Richard Baxter Quotes

Consideration doth, as it were, open the door between the head and the heart: the understanding havi...

As all our senses are the inlets of sin, so they are become the inlets of sorrow (99).

[T]here is no greater strengthener of sin, and destroyer of the soul, than Scripture misapplied (317...

Do I not well deserve to be turned into hell, if the scorns and threats of blinded men, if the fear ...

If anything keep thy soul out of heaven, which God forbid, there is nothing in the world liker to do...

If any have more of the government of thee than Christ, or if thou hadst rather live after any other...

What if you had once seen hell open, and all the damned there in their easeless torments, and had he...

what a silly, frail, and forward pieces are the best of men (647)!

[O]ur English divines are sounder in it than any in the world, generally: I think because they are m...

He that believeth that he believe, believeth himself and not God (333)[.]

and the best, if not heedfully used, will prove the word. The better and keener the knife is, the so...

The sum is this, —As thou makest conscience of praying daily, so do thou of the acting of thy graces...

If every work of the day had thus its appointed time, we should be better skilled, both in redeeming...

Woe to the soul which God rejoiceth to punish! . . . . Is it not a terrible thing to a wretched soul...

As we should not own our duties further than somewhat of Christ is in them, so should we no further ...

Seriousness is the very thing wherein consisteth our sincerity. If thou art not serious, thou art no...

Even innocent Adam is liker to forget God in a paradise, than Joseph in a prison, or Job upon a dung...

O blessed be the grace that makes advantages of my corruptions, even to contradict and kill themselv...

Thou art standing all this while at the door of eternity, and death is waiting to open the door, and...

Either paganish unbelief of the truth of that eternal blessedness, and of the truth of the Scripture...

He that dare not die, dare scarce fight valiantly (475).

Oh! what a potent instrument for Satan is a misguided conscience(93)!

I am persuaded our discontents, and murmurings with out unpleasing condition, and our covetous desir...

We may reconcile ourselves to the world at our peril, but it will never reconcile itself to us. . . ...

The strongest Christian is unsafe among occasions to sin (519).

Believe it, brethren, God looks for more from England, than from most nations in the world; and for ...

If thy meditation tends to fill thy note-book with notions, and good sayings, concerning God, and no...

Of two duties we must choose the greater, though of two sins we must choose neither (556).

The door of the visible church is incomparably wider than the door of heaven (522)[.]

[I]f thou loiter when thou shouldst labour, thou wilt lose the crown. O fall to work then speedily a...

The falseness of your own hearts, if you look not to them, may undo you(15).

He may be a Christian by common profession; but, in a saving sense, no man is a Christian, in whose ...

If your hope dieth, your duties die, your endeavors die, your joys die, and your souls die. And if y...

Though every man naturally abhorreth sorrow, and loves the most merry and joyful life; yet few do lo...

Yet I must tell you, that all these graces which are expressed by passions of sorrow, fear, joy, hop...

What if you had seen haven open as Stephen did, and all the saints there triumphing in glory, and en...

Sirs, so much as your hearts as is empty of Christ and heaven, let it be filled with shame and sorro...

Till thou hast learned to suffer from a saint a well as from the wicked, and to be abused by the god...

What interest hath this empty world in me? and what is there in it that may seem so lovely, as to en...

That physician is no better than a murderer, that negligently delayeth till his patient be dead or p...

The most dangerous mistake that our souls are capable of, is, to take the creature for God, and eart...

When the world is worth nothing, then heaven is worth something. I leave every Christian to judge by...

O sirs, how many souls, then, have every one of us been guilty of damning! What a number of our neig...

When shall I be past these soul-tormenting fears, and cares, and griefs, and passions? When shall I ...

The way of painful duty is the way of fullest comfort. Christ carrieth all our comforts in his hand ...

Thou I cannot so freely say, My heart is with thee, my soul longeth after thee ; yet can I say, I lo...

I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.

In necessary things unity in doubtful things liberty in all things charity.

Make careful choice of the books which you read: let the holy Scriptures ever have the preeminence. ...

Preaching a man a sermon with a broken head and telling him to be right with God is equal to telling...

While doubt cannot be expelled, it can be subdued.

So then, let "Deserved" be written on the door of hell, but on the door of Heaven and life, "The fre...

[W]hen the pleasure is at the sweetest, death is the nearest (461)[.]

O what a blessed day that will be when I shall . . . stand on the shore and look back on the raging ...

Anger is the rising up of the heart in passionate displacency against an apprehended evil, which wou...

If the good so loved and desired do appear possible and feasible in the attaining, then it exciteth ...

To live among such excellent helps as our libraries afford, to have so many silent wise companions w...

Nothing can be rightly known, if God be not known; nor is any study well managed, nor to any great p...

The sweetest poison doth often bring the surest death (645).

[O]ur applications are quicker about our sufferings, than our sins(77)[.]

Why dost thou not see that on earth they desires fly from thee? Art thou a not as a child that think...

Meditation puts reason in its authority and preeminence. It helpeth to deliver it form its captivity...

Thou has heard the words of Christ. . . . Dost thou weep, when I have thee, Poor soul, what aileth t...