Mortification Quotes

• If we could have a little patience, we should escape much mortification; time takes away as much as it gives.

  Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne

  Patience, Giving, Optimism

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• The good Lord send out a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we are in a sad condition!

  John Owen

  Spirit, Sin, Lord

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• A man may be carried on in a constant course of mortification all his days; and yet perhaps never enjoy a good day of peace and consolation.

  John Owen

  Good Day, Men, May

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world.

  John Owen

  Self, Soul, Substance

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Mortification of Sin”, Lulu.com

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• If any man would come after me, let him deny himself." The disciple must say to himself the same words Peter said of Christ when he denied him: "I know not this man." Self-denial is never just a series of isolated acts of mortification or asceticism. It is not suicide, for there is an element of self-will even in that. To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self denial can say is: "He leads the way, keep close to him.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Suicide, Men, Self

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.88, Simon and Schuster

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• Where there is no great mortification there is no great sanctity.

  Philip Neri

  Attachment, Sanctity

  St Philip Neri (2009). “The Maxims and Sayings of St Philip Neri”, p.54, St Athanasius Press

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• The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin.

  John Owen

  Sin, Believer, Ought

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• The mortification of indwelling sin remaining in our mortal bodies, that it may not have life and power to bring forth the works or deeds of the flesh is the constant duty of believers.

  John Owen

  Body, Deeds, May

  John Owen (1851). “The Works ...”, p.8

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• A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit.

  John Owen

  Eye, Men, May

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• Without mortification nothing can be done.

  Philip Neri

  Attachment, Done

  St Philip Neri (2009). “The Maxims and Sayings of St Philip Neri”, p.38, St Athanasius Press

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• Christ's blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls.

  John Owen

  Blood, Sick, Soul

  John Owen (2001). “Temptation and Sin”, p.79, Sovereign Grace Publishers,

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• Sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet.

  John Owen

  Quiet, Sin, Seems

  John Owen (2001). “Temptation and Sin”, p.11, Sovereign Grace Publishers,

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• The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give.

  Mother Teresa

  Giving, Penance, Spirituality

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• We have very little, so we have nothing to be preoccupied with. The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have, the more free you are.

  Mother Teresa

  Giving, Littles, Penance

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• Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lie at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification.

  John Owen

  Spiritual, Lying, Sins Not

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Mortification of Sin”, Lulu.com

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• Sin also carries on its war by entangling the affections and drawing them into an alliance against the mind. Grace may be enthroned in the mind, but if sin controls the affections, it has seized a fort from which it will continually assault the soul. Hence, as we shall see, mortification is chiefly directed to take place upon the affections.

  John Owen

  War, Drawing, Grace

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• There is more security in self-denial, mortification, and other like virtues, than in an abundance of tears.

  Teresa of Avila

  Attachment, Self, Tears

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• Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

  John Owen

  Sin, Killing, Daily Work

  John Owen (1842). “The Mortification of Sin in Believers: Containing the Necessity, Nature and Means of It; with a Resolution of Sundry Cases of Conscience Thereto Belonging”, p.9

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• We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative. A person is great not by the ferocity of his hatred of evil, but by the intensity of his love for God. Asceticism and mortification are not the ends of a Christian life; they are only the means. The end is charity. Penance merely makes an opening in our ego in which the Light of God can pour. As we deflate ourselves, God fills us. And it is God’s arrival that is the important event.

  Fulton J. Sheen

  Christian, Weed, Mean

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• Sanctification has a double aspect. Its positive side is vivification, the growing and maturing of the new man; its negative side is mortification, the weakening and killing of the old man.

  J. I. Packer

  Men, Negative, Growing

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• Oh, how I like those little mortifications that are seen by nobody, such as rising a quarter of an hour sooner, rising for a little while in the night to pray!

  John Vianney

  Night, Suffering, Rising

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• It has been a bitter mortification for me to digest the conclusion that the "race is for the strong" and that I shall probably do little more but be content to admire the strides others made in science.

  Charles Darwin

  Strong, Race, Survival

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.10046, Delphi Classics

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• Repentance is the true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and earnest fear of Him; and it consists in the mortification of the flesh and the renewing of the Spirit.

  John Calvin

  Flesh, Spirit, Repentance

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• Not to be daily mortifying sin, is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who hath furnished us with a principle of doing it.

  John Owen

  Kindness, Grace, And Love

  John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

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• Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of thy sin. His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and thou wilt die a conqueror; yea, thou wilt, through the good providence of God, live to see thy lust dead at thy feet.

  John Owen

  Feet, Blood, Sick

  John Owen (2001). “Temptation and Sin”, p.79, Sovereign Grace Publishers,

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