James Martineau Quotes

Quotes about:

• The mere lapse of years is not life. To eat, to drink, and sleep; to be exposed to darkness and the light; to pace around in the mill of habit, and turn thought into an instrument of trade-this is not life. Knowledge, truth, love, beauty, goodness, faith, alone can give vitality to the mechanism of existence.

  James Martineau

  Life, Truth, Sleep

  9 Copy quote

• There is no room in the universe for the least contempt or pride; but only for a gentle and a reverent heart.

  James Martineau

  Heart, Pride, Rooms

  James Martineau (1879). “Hours of thought on sacred things, sermons”

  7 Copy quote

• We are each of us responsible for the evil we may have prevented.

  James Martineau

  Inspirational, Evil, May

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• There is no human life so poor and small as not to hold many a divine possibility.

  James Martineau

  Life, Poor, Possibility

  James Martineau (1880). “Hours of Thought on Sacred Things”

  9 Copy quote

• Religion is the belief in an ever-living God, that is, in a Divine Mind and Will ruling the Universe and holding moral relations with mankind.

  James Martineau

  Religious, Hands, Mind

  James Martineau (1888). “A Study of Religion, Its Sources and Contents”

  6 Copy quote

• The scepticism which men affect towards their higher inspirations is often not an honest doubt, but a guilty negligence, and is a sign of narrow mind and defective wisdom.

  James Martineau

  Inspiration, Men, Doubt

  James Martineau (1905). “Tides of the Spirit: Selections from the Writings of James Martineau”

  8 Copy quote

• All that is noble in the world's past history, and especially the minds of the great and good, are, in like manner, never lost.

  James Martineau

  Past, Mind, Noble

  "Endeavours After the Christian Life: Discourses".

  8 Copy quote

• All beneficent and creative power gathers itself together in silence, ere it issues out in might.

  James Martineau

  Issues, Silence, Creative

  James Martineau (1844). “Endeavors After the Christian Life: A Volume of Discourses”, p.220

  6 Copy quote

• I bow in reverence before the emotions of every melted heart....The more intense the delight in their presence, the more poignant the impression of their absence....When the tears of bereavement have had their natural flow, they lead us again to life and love's generous joy.

  James Martineau

  Life And Love, Heart, Grieving

  7 Copy quote

• The pinafore of the child will be more than a match for the frock of the bishop and the surplice of the priest.

  James Martineau

  Children, Bishops, Priests

  James Martineau (1890). “Endeavors After the Christian Life: Discourses”

  26 Copy quote

• Trust arises from the mind's instinctive feeling after fixed realities, after the substance of every shadow, the base of all appearance, the everlasting amid change.

  James Martineau

  Reality, Feelings, Mind

  James Martineau (1879). “Hours of thought on sacred things, sermons”

  8 Copy quote

• If we listen to our self-love, we shall estimate our lot less by what it is than by what it is not; shall dwell upon its hindrances and be blind to its possibilities; and, comparing it only with imaginary lives, shall indulge in flattering dreams of what we should do if we had but power, and give if we had but wealth, and be if we had no temptations.

  James Martineau

  Dream, Self, Indulge In

  James Martineau (1905). “Tides of the Spirit: Selections from the Writings of James Martineau”

  7 Copy quote

• Every man's highest, nameless though it be, is his 'living God'.

  James Martineau

  Men, Nameless, Every Man

  James Martineau (1847). “Endeavours After the Christian Life: Discourses”, p.3

  18 Copy quote

• The health of a community is an almost unfailing index of its morals.

  James Martineau

  Community, Morality, Moral

  7 Copy quote

• We cannot embrace His cross, and yet refuse our own. We cannot raise the cup of His remembrance to our lips, without a secret pledge to Him, to one another, to the great company of the faithful in every age that we, too, hold ourselves at God's disposal, that we will ask nothing on our own account, that we will pass simply into the Divine hand to take us whither it will.

  James Martineau

  Hands, Remembrance, Faithful

  James Martineau (1879). “Hours of thought on sacred things, sermons”

  4 Copy quote

• Grief is only the memory of widowed affection. The more intense the delight in the presence of the object, the more poignant must be the impression of the absence.

  James Martineau

  Memories, Grief, Delight

  7 Copy quote

• The heavens, with their everlasting faithfulness, look down on no sadder contradiction than the sluggard and the slattern in their prayers.

  James Martineau

  Prayer, Heaven, Looks

  James Martineau (1890). “Endeavors After the Christian Life: Discourses”

  5 Copy quote

• Religion is no more possible without prayer than poetry without language, or music without atmosphere.

  James Martineau

  Prayer, Atmosphere, Language

  James Martineau (1905). “Tides of the Spirit: Selections from the Writings of James Martineau”

  7 Copy quote

• When speech is given to a soul holy and true, time, and its dome of ages, becomes as a mighty whispering-gallery, round which the imprisoned utterance runs, and reverberates forever.

  James Martineau

  Running, Forever, Soul

  James Martineau (1843). “Endeavours After the Christian Life: Discourses”, p.147

  4 Copy quote

• We should count time by heart-throbs.

  James Martineau

  Time, Heart, Should

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• When the blessed Spirit, that bloweth where it listeth, visits you and stirs the plumage of the soul, seek no cowardly shelter from it, but fling yourself upon it, and, though its sweep be awful, you shall be sustained. Only do this, do all, not in presumptuous daring, but in divine submission; in dependence, not on any strength that can be spent, but on the ever-living stay of all that trust in Him.

  James Martineau

  Blessed, Visits You, Soul

  James Martineau (1905). “A Martineau year book: Extracts from sermons”

  4 Copy quote

• Human character is never found "to enter into its glory," except through the ordeal of affliction. Its force cannot come forth without the offer of resistance, nor can the grandeur of its free will declare itself, except in the battle of fierce temptation.

  James Martineau

  Character, Temptation, Battle

  James Martineau (1879). “Hours of thought on sacred things, sermons”

  7 Copy quote

• God has so arranged the chronometry of our spirits, that there shall be thousands of silent moments between the striking hours.

  James Martineau

  Time, Spirit, Moments

  James Martineau (1876). “Hours of thought on sacred things, sermons”

  4 Copy quote

• High hearts are never long without hearing some new call, some distant clarion of God, even in their dreams; and soon they are observed to break up the camp of ease, and start on some fresh march of faithful service.

  James Martineau

  Dream, Heart, Long

  James Martineau (1858). “Endeavours after the Christian life: discourses”, p.306

  11 Copy quote

• Grief is only the memory of widowed affections.

  James Martineau

  Sympathy, Memories, Grief

  James Martineau (1843). “Endeavours After the Christian Life: Discourses”, p.64

  7 Copy quote

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