Frederick William Robertson Quotes on Man (8 Quotes)

The charm of the words of great men, those grand sayings which are recognized as true as soon as heard, is this, that you recognize them as wisdom which has passed across your own mind. You feel that they are your own thoughts come back to you, else you would not at once admit them. 'All of that has floated across me before, only I could not say it, and did not feel confident enough to assert it or had not conviction enough to put it into words.' Yes, God spoke to you what He did to them only, they believed it, said it, trusted the Word within them and you did not. Be sure that often when you say, 'It is only my own poor thought, and I am alone,' the real correcting thought is this 'Alone, but the Father is with me, and therefore I can live that lonely conviction.'

Never does a man know the force that is in him till some mighty affliction or grief has humanized the soul.

Men... are bettered and improved by trial, and refined out of broken hopes and blighted expectations.

Two thousand years ago there was One here on this earth who lived the grandest life that ever has been lived yet - a life that every thinking man, with deeper or shallower meaning, has agreed to call divine.

In the darkest hour through which a human soul can pass, whatever else is doubtful, this at least is certain. If there be no God and no future state, yet, even then, it is better to be generous than selfish, better to be chaste than licentious, better to be true than false, better to be brave than to be a coward. Blessed beyond all earthly blessedness is the man who, in the tempestuous darkness of the soul, has dared to hold fast to these venerable landmarks. Thrice blest is he who, when all is dreary and cheerless within and without, when his teachers terrify him, and friends shrink from him, has obstinately clung to moral good.

It is not the situation that makes the man, but the man who makes the situation.

A silent man is easily reputed wise. A man who suffers none to see him in the common jostle and undress of life, easily gathers round him a mysterious veil of unknown sanctity, and men honor him for a saint. The unknown is always wonderful.

Only so far as a man believes strongly, mightily, can he act cheerfully, or do anything that is worth doing.