Top 300 J. C. Ryle Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Christ’s death is the Christian’s life. Christ’s cross is the Christian’s title to heaven. Christ “lifted up” and put to shame on Calvary is the ladder by which Christians “enter into the holiest,” and are at length landed in glory.”

— J. C. Ryle

52. “We are all naturally self-righteous. It is the family disease of all the children of Adam.”

— J. C. Ryle

53. “The true cure for self-righteousness is self-knowledge.”

— J. C. Ryle

54. “What is the best safeguard against false doctrine? The Bible regularly read, regularly prayed over, regularly studied.”

— J. C. Ryle

55. “Let us receive nothing, believe nothing, follow nothing which is not in the Bible, nor can be proved by the Bible.”

— J. C. Ryle

56. “Naked we came upon earth, and naked we go forth, and of all our possessions, we can carry nothing with us.”

— J. C. Ryle

57. “There will be no universal peace until the Prince of Peace appears.”

— J. C. Ryle

58. “Nothing so hardens the heart of man as a barren familiarity with sacred things.”

— J. C. Ryle

59. “Your trials, crosses, and conflicts are all temporary.”

— J. C. Ryle

60. “The beginning of the way to heaven, is to feel that we are on the way to hell.”

— J. C. Ryle

61. “Our Lord has many weak children in his family, many dull pupils in his school, many raw soldiers in his army, many lame sheep in his flock. Yet he bears with them all, and casts none away. Happy is that Christian who has learned to do likewise with his brethren.”

— J. C. Ryle

62. “Happiness does not depend on outward circumstances, but on the state of the heart.”

— J. C. Ryle

63. “Since Satan can’t destroy the gospel, he has too often neutralized its usefulness by addition, subtraction or substitution.”

— J. C. Ryle

64. “The blood of Christ can cleanse away all sin. But we must ‘plead guilty’ before God can declare us innocent.”

— J. C. Ryle

65. “True Christianity is not merely believing a certain set of dry abstract propositions: it is to live in daily personal communication with an actual living person – Jesus Christ.”

— J. C. Ryle

66. “Our prayers may be weak, stammering, and poor in our eyes. But if they come from a right heart, God understands them. Such prayers are His delight.”

— J. C. Ryle

67. “Prayer is the very life-breath of true Christianity.”

— J. C. Ryle

68. “Do something, by God’s help, to make heaven more full and hell more empty.”

— J. C. Ryle

69. “The nearer we live to God while we live, the more ready we will be to dwell forever in His presence when we die.”

— J. C. Ryle

70. “The best of men are only men at their very best. Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, – martyrs, fathers, reformers, puritans, – all are sinners, who need a Savior: holy, useful, honorable in their place – but sinners after all.”

— J. C. Ryle

71. “It is neglect of the Bible which makes so many a prey to the first false teacher whom they hear.”

— J. C. Ryle

72. “We must read our Bibles like men digging for hidden treasure.”

— J. C. Ryle

73. “The harvest of the Lord’s field is seldom ripened by sunshine only. It must go through its days of wind, rain and storm.”

— J. C. Ryle

74. “Sanctification is the outcome and inseparable consequence of regeneration. He who is born again and made a new creature receives a new nature and a new principle and always lives a new life.”

— J. C. Ryle

75. “Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just. Such a God is an idol of your own.”

— J. C. Ryle

76. “Wealth is no mark of God’s favor. Poverty is no mark of God’s displeasure.”

— J. C. Ryle

77. “The fear of punishment, the desire of reward, the sense of duty, are all useful arguments, in their way, to persuade people to holiness. But they are all weak and powerless, until a person loves Christ.”

— J. C. Ryle

78. “A Christian is a walking sermon. They preach far more than a minister does, for they preach all week long.”

— J. C. Ryle

79. “The only way to be really happy in such a world as this, is to be ever casting all our cares on God.”

— J. C. Ryle

80. “Meekness is one of the brightest graces which can adorn the Christian character.”

— J. C. Ryle

81. “Let us be real, honest, and sincere in our Christianity. We cannot deceive an all-seeing God.”

— J. C. Ryle

82. “There is more to be learned at the foot of the Cross than anywhere else in the world.”

— J. C. Ryle

83. “The Word of God is ROCK. All else is sand.”

— J. C. Ryle

84. “The key to understanding the Bible is Jesus Christ.”

— J. C. Ryle

85. “Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.”

— J. C. Ryle

86. “What would you expect? Sin will not come to you saying, ‘I am sin.’ It would do little harm if it did. Sin always seems ‘good, pleasant and desirable’ at the time of arrival.”

— J. C. Ryle

87. “We should no more tolerate false doctrine that we would tolerate sin.”

— J. C. Ryle

88. “How can we love sin, when we remember that because of our sins Jesus died?”

— J. C. Ryle

89. “The temple in which the Lord Jesus delights most, is a broken and contrite heart, renewed by the Holy Spirit.”

— J. C. Ryle

90. “We know nothing of humility by nature, for we are all born proud.”

— J. C. Ryle

91. “People fall in private, long before they fall in public. The tree falls with a great crash, but the secret decay which accounts for it, is often not discovered until it is down on the ground.”

— J. C. Ryle

92. “Faith is to the soul what life is to the body. Prayer is to faith what breath is to the body. How a person can live and not breathe is past my comprehension, and how a person can believe and not pray is past my comprehension too.”

— J. C. Ryle

93. “Take away the cross of Christ, and the Bible is a dark book.”

— J. C. Ryle

94. “A zealous man feels that like a lamp he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him. Such a one will always find a sphere for his zeal. If he cannot preach and work and give money, he will cry and sigh and pray.”

— J. C. Ryle

95. “It was the whole Trinity, which at the beginning of creation said, “Let us make man”. It was the whole Trinity again, which at the beginning of the Gospel seemed to say, “Let us save man”.”

— J. C. Ryle

96. “Beware of letting small faults pass unnoticed under the idea it is a little one. There are no little things in training children; all are important. Little weeds need plucking up as much as any. Leave them alone and they will soon be great.”

— J. C. Ryle

97. “Prosperity is a great mercy, but adversity is a greater one, if it brings us to Christ.”

— J. C. Ryle

98. “The parent who tries to train without setting a good example is building with one hand, and pulling down with the other.”

— J. C. Ryle

99. “The love of Christ towards His people is a deep well which has no bottom.”

— J. C. Ryle

100. “If you and sin are friends, you and God are not yet reconciled.”

— J. C. Ryle