John Owen Quotations

Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction

The custom of sinning takes away the sense of it, the course of the world takes away the shame of it.

The most tremendous judgment of God in this world is the hardening of the hearts of men.

Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

In the divine Scriptures, there are shallows and there are deeps; shallows where the lamb may wade, and deeps where the elephant may swim.

All thing I thought I knew; but now confess, the more I know I know, I know the less.

The vigor and power and comfort of our spiritual life depends on our mortification of deeds of the flesh.

Leanness of body and soul may go together.

All other ways of mortification are vain, all helps leave us helpless; it must be done by the Spirit.

The house built on the sand may oftentimes be built higher, have more fair parapets and battlements, windows and ornaments, than that which is built upon the rock; yet all gifts and privileges equal not one grace.

After hearing the evidence, I will record a verdict of natural causes.

I wish thy lot, now bad, still worse, my friend, for when at worst, they say, things always mend.

We expect to report an operating margin between 2 percent and 4 percent, and that should bring us to a net loss for the full year. And for full-year, we are using an assumed fuel price of $1.92 (for a gallon of jet fuel). So, basically, $1.92 in the first quarter and an average of about $2 for each of the remaining three quarters.

I was very pleased with Jonathan's performance. He has had to wait patiently this season as we have a big squad but he has shown a great attitude and he certainly took his chance today.

It gives them an opportunity to either pick up those assets on the cheap or to have someone else come in and re-franchise the area.

The fact that he comes from Kraft and ran a $6 billion operation, and he's now willing to take on this challenge, is a positive sign. It's also a positive the board has come to the conclusion the restructuring guys have completed what needs to be done and the company is ready to move forward.

We have been living like cavemen, sleeping in cars, doing bodily functions outside. And meanwhile we're the victims, and we have families here.

It's not going to happen overnight, ... But I think you're going to be seeing some major changes in downtown Waynesburg.

They have all kinds of ways of making you pay.

It wasn't so much the amount of money as it was the frequency that struck a chord with some folks.

It's become a little bit of a pattern with franchises that were struggling. I'm not entirely surprised with the shutting down of the Houston franchise.

By faith ponder on this, that though thou art no way able in or by thyself to get the conquest over thy distemper, though thou art even weary of contending, and art utterly ready to faint, yet that there is enough in Jesus Christ to yield thee relief...

Fill your affections with the cross of Christ that there may be no room for sin.

No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter who does not in some measure behold it here by faith.

Before the work of grace the heart is ‘stony.’ It can do no more than a stone can do to please God.

The growth of trees and plants takes place so slowly that it is not easily seen. Daily we notice little change. But, in course of time, we see that a great change has taken place. So it is with grace. Sanctification is a progressive, lifelong work (Prov 4:18). It is an amazing work of God's grace and it is a work to be prayed for (Rom 8:27).

Whatever vices and corruptions men see in the lives of their ministers will not be attributed to the depravity of their old nature which still abides in them, but to the gospel.

If I have observed anything by experience, it is this: a man may take the measure of his growth and decay in grace according to his thoughts and meditations upon the person of Christ, and the glory of Christ's Kingdom, and of His love.

Christ greatly delights in his people and they greatly delight in him

Consider who and what you are; who the Spirit is that is grieved, what he has done for you, what he comes to your soul about, what he has already done in you; and be ashamed. Among those who walk with God, there is no greater motive and incentive unto universal holiness, and the preserving of their hearts and spirits in all purity and cleanness than this: That the blessed Spirit, who has undertaken to dwell in them, is continually considering what they give entertainment in their hearts unto, and rejoices when his temple is kept undefiled.

Free will is "corrupted nature's deformed darling, the Pallas or beloved self-conception of darkened minds"

The vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh...The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin...Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

We are taught in an especial manner to pray that God would give his Holy Spirit unto us, that through his aid and assistance we may live unto God in that holy obedience which he requires at our hands.

It is often those who are despised and trampled on that bear up the weight of a whole nation.

Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until it be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death.

Unless men see a beauty and delight in the worship of God, they will not do it willingly.

As a tender and loving friend is grieved at the unkindness of his friend... so is it with this tender and loving Spirit, who hath chosen our hearts for a habitation to dwell in.

The duties God requires of us are not in proportion to the strength we possess in ourselves. Rather, they are proportional to the resources available to us in Christ. We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God's tasks. This is the law of grace. When we recognize it is impossible for us to perform a duty in our own strength, we will discover the secret of its accomplishment.

What do we want? What would we be at? What do our souls desire? Is it not that we might have a more full, clear, stable comprehension of the wisdom, love, grace, goodness, holiness, righteousness, and power of God, as declared and exalted in Christ unto our redemption and eternal salvation?

It is the Spirit alone that can mortify sin; he is promised to do it, and all other means without him are empty and vain. How shall he, then, mortify sin that has not the Spirit? A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit.

Great winds and storms help fruit-bearing trees. So also do corruptions and temptations help the fruitfulness of grace and holiness. The storm loosens the earth round its roots so the tree is able to get its roots deeper into the earth, where it receives fresh supplies of nourishment. But only much later will it be seen to bring forth better fruit. So corruptions and temptations develop the roots of humility, self-abasement and mourning in a deeper search for that grace by which holiness grows strong. But only later will there be visible fruits of increased holiness.

Faith, if it be a living faith, will be a working faith.

To believe that He will preserve us is, indeed, a means of preservation. God will certainly preserve us, and make a way of escape for us out of the temptation, should we fall. We are to pray for what God has already promised. Our requests are to be regulated by His promises and commands. Faith embraces the promises and so finds relief.

The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful, and solid in his beliefs and obedience. Others only delude themselves and thus upset families, churches, and all other relationships. In their self-pride and judgment of others, they show great inconsistency.

As rivers, the nearer they come to the ocean whither they tend, the more they increase their waters, and speed their streams; so will grace flow more fully and freely in its near approaches to the ocean of glory.

He who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays.

In or towards whomsoever the Holy Spirit puts forth His power, or acts his grace for their regeneration, he removes all obstacles, overcomes all oppositions, and infallibly produces the intended effect.

On Christ’s glory I would fix all my thoughts and desires, and the more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes and I will be more and more crucified to this world. It will become to me like something dead and putrid, impossible for me to enjoy.

He that stands still and suffers his enemies to double blows upon him without resistance, will undoubtedly be conquered in the issue.

It must be observed, that the best of men, the most holy and spiritually minded, may have, nay, ought to have, their thoughts of spiritual things excited, multiplied, and confirmed, by the preaching of the word.

The pretended desires of many to behold the glory of Christ in heaven, who have no view of it by faith while they are here in this world, are nothing but self-deceiving imaginations.

Then are we servants of God, then are we the disciples of Christ, when we do what is commanded us and because it is commanded us.

Indwelling sin always abides whilst we are in this world; therefore it is always to be mortified.

The stronghold of the contemplation of Christ's glory affords the soul rest, for it will be made evident that our troubles grow on the root of an over-valuation of temporal things. The mind is its own greatest troubler.

When we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for-then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.

A true saving knowledge of sin is to be had only in the Lord Christ: in him may we see the desert of our iniquities.

See in the meantime that your faith brings forth obedience, and God in due time will cause it to bring forth peace.

Without absolutes revealed from without by God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about manners, justice and right and wrong, issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers.

All spiritual acts well-pleasing unto God, as faith, repentance, obedience, are supernatural; flesh and blood revealeth not these things.

He that loves works out good to those that he loves, as he is able. God's power and will are equal; what He wills He works.

To the sick man the physician when he enters seems to have three faces, those of a man, a devil, a god. When the physician first comes and announces the safety of the patient, then the sick man says: "Behold a God or a guardian angel!

That wisdom which cannot teach me that God is love, shall ever pass for folly.

When the heart is once won to rest in God, to repose himself on him, he will assuredly satisfy it. He will never be as water that fails; nor hath he said at any time to the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye my face in vain." If Christ be chosen for the foundation of our supply, he will not fail us.

To kill sin is the work of living men; where men are dead (as all unbelievers, the best of them, are dead), sin is alive, and will live.

He who finds not opposition from [sin]... is at peace with it, not dying to it.

When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone; but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times and in all conditions, even where there is least suspicion.

Sin will be always acting, if we be not always mortifying, we are lost creatures...

All that may be known of God for our salvation, especially his wisdom, love, goodness, grace and mercy on which the life of our souls depends, are represented to us in all their splendour in and through Christ. No wonder then that Christ is glorious in the eyes of believers!

We cannot enjoy peace in this world unless we are ready to yield to the will of God in respect of death. Our times are in His hand, at His sovereign disposal. We must accept that as best.

If the Word does not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us.

There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so whilst we live in this world.

There are two things that are suited to humble the souls of men, and they are, first, a due consideration of God, and then of themselves - of God, in His greatness, glory, holiness, power, majesty, and authority; of ourselves, in our mean, abject, and sinful condition.

A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit.

The more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes.

The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin.

Nothing shall be lost that is done for God or in obedience to Him.

He that hath slight thoughts of sin never had great thoughts of God.

Sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet.

We all profess that we are bound for heaven, immortality, and glory: but is it any evidence that we really design it if all our thoughts are consumed about the trifles of this world, which we must leave behind us, and have only occasional thoughts of things above?

All things I thought I knew; but now confess The more I know, I know, I know the less.

Did you never run for shelter in a storm, and find fruit which you expected not? Did you never go to God for safeguard, driven by outward storms, and there find unexpected fruit?

Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all temptations from without. When we say a tree is firmly rooted, we do not say the wind never blows upon it.

The root of an unmortified course is the digestion of sin without bitterness in the heart.

It is not the glorious battlements, the painted windows, the crouching gargoyles that support a building, but the stones that lie unseen in or upon the earth. It is often those who are despised and trampled on that bear up the weight of a whole nation.

If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world: at least, we should be better enabled to bear them.

We admit no faith to be justifying, which is not itself and in its own nature a spiritually vital principle of obedience and good works.

Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, if it has its own way it will go out to the utmost sin in that kind. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could, every thought of unbelief would be atheism if allowed to develop. Every rise of lust, if it has its way reaches the height of villainy; it is like the grave that is never satisfied. The deceitfulness of sin is seen in that it is modest in its first proposals but when it prevails it hardens men’s hearts, and brings them to ruin.

The love of God is like himself – equal, constant, not capable of augmentation or diminution; our love is like ourselves – unequal, increasing, waning, growing, declining. His, like the sun, always the same in its light, though a cloud may sometimes interpose; ours, as the moon, has its enlargements and straightenings.

He can make the dry parched ground of my soul to become a pool and my thirsty barren heart as springs of water. Yes he can make this habitation of dragons this heart which is so full of abominable lusts and fiery temptations to be a place of bounty and fruitfulness unto Himself

The good Lord send out a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we are in a sad condition!

There is a state of perfect peace with God which can be attained under imperfect obedience.

Christ is our best friend, and ere long will be our only friend. I pray God with all my heart that I may be weary of everything else but converse and communion with Him.

Assurance encourateth us in our combat; it delivers us not from it. We may have peace with God when we have done from the assaults of Satan.

No heart can conceive that treasury of mercies which lies in this one privilege, in having liberty and ability to approach unto God at all times, according to his mind and will.

It is a throne of grace that God in Christ is represented to us upon; but yet is is a throne still whereon majesty and glory do reside, and God is always to be considered by us as on a throne.

Your state is not at all to be measured by the opposition that sin makes to you, but by the opposition you make to it.

Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root.

You have your season, and you have but your season; neither can you lie down in peace, until you have some persuasion that your work as well as your life is at an end.

A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savoury unto them; yea, he knows not but the food he hath provided may be poison, unless he have really tasted of it himself. If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us.

All attempts, then, for mortification of any lust, without an interest in Christ, are vain.