Quotes from John Calvin
Things that are seen are temporal; things that are unseen are eternal.
— John Calvin
Humility is the beginning of true intelligence.
— John Calvin
Moreover, a true Christian will not ascribe any prosperity to his own diligence, industry, or good fortune, but he will acknowledge that God is the author of it.
— John Calvin
Christ does not make new laws; he rectifies the wrong interpretations of the scribes which had vitiated the purity of the law of God.
— John Calvin
The knowledge of faith consists in assurance rather than in comprehension... We add the words "sure and firm" in order to express a more solid constancy of persuasion.
— John Calvin
Anyone, therefore, who obscures the glory of God, puts himself in the position of striving to subvert the eternal purpose of God.
— John Calvin
For what is more consonant with faith than to recognize that we are naked of all virtue, in order to be clothed by God? That we are empty of all good, to be filled by him? That we are slaves of sin, to be freed by him? Blind, to be illumined by him? Lame, to be made straight by him? Weak, to be sustained by him? To take away from us all occasion for glorying, that he alone may stand forth gloriously and we glory in him [cf. I Cor. 1:31; II Cor. 10:17]?
— John Calvin
The sufferings of Christ are the means of forgiveness of sin and eternal glory
— John Calvin
because he also is flesh.' In which language God complains, that the order appointed by him has been so greatly disturbed, that his own image has been transformed into flesh.
— John Calvin
God did not look for a cause outside himself, but predestined us because it was his will to do it.
— John Calvin
God does not bind the ancient folk to outward doctrine as if they were learning their ABC's.
— John Calvin
On the other hand, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself.
— John Calvin