Thomas Watson Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Thomas Watson.
Famous Quotes By Thomas Watson
Joining a company is an act that calls for absolute loyalty in big matters and little ones. — Thomas Watson
If a wicked man seems to have peace at death, it is not from the knowledge of his happiness, but from the ignorance of his danger. — Thomas Watson
Oh, Christian, if you are overspread with this fretting leprosy, you carry the man of sin about you, for you set yourself above God and act as if you were wiser than He, and would sassily prescribe to Him what condition is best for you. — Thomas Watson
Some of the fathers were of opinion that every believer has his guardian angel. This subject needs no hot debate. It may suffice us to know the whole hierarchy of angels is employed for the good of the saints. — Thomas Watson
A man may read the figure on the dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes, unless the sun shines upon the dial: we may read the Bible over, but we can not learn the purpose, till the Spirit of God shines into our hearts. O implore this blessed Spirit! It is God's prerogative-royal to teach: "I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit." Is. 48. 17. Ministers may tell us our lesson, God only can teach us; we have lost both our hearing and eye-sight, therefore are very unfit to learn. Ever since Eve listened to the serpent, we have been deaf; and since she looked on the tree of knowledge we have been blind; but when God comes to teach, he removes these impediments. — Thomas Watson
The world is but a great inn, where we are to stay a night or two, and be gone; what madness is it so to set our heart upon our inn, as to forget our home? 1.Consider — Thomas Watson
Are these the duties I required? I called for the heart and spirit and you bring nothing but the carcass of duty. Should I receive this?" "The Lord says These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Isaiah 29:13 — Thomas Watson
By endeavoring to bring up our children in the fear of the Lord, we shall provide for God's glory when we are dead. A godly man should not only honor God while he lives - but do something that may promote God's glory when he is dead. If our children are seasoned with gracious principles, they will stand up in our place when we have gone, and will glorify God in their generation. A good piece of ground bears not only a fore-crop but an after-crop. He who is godly does not only bear God a good crop of obedience himself while he lives - but by training his child in the principles of piety, he bears God an after-crop when he is dead. — Thomas Watson
We love a saint, though he has many personal failings. There is no perfection here. In some, rash anger prevails; in some, inconstancy; in some, too much love of the world. A saint in this life is like gold in the ore, much dross of infirmity cleaves to him, yet we love him for the grace that is in him. A saint is like a fair face with a scar: we love the beautiful face of holiness, though there be a scar in it. The best emerald has its blemishes, the brightest stars their twinklings, and the best of the saints have their failings. You that cannot love another because of his infirmities, how would you have God love you? — Thomas Watson
The torments of hell abide for ever ... If all the earth and sea were sand, and every thousandth year a bird should come, and take away one grain of this sand, it would be a long time ere that vast heap of sand were emptied; yet, if after all that time the damned may come out of hell, there were some hope; but this word EVER breaks the heart. — Thomas Watson
An upright man is always worth beholding - but then he is most to be admired when like a bright star, he shines in the dark, and having lost all, he holds fast his integrity. — Thomas Watson
This kind of intense loyalty, then, became the well-spring of the IBM spirit, the family spirit as it was called. — Thomas Watson
To compare other things with God, is to debase Deity; as if you should compare the shining of a glow-worm with the sun. 3. — Thomas Watson
As, when king Uzziah would offer incense without a priest, God was angry with him, and struck him with leprosy (2 Chron 26:20). Just so, when we do not come to God in and through Christ, we offer up incense to him without a priest, and what can we expect but severe rebukes? — Thomas Watson
Now it is evident from the covenant of grace, that the smoking flax cannot be quenched. "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but the covenant of my peace shall not be removed, says the Lord" (Isaiah 54:10). If there is falling from grace, how is it an immovable covenant? If grace dies and the smoking flax is quenched, how is our state in Christ, better than it was in Adam? The covenant of grace is called "a better covenant" (Heb. 7:22). How is it a better covenant than that which was made with Adam? Not only because it has a better Surety and contains better privileges - but because it has better conditions annexed to it: "It is ordered in all things, and sure" (2 Sam. 23:5). Those who are taken into the covenant shall be like stars fixed in their orbit and shall never fall away. If grace might die and be quenched, then it would not be a better covenant. — Thomas Watson
It is hard to carry a full cup without spilling, and a full estate without sinning. — Thomas Watson
No flattery can heal a bad conscience, so no slander can hurt a good one. — Thomas Watson
Affliction may be lasting, but it is not everlasting. Affliction was a sting, but withal a wing: sorrow shall soon fly away. — Thomas Watson
The pardoned soul is out of the gunshot of hell (Rom. 8:33). — Thomas Watson
Thus it is in hell; they would die, but they cannot. The wicked shall be always dying but never dead; the smoke of the furnacedascends for ever and ever. Oh! who can endure thus to be ever upon the rack? This word "ever" breaks the heart. Wicked men do now think the Sabbaths long, and think a prayer long; but oh! how long will it be to lie in hell for ever and ever? — Thomas Watson
Learn Christ, is to believe in him; "my Lord, and my God,"Jno. 20. 28 when we do not only believe God, but in God, which is the actual application of Christ to ourselves, and as it were the spreading of the sacred medicine of his blood upon our souls. — Thomas Watson
Many like to hear of the love of Christ, but not of loving their enemies; they like the comforts of the word, but not its reproofs. — Thomas Watson
He that leaves off prayer leaves off to fear God. — Thomas Watson
As children grow older, the care of parents grows greater. They are afraid of their children falling when young, and of worse than falls when they are older. — Thomas Watson
The fastest way to succeed is to double your rate of failure. — Thomas Watson
How many souls have been blown into hell with the wind of popular applause? — Thomas Watson
Repentance is of such importance, that there is no being saved without it. — Thomas Watson
A man's greatest care should be for that place where he lives longest; therefore eternity should be his scope. — Thomas Watson
The prayer that is faithless is fruitless. — Thomas Watson
Prayer as it comes from the saint is weak and languid; but when the arrow of a saint's prayer is put into the bow of Christ's intercession it pierces the throne of grace. — Thomas Watson
The worst that God does to His children is to whip them to heaven. — Thomas Watson
Christians are condemned who profess to own God for their God and yet do not live as if he were their God. — Thomas Watson
Prayer delights God's ear; it melts His heart; and opens His hand. God cannot deny a praying soul. — Thomas Watson
If God should show mercy only to such as deserve it, he must show mercy to none. — Thomas Watson
It was a witty fiction of the poets, that when Mercury had cast Argus into a sleep and with an enchanted wand closed his eyes, he then killed him. When Satan has by his witcheries lulled men asleep in sloth, then he destroys them. Some report that while the crocodile sleeps with its mouth open, the Indian rat gets into its belly and eats up its entrails. So while men sleep in security they are devoured. — Thomas Watson
Hence I infer that where there is no sight of sin, there can be no repentance. Many who can spy faults in others see none in themselves. They cry that they have good hearts. Is it not strange that two should live together, and eat and drink together, yet not know each other? Such is the case of a sinner. His body and soul live together, work together, yet he is unacquainted with himself. He knows not his own heart, nor what a hell he carries about him. Under a veil, a deformed face is hid. Persons are veiled over with ignorance and self-love; therefore they see not what deformed souls they have. — Thomas Watson
God can turn stones into bread, and a sinner can turn bread into stones; the bread of life into the stone of stumbling. — Thomas Watson
The more we enjoy of God, the more we are ravished with delight. — Thomas Watson
God sweetens outward pain with inward peace. — Thomas Watson
The godly have some good in them, therefore the devil afflicts them; and some evil in them, therefore God afflicts them. — Thomas Watson
Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise. — Thomas Watson
We should pray that God would enrich his ordinance with his presence; that he would make the sacrament effectual to all those holy ends and purposes for which he hath appointed it; that it may be the feast of our graces, and the funeral of our corruptions; that it may not only be a sign to represent, but an instrument to convey, Christ to us, and a seal to assure us of our heavenly jointure [union]. — Thomas Watson
Let us then ascribe the whole work of grace to the pleasure of God's Will. God did not choose us because we were worthy, but by choosing us He makes us worthy. — Thomas Watson
Affliction has a sting, out withal a wing: sorrow shall fly away. — Thomas Watson
It is more honour to serve God, than to have kings serve us. — Thomas Watson
Be like Noah's dove. She made use of her wings to fly, but trust in the ark for safety. — Thomas Watson
Another sign of our effectual calling is diligence in our ordinary calling. Some boast of their high calling, but they lie idly at anchor. Religion does not seal warrants to idleness. Christians must not be slothful. Idleness is the devil's bath; a slothful person becomes a prey to every temptation. Grace, while it cures the heart, does not make the hand lame. He who is called of God, as he works for heaven, so he works in his trade. — Thomas Watson
He who loves money is not weary of telling it: and he who loves God is not weary of serving him. — Thomas Watson
The bare knowledge of God's will is inefficacious, it doth not better the heart. Knowledge alone is like a winter sun, which hath no heat or influence; it doth not warm the affections, or purify the conscience. Judas was a great luminary, he knew God's will, but he was a traitor. — Thomas Watson
"If you are loyal you are successful," ruminated the company paper at one time. "All useful work is raised to the plane of art when love for the task-loyalty-is fused with the effort. Loyalty is the great lubricant of life. It saves the wear and tear of making daily decisions as to what is best to do. The man who is loyal to his work is not wrung nor perplexed by doubts, he sticks to the ship, and if the ship founders he goes down like a hero with colors flying at the masthead and the band playing." — Thomas Watson
[Concerning the Word preached:] Do we prize it in our judgments? Do we receive in into our hearts? Do we fear the loss of the Word preached more than the loss of peace and trade? Is it the removal of the ark that troubles us? Again, do we attend to the Word with reverential devotion? When the judge is giving the charge on the bench, all attend. When the Word is preached, the great God is giving us his charge. Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the Word. — Thomas Watson
It is easy to catch a disease from another, but not to catch health. The bad will sooner corrupt the good, than the good will convert the bad. — Thomas Watson
First we practice sin, then defend it, then boast of it. — Thomas Watson
Love is an industrious affection; it sets the head studying for God, hands working, feet running in the ways of his commandments. — Thomas Watson
A wicked man in prayer may lift up his hands, but he cannot lift up his face. — Thomas Watson
When God calls a man, He does not repent of it. God does not, as many friends do, love one day, and hate another; or as princes, who make their subjects favourites, and afterwards throw theminto prison. This is the blessedness of a saint; his condition admits of no alteration. God's call is founded upon His decree, and His decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be reversed.God blots out His people's sins, but not their names. — Thomas Watson
God sometimes afflicts with infirmity of body. Sickness takes away the comfort of life, and makes one in deaths oft. — Thomas Watson
Men are not good in truth when they are good by halves. — Thomas Watson
Solve it. Solve it quickly, solve it right or wrong. If you solve it wrong, it will come back and slap you in the face, and then you can solve it right. Lying dead in the water and doing nothing is a comfortable alternative because it is without risk, but it is an absolutely fatal way to manage a business. — Thomas Watson
Knowledge without repentance will be but a torch to light men to hell. — Thomas Watson
Such as make the sacrament only a representation of Christ do aim short of the mystery, and come short of the comfort. — Thomas Watson
Father, my heart, my heart; my dead heart, quicken it; my hard heart, soften it in Christ's blood. Father, my heart, my heart.' Surely God, who hears the cry of ravens, will hear the cry of his children! — Thomas Watson
Can the spouse be better than in her husband's company? Where can the soul be better than in drawing near to God? — Thomas Watson
God's decree is the very pillar and basis on which the saint's perseverance depends. That decree ties the knot of adoption so fast, that neither sin, death, nor hell, can break it asunder. — Thomas Watson
This marriage union with Christ is the most noble and excellent union: — Thomas Watson
Those prayers God likes best which come seething hot from the heart. — Thomas Watson
A Christian is a military person, he fights the Lord's battles, he is Christ's ensignbearer. Now, what though he endures hard fate, and the bullets fly about? He fights for a crown! — Thomas Watson
The God whom we worship is holy, the work we are employed in is holy, the place we hope to arrive at is holy; all this calls for holiness. — Thomas Watson
Though God is the fountain of grace - yet the saints are the pipes which transmit the living streams to others. — Thomas Watson
We pray most fervently when we pray most feelingly. — Thomas Watson
Affliction promotes holiness. The more the diamond is cut, the more it sparkles! — Thomas Watson
Let us beg from God, a spiritual palate to relish a sweetness in holy things. For lack of spiritual hearts, we come to duty without delight, and go away without profit! — Thomas Watson
A spiritual prayer is a humble prayer. Prayer is the asking of an alms, which requires humility ... The lower the heart descends, the higher the prayer ascends. — Thomas Watson
We must love God more for what He is, than for what He bestows. — Thomas Watson
Love is a holy fuel. It fires the affections, steels the courage, and carries a Christian above the love of life, and the fear of death. — Thomas Watson
An idle person is the devil's tennis ball, which he bandies up and down with temptation until at last the ball goes out of play. — Thomas Watson
Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use — Thomas Watson
The spiritualizing of duty gives life to it. Without this it is only dead praying, dead hearing - and dead things are not pleasing. A dead flower has no beauty, a dead breast has no sweetness. — Thomas Watson
The Kingdom of grace is nothing but ... the beginning of the Kingdom of glory; the Kingdom of grace is glory in the seed, and the Kingdom of glory is grace in the flower; the Kingdom ofgrace is glory in the daybreak, and the Kingdom of glory is grace in the full meridian; the Kingdom of grace is glory militant, and the Kingdom of glory is grace triumphant ... the Kingdom ofgrace leads to the Kingdom of glory. — Thomas Watson