Johannes Calvin

Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols

There is no work, however vile or sordid, that does not glisten before God

Knowledge of the sciences is so much smoke apart from the heavenly science of Christ

I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels

Yet consider now, whether women are not quite past sense and reason, when they want to rule over men

However many blessings we expect from God, his infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts

You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy

All men were created to busy themselves with labor for the common good

The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul

God tolerates even our stammering, and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us - as, indeed, without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray

Where riches hold the dominion of the heart, God has lost his authority

In our good works nothing is our own

Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments

There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice

It behooves us to accomplish what God requires of us, even when we are in the greatest despair respecting the results

If we think that heaven is our country, we should send our wealth thither rather than reatin it here, where on our sudden daparture it will be lost to us