.”
John Calvin Quotes on Salvation
21. “A perfect faith is nowhere to be found, so it follows that all of us are partly unbelievers.”
22. “The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.”
23. “See how our works lie under the curse of the law if they are tested by the standard of the law.”
24. “For there is no one so great or mighty that he can avoid the misery that will rise up against him when he resists and strives against God”
25. “There is no inconsistency when God raises up those who have fallen prostrate.”
26. “It follows that we pray rightly only when we come to God trusting in the Mediator.”
27. “It teaches us not to regard others according to their own merits, but to consider in them the image of God to which we owe both honor and love. But”
28. “Indeed, how can the mind by its own leading come to search out God’s essence when it cannot even get to its own?”
29. “Therefore by the example of Abram, entire self-renunciation is enjoined, that we may live and die to God alone.”
30. “it is better to limp in the way, than run with the greatest swiftness out of it.”
Famous John Calvin Quotes
31. “our faith in doctrine is not established until we have a perfect conviction that God is its author.”
32. “Undoubtedly the dress of a virtuous and godly woman must differ from that of a strumpet.”
33. “There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.”
34. “The majesty of God is too high to be scaled up to by mortals, who creep like worms on the earth.”
35. “Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue but of the life.”
36. “Trie and sound wisdom consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”
37. “For so blindly do we all rush in the direction of self-love, that every one thinks he has a good reason for exalting himself and despising all others in comparison.”
38. “We do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds but, having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds.”
39. “Therefore, it is blasphemous to give the title Son to anyone but Christ.”
40. “He only who is reduced to nothing in himself, and relies on the mercy of God is poor in spirit”
John Calvin Quotes Prayer and Wisdom of God
41. “True and sound wisdom consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”
42. “Christ does not make new laws; he rectifies the wrong interpretations of the scribes which had vitiated the purity of the law of God.”
43. “There is no knowing that does not begin with knowing God.”
44. “if we have Jesus Christ with us, we shall come upon nothing so accursed that he will not turn it into a blessing; nothing”
45. “Hence we judge the papal sacraments to be frivolous, since in them the voice of God is not heard for the upbuilding of souls.”
46. “For very few persons are concerned about the way that leads to heaven, but all are anxious to know, before the time, what passes there.”
47. “The salvation of all the elect is not less certain than the power of God is invincible.”
48. “Since the life of the soul is bound to God, those who are by sin alienated from him are to be regarded as dead.”
49. “All the arts come from God and are to be respected as divine inventions”
50. “The Institutes is not only the classic of Christian theology; it is also a model of Christian devotion.”
John Calvin Quotes To Live By
51. “But it is evident that the servants of Christ are treated with less humanity than adulterers, robbers, and other malefactors of their kind. This”
52. “all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”
53. “However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts.”
54. “He who has learned to look to God in everything he does is at the same time diverted from all vain thoughts.”
55. “Prayer unaccompanied by perseverance leads to no result.”
56. “All who have not been influenced by the principle of self-denial, have followed virtue merely from the love of praise.”
57. “Men in prayer give greater license to their unlawful desires than if they were telling jocular tales among their equals.”
58. “Since men do not create their own life but obtain life precariously from another, it follows that God dwells in them.”
59. “We are enjoined whenever we behold the gifts of God in others so to reverence and respect the gifts as also to honor those in whom they reside.”
60. “The proper use, then, of all the good gifts we have received is the free and generous sharing of those gifts with others.”
61. “The knowledge of ourselves, therefore, is not only an incitement to seek after God, but likewise a considerable assistance towards finding him.”
62. “God has so ordained and governed the Christian church that the cross has been the preparation for victory, and death the way to life. Such”
63. “God established the law itself as the perpetual rule of his church, to be always in the hands of men, and to be followed by all posterity. But”
64. “It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone.”
65. “If at any time, then we are troubled at the small number of those who believe, let us, on the other hand, call to mind, that none comprehend the mysteries of God save those to whom it is given.”
66. “Faith rests not on ignorance, but on knowledge.”
67. “Whence follows the plain conclusion, that if all men were elected, no man would perish.”
Additional Read: A Brief History Of John Calvin