Top 300 J. C. Ryle Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “Let it be a settled principle in our minds that the first and chief business of the Church of Christ is to preach the Gospel.”

— J. C. Ryle

152. “The chief end for which Christ lived and died: To provide eternal redemption for sinners.”

— J. C. Ryle

153. “If you profess to be a child of God, leave it to the Lord Jesus to sanctify you in His own way.”

— J. C. Ryle

154. “There is one subject in religion, about which you can never know too much. That subject is Jesus Christ the Lord.”

— J. C. Ryle

155. “No one ever said at the end of his days; ‘I have read my bible too much, I have thought of God too much, I have prayed too much, I have been too careful with my soul’”

— J. C. Ryle

156. “Conversion is not putting a man in an armchair and taking him easily to heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory.”

— J. C. Ryle

157. “Young men, I beseech you earnestly, beware of pride. Two things are said to be very rare sights in the world- one is a young man that is humble, and the other is an old man that is content. I fear that this is only too true.”

— J. C. Ryle

158. “If God has given His Son to die for us, let us beware of doubting His kindness and love in any painful providence of our daily life.”

— J. C. Ryle

159. “Guard your thoughts, and there will be little fear about your actions.”

— J. C. Ryle

160. “One single soul saved shall outlive and outweigh all the kingdoms of the world.”

— J. C. Ryle

161. “Wherever we may be, or whatever our circumstances, the Lord Jesus sees them. We are never beyond the reach of His care.”

— J. C. Ryle

162. “By affliction Christ shows us our emptiness and weakness, draws us to the throne of grace, purifies our affections, weans us from the world, and makes us long for heaven.”

— J. C. Ryle

163. “There are eternal consequences resulting from all our thoughts, words and actions, of which we take far too little account.”

— J. C. Ryle

164. “The Gospel was not meant merely to reside in our intellect, memories, and tongues, but to be seen in our lives.”

— J. C. Ryle

165. “I should as soon expect a farmer to prosper in business who contented himself with sowing his fields and never looking at them till harvest, as expect a believer to attain much holiness who was not diligent about his Bible reading, his prayers, and the use of his Sundays.”

— J. C. Ryle

Featured in: Reading Quotes

166. “Be very sure of this,-people never reject the Bible because they cannot understand it. They understand it only too well; they understand that it condemns their own behavior; they understand that it witnesses against their own sins, and summons them to judgment.”

— J. C. Ryle

167. “However corrupt our hearts, and however wicked our past lives, there is hope for us in the Gospel.”

— J. C. Ryle

168. “There is something sadly wrong when it is more important to us whether others are a part of our denomination, rather than whether they repent of sin, believe on Christ and live holy lives.”

— J. C. Ryle

169. “Believe me, you cannot stand still in your souls. Habits of good or evil are daily strengthening in your hearts. Every day you are either getting nearer to God, or further off.”

— J. C. Ryle

170. “What youth sows, old age must reap.”

— J. C. Ryle

171. “Whatever others around you think, don’t you ever be ashamed of being a Christian.”

— J. C. Ryle

172. “Nothing is so fickle and uncertain as popularity. It is here today and gone tomorrow. It is a sandy foundation, and sure to fail those who build upon it.”

— J. C. Ryle

173. “A Christian is nothing more than a sinner who has found out their sinfulness, and has learned the blessed secret of living by faith in Christ.”

— J. C. Ryle

174. “The true Christian delights to hear something about their Master. They like those sermons best which are full of Christ.”

— J. C. Ryle

175. “A zealous Savior ought to have zealous disciples.”

— J. C. Ryle

176. “Let us read the Bible reverently and diligently, with an honest determination to believe and practice all we find in it.”

— J. C. Ryle

177. “When the Lord Jesus Christ gives a man remission of sins, He also gives him repentance.”

— J. C. Ryle

178. “Let us learn to be patient in the days of darkness, if we know anything of vital union with Christ.”

— J. C. Ryle

179. “Millions of people profess and call themselves Christians, whom the Apostle Paul would not have called Christians at all.”

— J. C. Ryle

180. “That preaching is sadly defective which dwells exclusively on the mercies of God and the joys of heaven, yet never sets forth the terrors of the Lord and the miseries of hell.”

— J. C. Ryle

181. “The faith that has not a sanctifying influence on the character is no better than the faith of devils.”

— J. C. Ryle

182. “If you do not love Christ, let me plainly tell you what is the reason: You have no sense of debt to Him.”

— J. C. Ryle

183. “The Gospel which we possess was not given to us only to be admired, talked of, and professed – but to be practiced.”

— J. C. Ryle

184. “On the one hand stand salvation by free grace for Christ’s sake; but on the other stands renewal of the carnal heart by the Spirit. We must be changed as well as forgiven; we must be renewed as well as redeemed.”

— J. C. Ryle

185. “If the Bible is not the Word of God and inspired, the whole of Christendom for 1800 years has been under an immense delusion – half the human race has been cheated and deceived, and churches are monuments of folly. If the Bible is the Word of God and inspired, all who refuse to believe it are in fearful danger; they are living on the brink of eternal misery. No man, in his sober senses, can fail to see that the whole subject demands most serious attention.”

— J. C. Ryle

186. “Make it a part of every day’s business to read and meditate on some portion of God’s Word. Private means of grace are just as needful every day for our souls as food and clothing are for our bodies.”

— J. C. Ryle

187. “The first step towards attaining a higher standard of holiness is to realize more fully the amazing sinfulness of sin.”

— J. C. Ryle

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

188. “Before Christ comes, it is useless to expect to see the perfect church.”

— J. C. Ryle

189. “Miserable indeed is that religious teaching which calls itself Christian, and yet contains nothing of the cross.”

— J. C. Ryle

190. “Just as the first sign of life in an infant when born into the world is the act of breathing, so the first act of men and women when they are born again is praying.”

— J. C. Ryle

191. “Do you wish to grow in grace and be a holy Christian? Then never forget the value of prayer.”

— J. C. Ryle

192. “Where no visible fruit can be found, there you may be sure is no conversion.”

— J. C. Ryle

193. “Never be satisfied with the world’s standard of Christianity!”

— J. C. Ryle

194. “The Bible applied to the heart by the Holy Ghost is the chief means by which men are built up and established in the faith, after their conversion. It is able to cleanse them, to sanctify them, to instruct them in righteousness, and to furnish them thoroughly for all good works.”

— J. C. Ryle

195. “When you cannot answer a skeptic, be content to wait for more light; but never forsake a great principle.”

— J. C. Ryle

196. “Christmas is a season which almost all Christians observe in one way or another. Some keep it as a religious season. Some keep it as a holiday. But all over the world, wherever there are Christians, in one way or another Christmas is kept.”

— J. C. Ryle

197. “Pride comes from not knowing yourself and the world. The older you grow, and the more you see, the less reason you will find for being proud. Ignorance and inexperience are the pedestal of pride; once the pedestal is removed – pride will soon come down.”

— J. C. Ryle

198. “The man who is content to sit ignorantly by his own fireside, wrapped up in his own private affairs, and has no public eye for what is going on in the Church and the world, is a miserable patriot, and a poor style of Christian. Next to our Bibles and our own hearts, our Lord would have us study our own times.”

— J. C. Ryle

199. “When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this – that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual mindedness more marked.”

— J. C. Ryle

200. “What you think now about the cross of Christ, I cannot tell; but I can wish you nothing better than this – that you may be able to say with the apostle Paul, before you die or meet the Lord, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’”

— J. C. Ryle