Quotessence
Home / Topics / Providence Quotes

Providence Quotes

Browse 684 quotes about Providence.

Related topics

MenIfsMayWorldDivineBelieveHandsWayHumansDivine ProvidenceShouldChristianGivingPeopleThinkingOrderEndsHas BeensStatesBlessingCountryDutyGivenKindKnowsChanceMightNationsSeemsSoulVirtueChildrenDoeEventsEvilFateHeartHeavenMindMomentsUniverseActionAll ThingsMercyWiseCareDarkEyeGodGraceLooksMeanReasonWould BeAffairAmericaAtheismCausesEarthEternalFactsI BelieveMadeSinSometimesSpecialTogetherCreationDestinyFaithLittlesMovingPurposeSufferingTurnsWantDoubtFirstsJusticePlansReligiousStillsUnitedAcceptingAgeBlessedConditionsFallFatherFavorsFeelsHappensHelpingInfiniteIssuesLordUnited StatesViewsWarWellsmore

Providence Quotes

“Many years later, I happened to learn about planned parenthood and birth control to guard against unwanted children. I must say, Barbara, who we now had to call Johannes, had not been exactly planned for that very moment, and as far as being wanted is concerned, I would've gladly said many times, "Oh, won't you please be so kind as to wait for just six months." Yes, many times on the flight, on the boat, on the bus, on the stage. But thousands of years ago, God assured us – it's in the Book – "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways." So if there's any planning to be done, why don't we let Him do it? Looking back now, I know that He chose the only right moment for Johannes' arrival.”

FaithTrustPlanningProvidenceBirth ControlFamily PlanningProvidence Of God
Book:The Story of the Trapp Family Siingers
Create image

“De moed van het vertrouwen neemt de angst voor het lot even goed als de angst voor de schuld in zich op. Deze moed zegt tot beide: "En toch."Dit is de ware betekenis van de leer der voorzienigheid. Voorzienigheid is geen theorie over zekere handelingen van God, maar het godsdienstig symbool van de moed van het vertrouwen ten aanzien van lot en dood. Want de moed van het vertrouwen zegt zelfs tot de dood: "En toch.”

PhilosophyCourageTheologyProvidenceBeing
Book:De moed om te zijn: over de menselijke persoonlijkheid en de zin van het bestaan
Create image

“And so sovereign Providence has often produced a remarkable effect--evil men making other evil men good. For some, when they think they suffer injustice at the hands of the worst of men, burn with hatred for evil men, and being eager to be different from those they hate, have reformed and become virtuous. It is only the power of God to which evils may also be good, when by their proper use He elicits some good result.”

EvilVirtueProvidenceTheodicy
Book:The Consolation of Philosophy
Create image

“Providence then - and this is what is most important to grasp - is not the same thing as a universal teleology. To believe in divine and unfailing providence is not to burden one's conscience with the need to see every event in this world not only as an occasion for God's grace, but as a positive determination of God's will whereby he brings to pass a comprehensive design that, in the absence of any single one of these events, would not have been possible. It may seem that this is to draw only the finest of logical distinction, one so fine indeed as to amount to little more than a sophistry. Some theologians - Calvin, for instance - have denied that the distinction between what God wills and what he permits has any meaning at all. And certainly there is no unanimity in the history of Christian exegesis on this matter. Certain classic Western interpretations of Paul's treatment of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart and of the hardened heart of Israel in Romans 9 have taken it as a clear statement of God's immediate determination of his creatures' wills. But in the Eastern Christian tradition, and in the thought of many of the greatest Western theologians, the same argument has often been understood to assert no more than that God in either case allowed a prior corruption of the will to run its course, or even - like a mire in the light of the sun - to harden the outpouring of God's fiery mercy, and always for the sake of a greater good that will perhaps redound even to the benefit of the sinner. One might read Christ's answer to his disciples' question regarding why a man had been born blind - 'that the works of God should be made manifest in him' (John 9:3) - either as a refutation or as a confirmation of the distinction between divine will and permission. When all is said and done, however, not only is the distinction neither illogical nor slight; it is an absolute necessity if - setting aside, as we should, all other judgments as superstitious, stochastic, and secondary - we are to be guided by the full character of what is revealed of God in Christ. For, after all, if it is from Christ that we are to learn how God relates himself to sin, suffering, evil, and death, it would seem that he provides us little evidence of anything other than a regal, relentless, and miraculous enmity: sin he forgives, suffering he heals, evil he casts out, and death he conquers. And absolutely nowhere does Christ act as if any of these things are part of the eternal work or purposes of God.”

EvilChristianityProvidenceCalvinismGod S Sovereignty
Book:The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?
Create image

“When you are wronged and your heart and feelings are hardened, do not be distressed, for this has happened providentially; but be glad and reject the thoughts that arise within you, knowing that if they are destroyed at the stage when they are only provocations, their evil consequences will be cut off, whereas if the thoughts persist the evil may be expected to develop.”

HeartFeelingsEvilThoughtsProvidenceDistressProvocationConsequences Of Evil
Author:St. Mark the Ascetic
Create image

“Faith without action is delusion. Faith without personal responsibility is escapism. Faith without suffering is meaningless. Faith looks at a challenge, looks at the facts, then looks inside and follows divine energy. Faith pushes through darkness and turns our emotionally charged ideas into reality. Faith plus action enacts Providence.”

ActionSufferingFaithWorkResponsibilityProvidenceResponsibility Quotes
Book:The Responsibility Ethic: 12 Strategies Exceptional People Use to Do the Work and Make Success Happen
Create image

“The banana flavour of his accidental conception, and the banana theme of his accidental death, now all seemed to conspire against him and rather suggest the universe, Mr Fate or whoever did have some sort of master plan after all. Despite all his earlier conjecturing, maybe the universe, Mr Fate or whoever was laughing its fat and meddling head at him. The outlandish evidence did seem to speak for itself, truly suggesting a mocking narrative devised by some mischievous author because quite simply a banana condom had brought Midnight into the world and a banana skin had seen him out. Putting those two seeming truths together, Midnight was once again forced to ask such confused and searching questions like: What is this place, where am I heading? And what’s the deal with all the ruddy bananas?”

ChanceFateConceptionProvidenceGhostsBananasUnusual NamesMidnight MerlotRich Pickings For RavensMonikersThe Afterlife Crisis
Author:Tom Conrad
Create image

“Really, doesn't everything make sense? There are, of course, things from which we more or less recover, although some of them are too harsh even for saints. But that is no reason to accuse God. Even if there are reasons to doubt him, the fact that he did not arrange the world like a well-ordered parlor is not one of them. It rather speaks in his favor. This used to be much better understood.”

GodSufferingFateFree WillProvidenceStoicismProblem Of Evil
Book:The Glass Bees
Create image

“And then, that feeling comes again when you seem invincible and totally awesome. You simply can't hold it in and you just smile to everyone you come across; infectiously, they have no choice but to smile back. You are more than convinced in your guts that something beautifully indescribable is coming your way. You just drown yourself in the feeling of awesomeness. Faith, probably . . . or the hands of providence?”

FaithSmileConvictionGutsFeelingProvidenceInvincibleAwesomeAwesomenessInvincibilityFeeling AliveBeautiful FeelingFeeling Invincible
Author:Ufuoma Apoki
Create image

“One morning, a young Taoist priest named Silent Thunder Ghost ran up mount Mianshan to see a Taoist Immortal. The trail was long and arduous, and along the way many perilous paths were obscured by the morning mists. Arriving at the mountain peak he found the one called He Who Hides in Clouds, trying to balance a twisted, gnarly wooden staff on top of his finger. 'Dry me a wooden mountain…' said the Immortal who then threw his staff at least a mile high into the sky, whereupon the sun seemingly appeared from nowhere sending golden beams of sunlight onto his face. 'If it was me, and that was my go at life, I don’t think I’d want to do it again,' he said laughing, then he looked at his visitor. 'You are here to tell me you are making progress no doubt, have you found the Tao?' Unable to conceal his excitement Silent Thunder Ghost replied, 'I am no longer blind. I know the Tao and its ten thousand gifts. I live, I breathe, I see, I am life, I am the mountains, the morning dew on the trees, the moonlight reflecting in the lake, the starlight in my eyes, all these things are mine. My awareness is within me but reaches out to the furthest reaches of space.' As soon as he said this the gnarly old staff fell back to Earth, whereupon He Who Hides in Clouds caught it deftly with one hand and went on to press the tip against Silent Thunder Ghost’s chest. The Immortal said, 'All things are yours except your heart… the Tao keeps that part all to itself.' And then he vanished quite slowly and as he disappeared Silent Thunder Ghost was left holding the gnarly old staff, wondering if the conversation had ever really happened at all.”

MadnessTaoismProvidenceGhostsGodsTaoAllegoryEsoteric WisdomImmortals
Author:J.L. Haynes
Create image

“The Weaver” “My life is but a weaving Between my God and me. I cannot choose the colors He weaveth steadily. Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow; And I in foolish pride Forget He sees the upper And I the underside. Not ’til the loom is silent And the shuttles cease to fly Will God unroll the canvas And reveal the reason why. The dark threads are as needful In the weaver’s skillful hand As the threads of gold and silver In the pattern He has planned He knows, He loves, He cares; Nothing this truth can dim. He gives the very best to those Who leave the choice to Him.”

SufferingSorrowProvidence
Author:Grant Colfax Tullar
Create image

“Madam, when you are come to the other side of the water, and set down your foot on the shore of glorious eternity, and look back to the water and to your wearisome journey, and shall see in that clear glass of endless glory nearer to the bottom of God's wisdom, you shall then be forced to say, "If God had done otherwise with me than He hath done, I had never come to the enjoying of this crown of glory.”

SufferingGratitudeProvidence
Book:Letters of Samuel Rutherford
Create image

“After having endured so much suffering and poverty, and being on the edge of the grave. I unexpectedly found myself in abundance, in the lap of a loving family, by whose tender care I felt my health recover more and more. How clearly I saw now that God watched over me, and learned from this that he is often closest to us with his mercy when we suppose that he has his turned his face from us. Oh! Never grumble against God when disaster strikes you. Rather, wait patiently, believe, hope, and trust in him!”

GodGraceMercyProvidence
Book:Aanteekeningen Gehouden Gedurende Mijnen Marsch Naar: Gevangenschap In, En Terugreize Uit Rusland In De Jaren 1812,1813 En 1814
Create image

“It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be done, but by making the best of what we are. It is not by complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have. What we are, and where we are is God's providential arrangement - God's doing, though it may be man's misdoing; and the manly and the wise way is to look your disadvantages in the face, and see what can be made our of them.”

ChoicesWorkProvidence
Book:The End of Your Life Book Club
Create image

“Her faith was too weak; the prayer too heavy to be thus uplifted. It fell back, a lump of lead, upon her heart. It smote her with the wretched conviction, that Providence intermeddled not in these petty wrongs of one individual to his fellow, nor had any balm for these little agonies of a solitary soul, but shed its justice, and its mercy, in a broad, sunlike sweep, over half the universe at once. Its vastness made it nothing. But Hepzibah did not see, that, just as there comes a warm sunbeam into every cottage-window, so comes a love-beam of God's care and pity, for every separate need.”

LoveGodPrayerSunProvidence
Book:The house of the seven gables
Create image

“Faith is not to believe Or pray that Providence Will help a chieve Anything we want, But to liv e With confidence That God will do for us Everything we need.”

BelieveGodHappinessSuccessFaithBeliefEventsConfidenceAchievementFaith QuotesFaithfulPrayProvidenceFaithfulnessWaitBelieve And AchieveHappeningProvidence Of God
Book:A-Z of Happiness: Tips for Living and Breaking Through the Chain that Separates You from Getting That Dream Job
Create image

“What a lovely thing a rose is!" He walked past the couch to the open window and held up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects. "There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”

ReasonReligionHopeNatureGoodnessProvidenceFlowersRosesDeduction
Book:The Naval Treaty - a Sherlock Holmes Short Story
Create image

“It was thus that in 1940 [Hitler] represented a wave of the future. His greatest reactionary opponent, Churchill, was like King Canute, attempting to withstand and sweep back that wave. And––yes, mirabile dictu—this King Canute succeeded: because of his resolution and—allow me to say this—because of God’s will, of which, like every human being, he was but an instrument. He was surely no saint, he was not a religious man, and he had many faults. Yet so it happened.”

HistoryProvidenceWwiiHitlerChurchill
Book:Five Days in London: May 1940
Create image

“Our safety is not in ourselves, nor in imperfect fellow-men; not in the church, nor in its office-bearers: it is in the Lord -- in that Lord who, on the night before his death, ordered all things aright for the battle of tomorrow: & let us not forget that he wakes while we sleep; that he is preparing rescue before we have seen the hazard; and that although evil should descend swift as the lightening, his arm can transcend its speed, and intercept its stroke. -- David King, 'The Lord's Supper.”

SecuritySafetyProvidenceOversight
Author:David King
Create image

“Times goin' change again an' things too, and that great British Empire goin' change too, 'cause time ain't got nothin' to do with these empires. God don't like ugly, an' whenever these big great empires starts to get ugly with the thing they does the Almighty puts His hands down once an' for all. He tell them without talkin', fellows, you had your day. (p.101)”

KingdomsEmpiresProvidenceNothing Lasts Forever
Book:In the Castle of My Skin
Create image

“HENSLOWE: Mr. Fennyman, let me explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster. Believe me, to be closed by the plague is a bagatelle in the ups and downs of owning a theatre. FENNYMAN: So what do we do? HENSLOWE: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well. FENNYMAN: How? HENSLOWE: I don't know, it's a mystery.”

ArtMysteryTheatreProvidenceShow BusinessShakespeare In Love
Book:Shakespeare in Love: A Screenplay
Create image

“When Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning-rod, the clergy, both in England and America, with the enthusiastic support of George III, condemned it as an impious attempt to defeat the will of God. For, as all right-thinking people were aware, lightning is sent by God to punish impiety or some other grave sin—the virtuous are never struck by lightning. Therefore if God wants to strike any one, Benjamin Franklin [and his lightning-rod] ought not to defeat His design; indeed, to do so is helping criminals to escape. But God was equal to the occasion, if we are to believe the eminent Dr. Price, one of the leading divines of Boston. Lightning having been rendered ineffectual by the 'iron points invented by the sagacious Dr. Franklin,' Massachusetts was shaken by earthquakes, which Dr. Price perceived to be due to God's wrath at the 'iron points.' In a sermon on the subject he said, 'In Boston are more erected than elsewhere in New England, and Boston seems to be more dreadfully shaken. Oh! there is no getting out of the mighty hand of God.' Apparently, however, Providence gave up all hope of curing Boston of its wickedness, for, though lightning-rods became more and more common, earthquakes in Massachusetts have remained rare.”

GodAmericaReligionChristianityDesignDivineEnglandProvidenceLightningWickednessBostonPietySuperstitionFranklinClergyNew EnglandMassachusettsIdiocyHand Of GodBenjamin FranklinGeorge IiiImpiousLightning Rod
Book:An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish: A Hilarious Catalogue of Organized and Individual Stupidity
Create image

“Don’t seem right, do it?” said Topper. “It ain’t right,” replied Fin. “Not at all.” Jack guzzled his wine and wiped at his beard. “Mayhap it’s right and we can’t see it...” Topper scratched his bald head and hummed in thought. “Still don’t seem right,” he proclaimed when he’d hummed enough. Jack dropped his flagon to the deck and it rolled away clattering. “Yeah, well, what seems ain’t always what is.”

LifeJusticeProvidenceRight And WrongSeeing Is BelievingFinite Perspective
Book:Fiddler's Green
Create image