John Knox Quotes

“Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”

— John Knox

“-Prayer is an earnest and familiar talking with God.”

— John Knox

“A man with God is always in the majority.”

— John Knox

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.

— John Knox

“No one else holds or has held the place in the heart of the world which Jesus holds. Other gods have been as devoutly worshipped; no other man has been so devoutly loved.”

— John Knox

“To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature; contumely to God, a thing most contrary to his revealed will and approved ordinance; and finally, it is the subversion of good order, of all equity and justice.”

— John Knox

“The Scriptures of God are my only foundation and substance in all matters of weight and importance.”

— John Knox

“I have never once feared the devil, but I tremble every time I enter the pulpit.”

— John Knox

Live in Christ, die in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death.

— John Knox

“When I think of those who have influenced my life the most, I think not of the great but of the good.”

— John Knox

“Let no day slip over without some comfort received of the Word of God.”

— John Knox

“Lord, give me Scotland or I die!”

— John Knox

“The Monstrous Regiment of Women.”

— John Knox

In youth, in middle age, and now after many battles, I find nothing in me but corruption.

— John Knox

“The general consent of all that sect is that God (by his foreknowledge, counsel, and wisdom) has no assured election, neither yet any certain reprobation, but that every man may elect or reprobate himself by his own free will, which he has (say they) to do good or evil ... [All these things are] forged by their own brains, and polished by the finest of their wits, when yet in very deed they are but the rotten heresies of ... Pelagius, long ago confuted by Augustine ...”

— John Knox

“I will keep the ground that God has given me and perhaps in his grace, he will ignite me again. But ignite me or not, in his grace, in his power, I will hold the ground.”

— John Knox

“How good we are as preachers depends - not altogether, but (make no mistake!) primarily - on how good we are as men.”

— John Knox

The testimony of scripture is so plain that to add anything were superfluous, were it not that the world is almost now come to that blindness, that whatsoever pleases not the princes and the multitude, the same is rejected as doctrine newly forged, and is condemned for heresy.

— John Knox

I sought neither preeminence, glory, nor riches; my honor was that Jesus Christ should reign.

— John Knox

“As touching nature I am a worm of this earth, and yet a subject of this commonwealth; but as touching the office wherein it has pleased God to place me, I am a watchman ... For that reason I am bound in conscience to blow the trumpet publicly.”

— John Knox

O Lord Eternal, move and govern my tongue to speak the truth.

— John Knox

I cannot praise the common superfluity which women now use in their apparel.

— John Knox

“As the world is weary of me so am I of it.”

— John Knox

“Let a thing here be noted, that the prophet of God sometimes may teach treason against kings, and yet neither he nor such as obey the word, spoken in the Lord's name by him, offend God.”

— John Knox

“Un homme avec Dieu est toujours dans la majorite . One man with God is always a majority.”

— John Knox

Neither can oath nor promise bind any such people to obey and maintain tyrants against God and against his truth known.

— John Knox

“Study to practice in life that which the Lord commands, and then be you assured that you shall never hear nor read the same without fruit.”

— John Knox

Although I never lack the presence and plain image of my own wretched
infirmity, yet seeing sin so manifestly abounds in all estates, I am
compelled to thunder out the threatenings of God against the obstinate
rebels.

— John Knox

“But hereof be assured, that all is not lawful nor just that is statute by civil laws; neither yet is everything sin before God, which ungodly persons allege to be treason.”

— John Knox

“Here lies one who neither flattered nor feared any flesh.”

— John Knox

“Ye [Anabaptists] be proud contemners of the free grace of God offered to man in Christ Jesus. For with the Pelagians and Papists ye are become teachers of free will, and defenders of your own righteousness”

— John Knox

Those who have arrived at any very eminent degree of excellence in the practice of an art or profession have commonly been actuated by a species of enthusiasm in their pursuit of it. They have kept one object in view amidst all the vicissitudes of time and torture.

— John Knox