George MacDonald

That is always the way with you men; you believe nothing the first time; and it is foolish enough to let mere repetition convince you of what you consider in itself unbelievable.

What we call evil, is the only and best shape, which, for the person and his condition at the time, could be assumed by the best good.

Alas! how easily things go wrong! A sigh too deep or a kiss too long, And then comes a mist and a weeping rain, And life is never the same again.

I firmly believe people have hitherto been a great deal too much taken up about doctrine and far too little about practice. The word doctrine, as used in the Bible, means teaching of duty, not theory.

Trust to God to weave your little thread into the great web, though the pattern shows it not yet.

Never be discouraged because good things get on so slowly here; and never fail daily to do that good which lies next to your hand.

Not even nothingness preceded life. Nothingness owes its very idea to existence.

But God lets men have their playthings, like the children they are, that they may learn to distinguish them from true possessions. If they are not learning that he takes them from them, and tries the other way: for lack of them and its …

Two people may be at the same spot in manners and behaviour, and yet one may be getting better, and the other worse, which is the greatest of differences that could possibly exist between them.

To receive honestly is the best thanks for a good thing.

I think the reason children get tired of their toys so soon is just that it is against human nature to be really interested in what is of no use.