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George MacDonald

George MacDonald Quotes

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Famous George MacDonald Quotes

“What a man is lies as certainly upon his countenance as in his heart, though none of his acquaintances may be able to read it. The very intercourse with him may have rendered it more difficult.”

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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
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“How many people would like to be good, if only they might be good without taking trouble about it! They do not like goodness well enough to hunger and thirst after it, or to sell all that they have that they may buy it; they will not batter at the gate of the kingdom of heaven; but they look with pleasure on this or that aerial castle of righteousness, and think it would be rather nice to live in it.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWellsLooksMayEnoughMightWould BeHeavenPleasureNiceTroubleGoodnessSellsHungerBe GoodKingdomsGatesRighteousnessThirstCastlesKingdom Of HeavenHunger And Thirst
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
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“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 misery, they will perhaps seek the true!”

IfsMenWayTryingMayChildrenLet MeMiseryPossession
Book:The World of George Macdonald: Selections from His Works of Fiction
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“There is no cheating in nature and the simple unsought feelings of the soul. There must be a truth involved in it, though we may but in part lay hold of the meaning.”

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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
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“The region belonging to the pure intellect is straitened: the imagination labours to extend its territories, to give it room. She sweeps across the boarders, searching out new lands into which she may guide her plodding brother. The imagination is the light which redeems from the darkness for the eyes of the understanding. Novalis says, 'The imagination is the stuff of the intellect' -affords, that is, the material upon which the intellect works.”

GivingMayLightEyeStuffUnderstandingImaginationRoomsDarknessLandBrotherMaterialsPureIntellectGuidesLabourRegionsBelongingTerritory
Book:The Imagination: And Other Essays
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“Love me, beloved; Hades and Death Shall vanish away like a frosty breath; These hands, that now are at home in thine, Shall clasp thee again, if thou art still mine; And thou shalt be mine, my spirit's bride, In the ceaseless flow of eternity's tide, If the truest love thy heart can know Meet the truest love that from mine can flow. Pray God, beloved, for thee and me, That our sourls may be wedded eternally.”

IfsKnowsHeartMayArtStillsHomeHandsSpiritMinesPrayingFlowEternityBreathsTheeBelovedTidesBridesTruestPraying To GodHades
Author:George MacDonald
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“We must do the thing we must Before the thing we may; We are unfit for any trust Till we can and do obey.”

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Book:The Complete Poetry of George MacDonald: A Book of Strife, in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul + Rampolli: Growths from a Long-planted Root + A Hidden Life Collection and Other Poems
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“Doubt may be a poor encouragement to do anything, but it is a bad reason for doing nothing.”

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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
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“He may delay because it would not be safe to give us at once what we ask: we are not ready for it. To give ere we could truly receive, would be to destroy the very heart and hope of prayer, to cease to be our Father. The delay itself may work to bring us nearer to our help, to increase the desire, perfect the prayer, and ripen the receptive condition.”

GivingHeartMayHelpingWould BeDesireAsksFatherWaitingPrayerPerfectConditionsReadySafeIncreaseCeaseDelayOur FatherNot ReadyReceptive
Book:Unspoken Sermons, completed: MacDonald's Works
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“Let me, if I may, be ever welcomed to my room in winter by a glowing hearth, in summer by a vase of flowers. If I may not, let me think how nice they would be and bury myself in my work. I do not think that the road to contentment lies in despising what we have not got. Let us acknowledge all good, all delight that the worlds holds, and be content without it.”

IfsThinkingWorldMayWould BeLyingRoomsNiceFlowerSummerLet MeWinterDelightAcknowledgeContentmentGlowingVases
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
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“If both Church and fairy-tale belong to humanity, they may occasionally cross circles, without injury to either.”

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Book:George MacDonald: The Complete Fantasy Collection - 8 Novels & 30+ Short Stories and Fairy Tales (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Lilith, Phantastes, The Princess and Curdie, At the Back of the North Wind, Portent, The Lost Princess, Adela Cathcart, Dealings with the Fairies and many more
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“In very truth, a wise imagination, which is the presence of the spirit of God, is the best guide that man or woman can have; for it is not the things we see the most clearly that influence us the most powerfully; undefined, yet vivid visions of something beyond, something which eye has not seen nor ear heard, have far more influence than any logical sequences whereby the same things may be demonstrated to the intellect. It is the nature of the thing, not the clearness of its outline, that determines its operation. We live by faith, and not by sight.”

MenMayEyeSpiritImaginationVisionWiseHeardInfluenceEarsSightDetermineIntellectGuidesOperationsLogicalLive BySequenceVividOutlinesSpirit Of GodClearnessUndefined
Book:The Imagination, and Other Essays
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“Why are all reflections lovelier than what we call reality? -- not so grand or so strong, it may be, but always lovelier? Fair as is the gliding sloop on the shining sea, the wavering, trembling, unresting sail below is fairer still...All mirrors are magic mirrors. The commonest room is a room in a poem when I turn to the glass...There must be a truth involved in it, though we may but in part lay hold of the meaning.”

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Author:George MacDonald
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“It is vain to think that any weariness, however caused, any burden, however slight, may be got rid of otherwise than by bowing the neck to the yoke of the Father's will. There can be no other rest for heart and soul than He has created. From every burden, from every anxiety, from all dread of shame or loss, even loss of love itself, that yoke will set us free.”

ThinkingHeartMaySoulFatherLossAnxietyShameBurdenVainNecksDreadHeart And SoulWearinessYokeLove Loss
Book:The Hope of the Gospel: MacDonald's Works
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“No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in the wilderness. Most of the Epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire. The greatest poets have "learned in suffering what they taught in song." In bonds Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterwards wrote, and we may thank Bedford Jail for the Pilgrim's Progress. Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a person, He put them in the fire.”

WorldWritingMayPersonsGodUseChristianSufferingSongBornFireGraceProgressWrittenTaughtPoetSorrowComfortBiblePrisonNovelistsWildernessJailThinkerPilgrimPsalmsAllegory
Author:George MacDonald
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“Except the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus make a man sick of his opinions, he may hold them to doomsday for me; for no opinion, I repeat is Christianity, and no preaching of any plan of salvation is the preaching of the glorious gospel of the living God.”

MenMayLightFacesJesusChristChristianityOpinionPlansGlorySickSalvationRepeatsGloriousPreachingGlory Of GodDoomsdayPlan Of Salvation
Book:Delphi Complete Works of George MacDonald (Illustrated)
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“[God desires] not that He may say to them, "Look how mighty I am, and go down upon your knees and worship," for power alone was never yet worthy of prayer; but that He may say thus: "Look, my children, you will never be strong but with my strength. I have no other to give you. And that you can get only by trusting in me. I can not give it you any other way. There is no other way."”

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Author:George MacDonald
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“It matters little where a man may be at this moment; the point is whether he is growing.”

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Book:The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more
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