Commonplace Book

Not my own words. Lines from other people, borrowed because they said what I couldn't, collected here from across the writings.

Work as if everything depends on you, and trust as if everything depends on God.

St. Ignatius of Loyolaquoted in “Are We Known by Jesus?”

Go to Church, get married, have kids, and stop partying into oblivion. Leave a legacy, be courageous.

Charlie Kirkquoted in “Life After the Dream”

We want to do large things famously and fast.

Zach Eswinequoted in “Going to the Mountaintop”

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.

Mike Tysonquoted in “Going to the Mountaintop”

Promises can rouse our cynicism. We once hoped in them, but now they resemble throwaway pennies, scrap papers or leftover bolts shoved away in the junk drawer. And yet, our need to reorient our lives around the risk of promises remains necessary, even if our relationship with promises reveals only our painful questions about them.

Zach Eswine, from Spurgeon's Sorrowsquoted in “Just Some Recent Reflections”

They can bear the want of anything but God's presence. They can do without health and friends, they can be happy without a full table, but they cannot be happy without God.

Thomas Watsonquoted in “Be warmed by the fire of God’s promises”

What is prayer but the promise pleaded?

Charles Spurgeonquoted in “Be warmed by the fire of God’s promises”

A great sinner pardoned makes a great singer.

C.H. Spurgeon, from his commentary on Psalm 51quoted in “A Great Sinner Pardoned Makes a Great Singer”

You are a great sinner, but he is a great savior!

C.H. Spurgeonquoted in “Saved Wretch”

Beware of cynicism. It's such a killer. Avoid it like the plague. It will rob you of joy, of fellowship, of faith. It's not childlike, so don't develop it.

Terry Virgoquoted in “A Couple Thoughts on Cynicism”

An ointment for every wound, a cordial for every faintness, a remedy for every disease. Blessed is he who is well-skilled in heavenly pharmacy and knows how to lay hold on the healing virtues of the promises of God.

C.H. Spurgeon, from his exposition of Psalm 63quoted in “My Psalm 63 ‘Mixtape””

Observe the eagerness implied; he will not wait for noon or for the cool eventide; he is up at cockcrowing to meet his God. Communion with God is so sweet that the chill of the morning is forgotten and the luxury of the couch is despised.

C.H. Spurgeon, from his exposition of Psalm 63:1quoted in “My Psalm 63 ‘Mixtape””

If day's cares tempt us to forget God, it is well that night's quiet should lead us to remember him.

C.H. Spurgeon, from his exposition of Psalm 63:6quoted in “My Psalm 63 ‘Mixtape””

Let the Lord Jesus but enter your souls, and you shall find peace which the world can neither give nor take away.

George Whitfieldquoted in “Reflections After Reading the Book Soul Keeping”

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.

Francis Chanquoted in “Reflections After Reading the Book Soul Keeping”

For the things which you fill by containing them do not sustain and support you as a water-vessel supports the liquid which fills it. Even if they were broken to pieces, you would not flow out of them and away. And when you pour yourself over us, you are not drawn down to us but draw us up to yourself: you are not scattered away, but you gather us together…You are the most hidden from us and yet the most present among us, the most beautiful and yet the most strong, ever enduring and yet we cannot comprehend you…Yet woe betide those who are silent about you! For even those who are most gifted with speech cannot find words to describe you.

Saint Augustine of Hippo, from his Confessionsquoted in “Nothing Good Falls From Nowhere”