quotations about doctrine
Adjust your doctrine - or just minimize doctrine - to attract the world, and in the very process of attracting them, lose the radical truth that alone can set them free.
JOHN PIPER
"My Anguish: My Kinsmen Are Accursed"
We loved the doctrine for the teacher's sake.
DANIEL DEFOE
The Character of the Late Dr. S. Annesly
The doctrines are works of genius, for the most part, but like books they tend to draw people's attention away from the living human neighbors who are standing right in front of them. They can also lead people to look to outer authorities for direction instead of to the inner teaching of the Holy Spirit.
BARBARA BROWN TAYLOR
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
Everyone cleaves to the doctrine he has happened upon, as to a rock against which he has been thrown by tempest.
CICERO
attributed, Day's Collacon
Doctrine is not the same as belief, it is simply a way talking about it; beliefs are lived.
MARILYNNE ROBINSON
Gilead
The bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified
By truth, shall spread throughout the world dispersed.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Ecclesiastical Sketches
We are not called on to believe this or that doctrine which may be proposed to us till we can do so from honest conviction. But we are called on to trust--to trust ourselves to God, being sure that He will lead us right--to keep close to Him--and to trust the promises which He whispers through our conscience; this we can do, and we ought to do.
JOHN CAMPBELL SHAIRP
Culture and Religion in Some of Their Relations
Religion, as embodied in the character and conduct of its disciples, cannot survive without doctrinal purity. In the absence of this element, religious feeling inevitably decays; while even religious necessity becomes a thing of naught.
JOHN MCCLELLAN HOLMES
Centennial Discourses: A Series of Sermons Delivered in the Year 1878
Any man who is afraid to have his doctrine investigated is not only a coward but a hypocrite.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL
Ingersollia: Gems of Thought
No doctrines will be unimportant, though some will lie closer to our bosom than others. But doctrine--doctrine--doctrine--is that which faith desires. It is lamentable that the Christianity of our day desires it not.
JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDER
Faith
Of two evils, it is perhaps less injurious to society, that good doctrine should be accompanied by a bad life, than that a good life should lend its support to a bad doctrine.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon; or, Many Things in Few Words
A doctrine serves no purpose in itself, but it is indispensable to have one if only to avoid being deceived by false doctrines.
SIMONE WEIL
"Fragments et Notes", Ecrits de Londres
We have been insisting upon a doctrine; but doctrine is nothing unless proven in our experience. Most of God's doctrines are only to be learned by practice--by taking them out into the world, and letting them bear the wear and tear of life.
CHARLES H. SPURGEON
The Spurgeon Series 1855 & 1856: Unabridged Sermons in Modern Language
True Doctrine is like a Candle in the Dark, and like a directing Post on the Road. But Doctrine is not only to be drawn from the literal Sense of the Word, but it is also to be confirmed by that Sense : For if it be not confirmed by it, the Truth of Doctrine appears as if the Human Intellect only, and not Divine Wisdom, were concerned in it.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
The doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the sacred Scripture
No man can know Jesus Christ unless he is taught by God. There is no doctrine of the Bible which can be safely, thoroughly, and truly learned, except by the agency of the one authoritative teacher. Ah! tell me not of systems about divinity; tell me not of schemes about theology; tell me not about infallible commentators, or most learned and most arrogant doctors; but tell me about the Great Teacher, who shall instruct us, the sons of God, and shall make us wise to understand all things.
CHARLES H. SPURGEON
The Spurgeon Series 1855 & 1856: Unabridged Sermons in Modern Language
Doctrines are meant to serve man, not the other way around.
AMIN MAALOUF
Orígenes
Doctrine without precept is as a book without print.
WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY
Proverbs
To escape the error of salvation by works we have fallen into the opposite error of salvation without obedience. In our eagerness to get rid of the legalistic doctrine of works we have thrown out the baby with the bath and gotten rid of obedience as well.
A.W. TOZER
Paths to Power
Don't turn your back upon your doctrinal doubts and difficulties. Go up to them and examine them. Perhaps the ghastly object which looks to you in the twilight like a sheeted ghost may prove to be no more than a table-cloth hanging upon a hedge.
ANDREW KENNEDY HUTCHISON BOYD
The Recreations of a Country Parson
Preach doctrine practically, and practice doctrinally.
BROOME LAKE WITTS
England's Hope: or