Top 350 John Calvin Quotes (2026 Update)
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251. “There is no golden mean between these two extremes; either this early life must become low in our estimation, or it will have our inordinate love.”

— John Calvin

252. “He makes this favor common to all, because it is propounded to all, and not because it is in reality extended to all; for though Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world, and is offered through God’s benignity indiscriminately to all, yet all do not receive him.”

— John Calvin

253. “There are sons of God who do not yet appear so to us, but now do so to God; and there are those who, on account of some arrogated or temporal grace, are called so by us, but are not so to God.”

— John Calvin

254. “Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue but of the life.”

— John Calvin

255. “As by the revolt of the first man, the image of God could be effaced from his mind and soul, so there is nothing strange in His shedding some rays of grace on the reprobate, and afterwards allowing these to be extinguished.”

— John Calvin

256. “The vices of which we are full we carefully hide from others, and we flatter ourselves with the notion that they are small and trivial; we sometimes even embrace them as virtues.”

— John Calvin

257. “The denial of ourselves which Christ has so diligently commanded his disciples from the beginning will at last dominate all the desires of our heart.”

— John Calvin

258. “It is not after we were reconciled by the blood of his Son that God began to love us, but before the foundation of the world.”

— John Calvin

259. “Even if this earth is only a vestibule, we ought undoubtedly to make such a use of its blessing that we are assisted rather than delayed in our journey.”

— John Calvin

260. “It is a promise which eminently deserves our observation that all who are united to Christ and acknowledge Him to be Christ and Mediator will remain to the end safe from all danger, for what is said of the body of the Church belongs to each of its members since they are one in Christ.”

— John Calvin

261. “Let us, however, remember this truth: No one has made much progress in the school of Christ who doesn’t look forward joyfully both to his death and the day of his final resurrection.”

— John Calvin

262. “Unless God’s Word illumine the way, the whole life of men is wrapped in darkness and mist, so that they cannot but miserably stray.”

— John Calvin

263. “Unless we endeavor to do good to our neighbor, through our cruelty we transgress this law.”

— John Calvin

264. “We both felt that the chief virtue of an interpreter consists in clarity combined with brevity. And.”

— John Calvin

265. “To will is human, to will the bad is of fallen nature, but to will the good is of Grace.”

— John Calvin

266. “I have become used to swallowing insults for so long that I am almost insensitive; yet.”

— John Calvin

267. “The whole comes to this, that Christ, when he produces faith in us by the agency of his Spirit, at the same time ingrafts us into his body, that we may become partakers of all spiritual blessings.”

— John Calvin

268. “The principle exercise which the children of god have is to pray. For in this way they give true proof of their faith.”

— John Calvin

269. “We unjustly defraud God of his right, unless each of us lives and dies in dependence on His sovereign pleasure.”

— John Calvin

270. “It is amazing how much our lack of trust provokes God if we request of him a boon that we do not expect.”

— John Calvin

271. “When we know God to be our Father, should we not desire that he be known as such by all? And if we do not have this passion, that all creatures do him homage, is it not a sign that his glory means little to us?”

— John Calvin

272. “But the present life should never be hated, except insofar as it subjects us to sin, although even that hatred should not properly be applied to life itself.”

— John Calvin

273. “Involvement in public life provides the opportunity to shape our manners in accordance with civil justice.”

— John Calvin

274. “Every person, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is also led as by the hand to find Him.”

— John Calvin

275. “But we have nothing of the Spirit except through regeneration. Everything, therefore, which we have from nature is flesh.”

— John Calvin

276. “First of all, Scripture draws our attention to this, that if we want ease and tranquility in our lives, we should resign ourselves and all that we have to the will of God, and at the same time we should surrender our affections to him as our Conqueror and Overlord.”

— John Calvin

277. “For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any books 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 Calvin

278. “I exhort all, who reverence the Word of the Lord, to read it, and diligently imprint it on their memory.”

— John Calvin

279. “Each of us thinks we have just cause for elevating ourselves and despising all others in comparison to ourselves – our self-love ruins us with such blindness. If, in fact, God has gifted us with something that is good in itself, we immediately make it the basis for praising ourselves to such a degree that we not only swell up but almost burst with pride.”

— John Calvin

280. “There is no inconsistency when God raises up those who have fallen prostrate.”

— John Calvin

281. “We carefully conceal our abundant vices from others – and we pretend they’re small and insignificant. In fact, we so delude ourselves that we sometimes embrace our vices as virtues. When.”

— John Calvin

282. “There is also an old proverb, that they who pay much attention to the body generally neglect the soul.”

— John Calvin

283. “Whether each of the faithful has a particular angel assigned him for his defense, I cannot venture certainly to affirm; not one angel only has the care of every one of us, but that all the angels together with one consent watch over our salvation...”

— John Calvin

284. “Angels are the dispensers and administrators of the divine beneficence toward us.”

— John Calvin

285. “In a way, the futile excuses many people use to cover their superstitions are demolished. They think it is enough to have some sort of religious fervor, however ridiculous, not realizing that true religion must be according to God’s will as the perfect measure; that He can never deny Himself and is no mere spirit form to be changed around according to individual preference.”

— John Calvin

286. “This is how we can distinguish true religion from superstition: when the Word of God directs us, there is true religion; but when each man follows his own opinion, or when men join together to follow an opinion they hold in common, the result is always concocted superstition.”

— John Calvin

287. “The name of Christ excludes all merit of our own.”

— John Calvin

288. “There are people who are known to be very liberal, yet they never give without scolding or pride or even insolence.”

— John Calvin

289. “God promised by the mouth of Isaiah that queens should be the nursing mothers of the church...”

— John Calvin

290. “Nobody seriously believes the universe was made by God without being persuaded that He takes care of His works.”

— John Calvin

291. “Prayers will never reach God unless they are founded on free mercy.”

— John Calvin

292. “This is plainly to ascribe divinity to ‘free will.’”

— John Calvin

293. “Life is not found in commandments or declarations of penalties, but in the promise of mercy and only in a gratuitous promise.”

— John Calvin

294. “Distinction between virtuous and vicious actions has been engraven by the Lord in the heart of every man.”

— John Calvin

295. “Indeed, a Christian ought to be disposed and prepared to keep in mind that he has to reckon with God every moment of his life.”

— John Calvin

296. “It behooves us to accomplish what God requires of us, even when we are in the greatest despair respecting the results.”

— John Calvin

297. “Scripture is also called gospel, that is, new and joyful news, because in it is declared that Christ, the sole true and eternal Son of the living God, was made man, to make us children of God his Father, by adoption. Thus.”

— John Calvin

298. “The more closely we see ourselves being watched by our enemies, the more time intent we should be to avoid their slanders.”

— John Calvin

299. “Because the will renewed is the Lord’s work, it is wrongly attributed to man that he obeys prevenient grace with his will as attendant.”

— John Calvin

300. “The answer of our prayers is secured by the fact that in rejecting them God would in a certain sense deny His own nature.”

— John Calvin