Quotes About Men and Biblical Manhood

"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong."

1 Cor. 16:13 (NASB)

"A real man is one who rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, leads courageously, and expects the greater reward, God's reward."

Dr. Robert Lewis

"God doesn’t need your good works; your neighbor does." 

Martin Luther

"Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergyman or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon the earth.”

John Wesley

"Regeneration makes man's heart a battlefield where the 'flesh' tirelessly disputes the supremacy of the Spirit."

John Owen

"Character is what a man is in the dark."

Dwight L. Moody

"Let us consider how we may spur one another on...Let us not give up meeting together.

Hebrews 10:24-25

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity."

Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator

"Every man dies.  Not every man really lives."

William Wallace in Braveheart

"When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Jim Elliott

"No man is an island."

John Donne

"Where are the men with a moral vision for their families, a zeal for the house of the Lord, a magnificent commitment to the advancement of the kingdom, an articulate dream for the mission of the church and a tenderhearted tenacity to make it real?"

John Piper

"“What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.”

A. W Tozer

“Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in His great campaign of sabotage.”

C.S. Lewis

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”

Saint Augustine

"The most significant fact about any man is not what he at any given time may say or do but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like."

AW Tozer

"Pray like it all depends on God and work like it all depends on you."

Saint Augustine

“Over half a century ago, while I was still a child, I remember hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation of the great disasters that have befallen Russia. "Men have forgotten God. That’s why it has all happened'. And if I were called upon to identify the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, I would be unable to find anything more precise and more worthy than to repeat, men have forgotten God.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

"Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real little man. It would involve turning the tin into flesh. And suppose the tin soldier did not like it. He is not interested in flesh; all he sees is that the tin is being spoiled. He thinks you are killing him. He will do everything he can do to prevent you. He will not be made into a man if he can help it. The real Son of God is at your side. He is beginning to turn you into the same kind of thing as Himself; He is beginning, so to speak, to 'inject' His kind of life and thought, his Zoe, (spiritual life) into you; beginning to turn the tin soldier into a live man. The part of you that does not like it is the part that is still tin."

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

"We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful."

C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

“God can show Himself as He really is only to real men. And that means not simply to men who are individually good, but to men who are united together in a body, loving one another, helping one another, showing Him to one another. For that is what God meant humanity to be like; like players in one band, or organs in one body.”   

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

"God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers. If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all ..."

C. S. Lewis

"For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."

General George Patton, portrayed by George C. Scott in the academy-award winning movie Patton

"The idea that this world is a playground instead of a battleground has now been accepted in practice by the vast majority of Christians...The 'worship' growing out of such a view of life is as far off center as the view itself - a sort of sanctified nightclub without the champagne and the dressed-up drunks."

A. W. Tozer

"Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, 'Hey man, this is what is.' I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, 'God, it's got to be more than this.' I mean this isn't, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be." When Kroft asked him, "What's the answer?" Brady responded, "I wish I knew. I wish I knew. I love playing football and I love being quarterback for this team. But at the same time, I think there are a lot of other parts about me that I'm trying to find."

Tom Brady interview with Steve Kroft, 60 Minutes, 12.23.07

"Every man leaves a lasting influence... that will affect future generations for centuries to come.  But let's face it, not all legacies are the same.  Some are productive, others are destructive.  Some are illustrious, others are infamous... what kind of a legacy will you leave behind?  A spiritual legacy is one that money can't buy and taxes can't take away, it is passing down to the next generation what matters most."

Steven J. Lawson in The Legacy, Multnomah (1998)

"Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God"

William Carey

"The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult, and left untried."

G.K. Chesterton

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

C. S. Lewis

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."

C. S. Lewis

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.  Edmund Burke

"I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning - the Christian meaning, they insisted - of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever."

Philospher, atheist Aldous Huxley, Ends and Mens

"If you're seeking happiness, don't choose Christianity, choose port wine."

C. S. Lewis

"For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."

George C. Scott as General George Patton in the last scene of the movie Patton

"Our problem is not that we desire too much but too little."

C. S. Lewis

Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave.

General Stonewall Jackson

Duty is ours; consequences are God's.

General Stonewall Jackson

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a time of moral crisis,

maintain their neutrality."

Dante, The Inferno (circa 1315 A.D.)

“Years ago manhood was an opportunity for achievement and now it is a problem to overcome.”

Garrison Kellor

“It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular but why he does it.”

A. W. Tozer

“Tolerance is the virtue of those who don’t believe anything.”

G. K. Chesterton

“God really believes that he is the most worthy, most majestic, magnificent, glorious, stunningly beautiful being in the universe. And he is fixated on the certainty that only he deserves worship - that to him alone belong honor, glory, and praise forever and forever. With red-rimmed, stinging eyes and burning hair, all we can say is - he is right. He is astonishingly beautiful, utterly majestic and perfect in the symmetries of justice and righteousness, knowledge, and wisdom. He is as hypnotically compelling as a surging forest fire and ten times as dangerous. He is out of control - ours, not his.”

Timothy Stoner, The God Who Smokes

What can the effect be upon the spectators who live day after day among professed Christians who habitually ignore the commandments of Christ and live after their own private notions of Christianity? Will they not conclude that the whole thing is false? Will they not be forced to believe that the faith of Christ is an unreal and visionary thing which they are fully justified in rejecting? Certainly the non-Christian is not too much to be blamed if he turns disgustedly away from the invitation of the Gospel after he has been exposed for a while to the inconsistencies of those of his acquaintance who profess to follow Christ. The deadening effect of religious make-believe on the human mind is beyond all describing. In that great and terrible day when the deeds of men are searched into by the penetrating eyes of the Judge of all the earth what will we answer when we are charged with inconsistency and moral fraud? And at whose door will lie the blame for the millions of lost men who while they lived on earth were sickened and revolted by the religious travesty they knew as Christianity?

A. W. Tozer

"No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point"

Jean-Paul Sartre

"Do not be scared by the word authority. Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think trustworthy. Ninety-nine percent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary man believes in the solar system, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood on authority - because the scientists say so. Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Armada. None of us could prove them by logic as you prove a thing in mathematics. We believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them: in fact, on authority. A man who jibbed at authority in other things as some people do in religion would have to be content to know nothing all his life." 

C.S. Lewis

"The idea that this world is a playground instead of a battleground has now been accepted in practice by the vast majority of Christians…The ‘worship’ growing out of such a view of life is as far off center as the view itself - a sort of sanctified nightclub without the champagne and the dressed-up drunks.”

A. W. Tozer

"Attempt great things for God; expect great things from God.”

William Carey

"Christ says, "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think are innocent as well as the ones you think are wicked—the whole outfit. In other words, Christ demands nothing less than total surrender. And let's just be honest—total surrender is not all that pleasant. Lewis acknowledges as much through the metaphors he uses: killing the self, tearing down the tree, pulling the tooth."

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Happiness can be found neither in ourselves nor in external things, but in God and in ourselves united to Him.

Pascal

"The glory of God is man fully alive."

St. Irenaeus

“The Bible does not leave us in ignorance about the meaning of masculine and feminine personhood. God has not placed on  us  an  all-pervasive  and  all-conditioning  dimension  of personhood  and  then  hidden  the meaning  of  our  identity from us. He has shown us in Scripture the beauty of manhood and womanhood in complementary harmony. He has shown us  the  distortions  and  even horrors  that  sin has made  of fallen manhood and womanhood. And he has shown us the way of redemption and healing through Christ.”  John Piper

"It is the image of God in you that that so enrages hell; it is this at which demons hurl their mightiest weapons."

William Gurnall,  The Christian in Complete Armour

"A duty devolves on me which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon any man since that of Washington. He never could have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine aid which sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support; and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that divine assistance without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain." Abraham Lincoln, February 11, 1861, spoken to a crowd at a railway station as he departed his home in Springfield, Illinois to assume his role of President of the United States

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it."

Abraham Lincoln, from the April 6, 1859 Letter to Henry Pierce

"This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave."

Abraham Lincoln, from the April 6, 1859 Letter to Henry Pierce

"Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; than, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation, which is yet a stranger to it. 

George Washington, from his Farewell Address

"Go to the Scriptures...the joyful promises it contains will be a balsam to all your troubles. That book...is the rock on which our republic rests."

Andrew Jackson

"Sir, I am in the hands of a merciful God. I have full confidence in His goodness and mercy...The Bible is true. I have tried to conform to its spirit as near as possible. Upon that sacred volume I rest my hope for eternal salvation, through the merits and blood of our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." 

Andrew Jackson, May 29th, 1845, just a few weeks before he died

"The Bible is the Rock on which this Republic rests."

Andrew Jackson

"You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number, and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May He who holds in His hands the destinies of nations, make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed, and enable you, with pure hearts and hands and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time, the great charge He has committed to your keeping."

Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837

"My dear children, do not grieve for me; it is true, I am going to leave you; I am well aware of my situation. I have suffered much bodily pain, but my sufferings are as nothing compared with that which our blessed Redeemer endured upon the accursed Cross, that all might be saved who put their trust in Him... God will take care of you for me. I am my God's. I belong to Him. I go but a short time before you, and... I hope and trust to meet you all in Heaven, both white and black."

Andrew Jackson

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

"I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess."

Martin Luther

"The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult, and left untried."

G.K. Chesterton

Fathers are to sons what blacksmiths are to swords. It is the job of the blacksmith not only to make a sword but also to maintain its edge of sharpness. It is the job of the father to keep his son sharp and save him from the dullness of foolishness. He gives his son that sharp edge through discipline.

Steve Farrar

"Our culture is in deep trouble, and at the heart of its trouble is its loss of a vision for manhood. If it's difficult for you and me as adult males to maintain our masculine balance in this gender-neutral' culture, imagine what it must be like for our sons, who are growing up in an increasingly feminized world."

Stu Weber

"The central problem of every society is to define appropriate roles for the men."

Margaret Meade, anthropologist

"One serious problem is the friendless condition of the average American male. Men find it hard to accept that they need the fellowship of other men. Thanks to the men's movement the church understands now that a man needs other men, but what we've offered is a two dimension solution: 'accountability' groups or partners...'You're really a fool and you're just waiting to rush into sin, so we'd better post a guard by you to keep you in line.' We don't need accountability groups [although we need accountability]; we need fellow warriors, someone to fight alongside, someone to watch our back...we need to who we can bare our souls. But it isn;t going to happen with a group of guys you don't trust..."

John Eldredge

“Relationships of trust establish the environment of grace that best make disciples…. An environment of grace is a community in which disciples accept each other where they are, celebrate how God made them, and encourage each other to train to be godly.”

Bill Hull

“If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but if the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a glad thing, but it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us for all we are worth. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things. It is always necessary to make an effort to be noble.”

Oswald Chambers – My Utmost for His Highest

“’Every Christian must see themselves as the link to the next generation,’ writes William Barclay. We need to practice the handoff. When all else fails, read the directions. It is not that Jesus' way has been tried and found wanting; it has been largely talked about but not implemented. We must return to small, reproducible, long-term relationships as the means of transmission of the gospel from one generation to the next.”

Greg Ogden – Transforming Discipleship

"Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer - The Cost of Discipleship

“God cares not only about redeeming souls but also about restoring his creation…Our job is not only to build up the church but also to build a society to the glory of God…we are called to help sustain and renew his creation, to uphold the created

institutions of family and society, to pursue science and scholarship, to create works of art and beauty, and to heal and help those suffering from the results of the Fall. – Chuck Colson

“Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men…Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks.”

Philip Brooks