Against the persecution of a tyrant the godly have no remedy but prayer.
John CalvinRead
Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humans constantly create ideals and beliefs that can distract them from reality.
This quote by John Calvin suggests that humans have an innate tendency to create and cling to various concepts, ideals, and beliefs—referred to as 'idols'—that often overshadow their understanding of true life and reality. These idols can manifest as material possessions, ideology, or even false notions of worth, ultimately leading individuals away from genuine spiritual and existential truths.
Themes
IdolsBeliefsNatureHumanPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion on the impact of consumerism in society.
More from John Calvin
All quotes →The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.
John CalvinRead
Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.
John CalvinRead
Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.
John CalvinRead
For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any book, however fair, is set before them, though they perceive that there is something written, are scarcely able to make out two consecutive words, but, when aided by glasses, begin to read distinctly, so Scripture, gathering together the impressions of Deity, which, till then, lay confused in our minds, dissipates the darkness, and shows us the true God clearly.
John CalvinRead
When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.
John CalvinRead
Similar quotes
Men are not born saints with special gifts and privileges. They fight against the world, the flesh and the devil, and as they conquer, the spirit of Jesus begins to shine through with more clarity.
Mother AngelicaRead
But we are alone, darling child, terribly, isolated each from the other; so fierce is the world's ridicule we cannot speak or show our tenderness; for us, death is stronger than life, it pulls like a wind through the dark, all our cries burlesqued in joyless laughter; and with the garbage of loneliness stuffed down us until our guts burst bleeding green, we go screaming round the world, dying in our rented rooms, nightmare hotels, eternal homes of the transient heart.
Truman CapoteRead
When none but the wealthy had watches, they were almost all very good ones; few are now made which are worth much, but everybody has one in his pocket.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
The 25th anniversary of the decision ... is a call to people of good will to reflect. Now is the time for recommitment to the building of a culture of absolute respect for life.
Pope John Paul IiRead
She felt, as she felt so often with Murphy, spattered with words that went dead as soon as they sounded; each word obliterated, before it had time to make sense, by the word that came next; so that in the end she did not know what had been said. It was like difficult music heard for the first time.
Samuel BeckettRead
These things, she felt, were not to be passed around like disingenuous party favors. She kept an honor code with her journals and her poems. 'Inside, inside,' she would whisper quietly to herself when she felt the urge to tell.
Alice SeboldRead