#ra

The practice which obtains amongst the Americans of fixing the standard of their judgment in themselves alone, leads them to other habits of mind. As they perceive that they succeed in resolving without assistance all the little difficulties which their practical life presents, they readily conclude that everything in the world may be explained, and that nothing in it transcends the limits of the understanding. Thus they fall to denying what they cannot comprehend; which leaves them but little faith for whatever is extraordinary, and an almost insurmountable distaste for whatever is supernatural. ↗

— Alexis de Tocqueville

#rationality #faith

Grace is the first and last moving cause of salvation; and faith, essential as it is, is only an important part of the machinery which grace employs. We are saved 'through faith,' but salvation is 'by grace'. ↗

— Charles H. Spurgeon

#grace #jesus #faith

But you can't start. Only a baby can start. You and me - why, we're all that's been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that's us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can't start again. The bitterness we sold to the junk man - he got it all right, but we have it still. And when the owner men told us to go, that's us; and when the tractor hit the house, that's us until we're dead. To California or any place - every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some day - the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they'll all walk together, and there'll be a dead terror from it. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#john-steinbeck #lives #money #the-grapes-of-wrath #value

DeeDee had to have a firm grasp on reality. Yet she knew God was bigger than a pathology report. So she prayed. ↗

— K. Howard Joslin

#faith #pathology #prayer #faith

The key for me was to have faith and trust in God to transform me. This was scary because the foundation that once kept me safe and secure was being taken from me! ↗

— Michael Barbarulo

#motivational #spiritual-development #faith

Prayer makes coffee shops of our souls, places that celebrate and savor the presence and lordship of God in our lives. It must be unceasing and constant. It must become who we are. ↗

— Tyler Blanski

#faith #prayer #faith

He did not himself believe in the supernatural, but the thing happened, and he proposed to tell it as simply as possible. It was stupid of him to say that it shook his faith in mundane affairs, for it was just as mundane as anything else. Indeed the really frightening part about it was the horribly tangible atmosphere in which it took place. None of the outlines wavered in the least. The creature would have been less remarkable if it had been less natural. It seemed to overcome the usual laws without being immune to them. ("The Troll") ↗

— T.H. White

#mundane #supernatural #troll #faith

Psychological man may be going nowhere, but he aims to achieve a certain speed and certainty in going. Like his predecessor, the man of the market economy, he understands morality as that which is conducive to increased activity. The important thing is to keep going. ↗

— Philip Rieff

#psychology #faith

They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. ↗

— Patricia Christian Punches

#encouraging #faith #hope #inspirational #memoir

I have found more inspiration in the cottages of fishermen than in the palaces of the rich. ↗

— Wilfred Grenfell

#inspirational #life #faith