Quotes about Belief
Prayer unaccompanied by perseverance leads to no result.
— John Calvin
Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue but of the life.
— John Calvin
They who strive to build up a firm faith in Scripture through disputation are doing things backwards.
— John Calvin
For the Word of God is not received by faith if it flits about in the top of the brain, but when it takes root in the depth of the heart... the heart's distrust is greater than the mind's blindness. It is harder for the heart to be furnished with assurance [of God's love] than for the mind to be endowed with thought.
— John Calvin
This is how we can distinguish true religion from superstition: when the Word of God directs us, there is true religion; but when each man follows his own opinion, or when men join together to follow an opinion they hold in common, the result is always concocted superstition.
— John Calvin
For this we must believe: that the mind is never seriously aroused to desire and ponder the life to come unless it be previously imbued with contempt for the present life. Indeed, there is no middle ground between these two: either the world must become worthless to us or hold us bound by intemperate love of it.
— John Calvin
If grace acts in us, grace, and not we who do the work, will be crowned
— John Calvin
We shall find that the reason why we doubt of God's promises is, because we sinfully detract from his power.
— John Calvin
Not that they may believe against their wills (which would be impossible), but that they may be made willing to believe who were before unwilling to believe.
— John Calvin
God does not bind the ancient folk to outward doctrine as if they were learning their ABC's.
— John Calvin
This being admitted, it is certain that not a drop of rain falls without the express command of God.
— John Calvin
In vain do Papists, Mahometans, and other sects, boast of their antiquity, while they are mere counterfeits of the true, the pure religion.
— John Calvin