Top 300 J. C. Ryle Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “The true cure for self-righteousness is self-knowledge.”

— J. C. Ryle

52. “Beware of self-righteousness in every possible shape and form. Some people get as much harm from their “virtues” as others do from their sins.”

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

59. “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

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

63. “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

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

— J. C. Ryle

65. “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

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

69. “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

70. “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

71. “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

72. “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

73. “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

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

— J. C. Ryle

75. “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

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

78. “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

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

85. “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

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

88. “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

89. “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

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

— J. C. Ryle

91. “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

92. “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

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

— J. C. Ryle

94. “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

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

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

— J. C. Ryle

99. “Assurance of hope is more than life, it is health, strength, power, vigor, activity, energy, manliness, beauty.”

— J. C. Ryle

100. “God has linked holiness and happiness; and what God has joined together we must not think to put asunder.”

— J. C. Ryle