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George MacDonald Quotes

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George MacDonald was a 19th-century Scottish author known for his fantasy literature and religious thought. His works had a profound influence on later writers, such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

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Famous George MacDonald Quotes

“Foolish is the man, and there are many such men, who would rid himself or his fellows of discomfort by setting the world right, by waging war on the evils around him, while he neglects that integral part of the world where lies his business, his first business, namely, his own character and conduct.”

God Christian Faith Gospel George Macdonald

Book:Hope of the Gospel

Source: Hope of the Gospel

“The back door of every tomb opens on a hilltop.”

Christian Death Faith Immortality

Book:Weighed and Wanting

Source: Weighed and Wanting

“The whole history of the Christian life is a series of resurrections. . . . Every time we find our hearts are troubled, that we are not rejoicing in God, a resurrection must follow; a resurrection out of the night of troubled thought into the gladness of the truth.”

Heart Whole Christian Life Is Night Christianity Series Christian Life Rejoice Resurrection Gladness

Author:George MacDonald

“I know my Easts and Tom Brown, you see, and they're never happy unless their morality is being tried in the furnace and they can feel they are doing the right Christian thing and never mind the consequences to anyone else.”

Knows Feels Mind Christian Morality Consequence Brown Toms Furnaces

Author:George MacDonald

“If we knew as much about heaven as God does, we would clap our hands every time a Christian dies.”

Ifs Doe Hands Christian Dies Heaven

Author:George MacDonald

“A man may sink by such slow degrees that, long after he is a devil, he may go on being a good churchman or a good dissenter and thinking himself a good Christian.”

Thinking Men May Long Christian Goes On Degrees Devil Good Christian

Book:Unspoken Sermons

Source: Unspoken Sermons

“Afflictions are but the shadows of God's wings.”

God Christian Shadow Wings Trials Affliction

Book:The Complete Novels of George Macdonald (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood, Wilfrid Cumbermede and many more

Source: The Complete Novels of George Macdonald (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood, Wilfrid Cumbermede and many more

“We are and remain such creeping Christians, because we look at ourselves and not at Christ; because we gaze at the marks of our own soiled feet, and the trail of our own defiled garments.... Each, putting his foot in the footprint of the Master, and so defacing it, turns to examine how far his neighbor’s footprint corresponds with that which he still calls the Master’s, although it is but his own.”

Looks Stills Christian Turns Christ Feet Masters Mark Neighbor Trails Garments Footprint

Book:Creation in Christ: Unspoken Sermons

Source: Creation in Christ: Unspoken Sermons

“Cleverness is cheap. It is faith that He praises.”

Christian Faith Praise Cleverness

Author:George MacDonald

“Those Christians who are very strict in their observances, think a good deal more of the Sabbath than of man, a great deal more of the Bible than of the truth, and ten times more of their creed than of the will of God. Of course, if they heard anyone utter such words as I have just written, they would say he was and atheist.”