Lancelot Andrewes Quotes

“Gratitude is the praise we offer God: for teachers kind, benefactors never to be forgotten, for all who have advantaged me, by writings, sermons, converse, prayers, examples, for all these and all others which I know, which I know not, open, hidden, remembered, and forgotten.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“I am ever Thine. If Thou cast me out, who shall take me in? If Thou disregard me, who shall look on me? More canst Thou remit, than I commit; more canst Thou spare, than I offend. Let not hurtful pleasures overcome me; at the least let not any perverse habit overwhelm me; From evil and unlawful desires; From vain, hurtful, impure imaginations; from the illusions of evil spirits; from pollutions of soul and of body; Good Lord, deliver me.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“A cold coming they had of it, at this time of the year; just the worst time of the year to take a journey, and specially a long journey, in.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“For having wealth and wherewithal to "do good", if you do it not, talk not of faith, for you have no faith in you.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“We know that the body needs bread, therefore we seek for bread for it: so must we seek for the food of the soul.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“Two things I recognize, O Lord, in myself: Nature, which Thou hast made; Sin, which I have added.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“Take away, O Lord, the veil of my heart while I read the Scriptures.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“Let us pray for the Catholic Church; for the Churches throughout the whole world; that is, for their truth, unity, and stability; that in all charity may flourish, and truth may live. For our own Church, that what is lacking in it may be supplied; what is unsound, corrected; that all Heresies, Schisms, Scandals, as well public as private, may be removed. Correct the wandering, convert the unbelieving, increase the faith of the Church, destroy Heresies, discover the crafty enemies, crush the violent.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“The Lord is my strength, my strong rock, my defense, my deliverer, the horn of my salvation, and my refuge. Amen.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“Well yet, this life such as it is, yet we love it, and loath we are to end it; and if it be in hazard by the law, what running, riding, posting, suing, bribing, and if all will not serve, what breaking prison is there for it!”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“Pray we for the Clergy; that they may rightly divide, that they may rightly walk; that while they teach others, themselves may learn.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Keep the commandments.

— Lancelot Andrewes

“It is good reason, that man consisting of two parts, the soul and body, the body only should not take up all, but the soul should be remembered too. Enjoying is the body's part, and well-doing is the soul's; your souls are suitors to you to remember them, that is, to remember well-doing, which is the soul's portion.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“Men use to reason with themselves: It will not always be health, let us lay up for sickness; it will not always be youth, for age; and why not, saith St. Paul, it will not alway be this life, nor alway present life, lay up for yourselves against the life to come.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“There is no part of the whole course of our Saviour Christ's life or death, but it is well worthy our looking on; and from each part in it there goeth virtue to do us good.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak; remember, Lord, how short my time is; remember that I am but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. My days are as grass, as a flower of the field; for the wind goeth over me, and I am gone, and my place shall know me no more.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“COMMEMORATION Blessed art Thou, O Lord who didst bring forth of water moving creatures that have life, and whales, and winged fowls: and didst bless them, so as to increase and multiply. The things concerning the Ascension: Set up Thyself, O God, above the heavens and Thy glory above all the earth. By thine Ascension draw us withal unto Thee, O Lord, so as to set our affections on things above, and not on things on the earth. By the awful mystery of Thy Holy Body and Precious Blood in the evening of this day: Lord, have mercy.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

FAITH Coming unto God, I believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him: I know that my Redeemer liveth; that He is the Christ the Son of the Living God; that He is indeed the Saviour of the world; that He came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Through the grace of Jesus Christ we believe that we shall be saved even as our fathers withal. I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

— Lancelot Andrewes

“Wisdom ruleth in counsel
so do riches.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“He who hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none.”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“Behold, O Lord, that I am indignant with myself, for my senseless, profitless, hurtful, perilous passions; that I loathe myself, for these inordinate, unseemly, deformed, false, shameful, disgraceful passions; that my confusion is daily before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me. Alas! woe, woe! O me, how long?”

— Lancelot Andrewes

“Ever since our first fathers by infection took this morbum sathanicum, this devilish disease, pride, of the devil, such tinder is our nature, that every little spark sets us on fire; our nature hath grown so light, that every little thing puffeth us up, and sets us aloft in our altitudes presently.”

— Lancelot Andrewes