George MacDonald Quotes


"You can't live on amusement. It is the froth on water - an inch deep and then the mud."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Amusement, Deep, Water)

"It is our best work that God wants, not the dregs of our exhaustion. I think he must prefer quality to quantity."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Work, Quality, God, Exhaustion, Quantity)

"It matters little where a man may be at this moment; the point is whether he is growing."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Man, May)

"Love is the opener as well as closer of eyes."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Love, Eyes)

"Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best, and man will not take it."
- George MacDonald
(Related: God, Man, Want, Will)

"Many a thief is a better man than many a clergyman, and miles nearer to the gate of the kingdom."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Man)

"The best preparation for the future is the present well seen to, and the last duty done."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Duty, Future, Preparation, Present)

"The more I work with the body, keeping my assumptions in a temporary state of reservation, the more I appreciate and sympathize with a given disease. The body no longer appears as a sick or irrational demon, but as a process with its own inner logic and wisdom."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Wisdom, Work, Body, Disease, Logic, State)

"To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Being, Compliment)

"When we are out of sympathy with the young, then I think our work in this world is over."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Work, Sympathy, World)

"The principle part of faith is patience."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Faith, Patience)

"It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Men, Nature, Politics, Want)

"We die daily. Happy those who daily come to life as well."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Life)

"If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Thought, Heart, Friend, Angels, Giving)

"To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Oil)

"To have what we want is riches; but to be able to do without is power."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Power, Want)

"There are thousands willing to do great things for one willing to do a small thing."
- George MacDonald
"The first thing a kindness deserves is acceptance, the second, transmission."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Acceptance, First, Kindness)

"Afflictions are but the shadows of God's wings."
- George MacDonald
(Related: God, Shadows)

"It is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Man, Today, Tomorrow)

"A beast does not know that he is a beast, and the nearer a man gets to being a beast, the less he knows it."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Being, Man)

"Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Age, Life)

"Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Light, Prayer)

"Attitudes are more important than facts."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Facts)

"Few delights can equal the presence of one whom we trust utterly."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Trust)

"Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Forgiveness, Life, Giving)

"Friends, if we be honest with ourselves, we shall be honest with each other."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Friends)

"How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Death, Fear, Sunset)

"I find that doing of the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about His plans."
- George MacDonald
(Related: Time, God, Will)