Quotes about Excellence

But we must not follow those who advise us…being mortal, [to think] of mortal things, but must, so far as we can, make ourselves immortal, and strain every nerve to live in accordance with the best thing in us; for even if it be small in bulk, much more does it in power and worth surpass everything.

Ability can take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there

O fairest of creation! last and best of all God's works! creature in whom excell'd whatever can to sight or thought be form'd, Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet! How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost, Defac'd, deflower'd, and now to Death devote?

Accuse not nature, she hath done her part do thou but thine, and be not diffident of wisdom, she deserts thee not, if thou dismiss not her, when most thou needest her nigh, by attributing overmuch to things less excellent, as thou thyself perceivest.

Therefore, the essence of our work as humans must be that it is done in conscious reliance on God's power, and in conscious quest of God's pattern of excellence, and in deliberate aim to reflect God's glory.

God created me—and you—to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion, namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life.

Oh, what a grand design! to make our joy the echo of your excellence. To make our pleasure proof that you now hold the place of Treasure in our lives. To make the gladness of our soul the essence of our worship, and the mirror of your worth. To make yourself most glorified in us, oh God, when we are satisfied in you. How could I, Lord, have ever been to so blind to think think that being loved by you means making much of me and not yourself?

The true dimensions of a soul are seen in its delights. Not what we dutifully will but what we passionately want reveals our excellence or evil.

God] had respect to himself, as his last and highest end, in this work; because he is worthy in himself to be so, being infinitely the greatest and best of beings. All things else, with regard to worthiness, importance, and excellence, are perfectly as nothing in comparison of him. All that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God's works is included in that one phrase, the glory of God.

God created me-and you-to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion, namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life.

God reveals more or less of his glory in different times and settings. But it is always his glory! It is never minor. Never insignificant. Never negligible. It is always some measure of the infinite excellence. It is always worthy of seeing and knowing and loving.

The practical effect of this path is that I do not ask you to pray for a special whisper from God to decide if Jesus is real. Rather I ask you to look at the Jesus of the Bible. Look at him. Don't close your eyes and hope for a word of confirmation. Keep your eyes open and fill them with the full portrait of Jesus provided in the Bible. If you come to trust Jesus Christ as the Lord and God, it will be because you see in him a divine glory and excellence that is simply is what it is -- true