Emerson Fosdick Quotes & Sayings

Whatever the situation and however disheartening it may be, it is a great hour when a man ceases adopting difficulties as an excuse for despondency and tackles himself as the real problem. No mood need be his master. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Our power is not so much in us as through us. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Christ has given us the most glorious interpretation of life's meaning that man has ever had. The fatherhood of God, the fellowship of the Spirit, the sovereignty of righteousness, the law of love, the glory of service, the coming of the Kingdom, the eternal hope- there was never an interpretation of life to compare with that. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

A good sermon is an engineering operation by which a chasm is bridged so that the spiritual goods on one side-the 'unsearchable riches of Christ' - are actually transported into personal lives upon the other. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

The first question to be answered by any individual or any social group, facing a hazardous situation, is whether the crisis is to be met as a challenge to strength or as an occasion for despair. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

He is a poor son whose sonship does not make him desire to serve all men's mothers. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Opinions may be mistaken; love never is. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Peace is an awareness of reserves from beyond ourselves, so that our power is not so much in us as through us. Peace is the gift, not of volitional struggle, but of spiritual hospitality. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

A person wrapped up in himself makes a small package. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

To keep the Golden Rule we must put ourselves in other people's places, but to do that consists in and depends upon picturing ourselves in their places. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

No one can be wrong with man and right with God. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Friends are necessary to a happy life. When friendship deserts us, we are as helpless as a ship left by the tide high upon the shore. When friendship returns to us, it's as though the tide came back, giving us buoyancy and freedom. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

I have heard stories from the depths of human lives where men and women were wrestling with the elemental problems of misery and sin--stories that put upon a man's heart a burden of vicarious sorrow, even though he does but listen to them. Here was real human need crying out after the living God revealed in Christ. Consider all the multitudes of men who so need God, and then think of Christian churches making of themselves a cockpit of controversy when there is not a single thing at stake in the business. So much of it does not matter! And there is one thing that does matter--more than anything else in all the world--that men in their personal lives and in their social relationships should know Jesus Christ. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

It is not marriage that fails; it is people that fail. All that marriage does is to show people up. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

One of the strange phenomena of the last century is the spectacle of religion dropping the appeal of fear while other human interests have picked it up. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

We ask the leaf, "Are you complete in yourself?" And the leaf answers, "No, my life is in the branches." We ask the branch, and the branch answers, "No my life is in the root." We ask the root, and it answers, "No my life is in the trunk and the branches and the leaves. Keep the branches stripped of leaves, and I shall die," So it is with the great tree of being. Nothing is completely and merely individual. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

The tragic evils of our life are so commonly unintentional. We did not start out for that poor, cheap goal. That aim was not in our minds at all ... Look to the road you are walking on. He who picks up one end of [a] stick picks up the other.He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

The finest quality of our characters do not come from trying but from the mysterious and yet most effective capacity to be inspired. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

It is cynicism and fear that freeze life; it is faith that thaws it out, releases it, sets it free. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

While each of us ... has depressed hours, none of us needs to be a depressed person. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Always take a job that is too big for you. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

We cannot all be great, but we can always attach ourselves to something that it great. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it. I renounce war, and never again, directly or indirectly, will I sanction or support another. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

It is magnificent to grow old, if one keeps young. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Nothing else matters much ... not wealth, nor learning, nor even health ... without this gift: the spiritual capacity to keep zest in living. This is the creed of creeds, the final deposit and distillation of all important faiths: that you should be able to believe in life. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are made of the same water. It flows down, clean and cool, from the heights of Herman and the roots of the cedars of Lebanon. the Sea of Galilee makes beauty of it, the Sea of Galilee has an outlet. It gets to give. It gathers in its riches that it may pour them out again to fertilize the Jordan plain. But the Dead Sea with the same water makes horror. For the Dead Sea has no outlet. It gets to keep. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

We cannot restore integrity and morality to our society until each of us-singly and individually-takes responsibility for our actions. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

No man is the whole of himself; his friends are the rest of him. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

The stars are not so strange as the mind that studies them, analyzes their light, and measures their distance. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Harry Emerson Fosdick could write a book called On Being a Real Person, which translated literally is, "How to be a genuine fake," because in the old sense, the person is the role, the part played by the actor. But if you forget that you are the actor, and think you are the person, you have been taken in by your own role. You are "en-rolled," or bewitched, spellbound, enchanted. — Alan W. Watts

The steady discipline of intimate friendship with Jesus results in men becoming like Him. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

All intelligent faith in God has behind it a background of humble agnosticism. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Every great scientist becomes a great scientist because of the inner self-abnegation with which he stands before truth, saying: "Not my will, but thine, be done." What, then, does a man mean by saying, Science displaces religion, when in this deep sense science itself springs from religion? — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Men will work hard for money. They will work harder for other men. But men will work hardest of all when they are dedicated to a cause. Until willingness overflows obligation, men fight as conscripts rather than following the flag as patriots. Duty is never worthily performed until it is performed by one who would gladly do more if only he could. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

No character is ultimately tested until it has suffered. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Money is a miraculous thing. It is your personal energy reduced to a portable form and endowed with power you yourself do not possess. It can go where you cannot go; speak languages you cannot speak; lift burdens you cannot touch with your fingers; save lives with which you cannot deal directly. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Every human life involves an unfathomable mystery, for man is the riddle of the universe, and the riddle of man in his endowment with personal capacities. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Life consists not simply in what heredity and environment do to us but in what we make out of what they do to us. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

A supremely religious man or woman is one who believes deeply and consistently in the veracity of his highest experiences. He has his hours in the cellar ... but he believes in the truth of the hours he spends upstairs. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Atheism is a theoretical formulation of the discouraged life ... — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Falsehood is never better than truth, theft better than honesty, treachery better than loyalty, cowardice better than courage. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Picture yourself vividly as winning, and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Preaching is personal counseling on a group basis. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Religion is something that only secondarily can be taught. It must must primarily be taught. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Prayer opens our lives for God so his will can be done in and through us, because in true prayer we habitually put ourselves into the attitude of willingness to do whatever God wills. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

I wouldn't know where to start."
"He who chooses the beginning of the road chooses the place it leads to."
"Thoreau?"
"Harry Emerson Fosdick ... — Kami Garcia

While science gives us implements to use, science alone does not determine for what ends they will be employed. Radio is an amazing invention. Yet now that it is here, one suspects that Hitler never could have consolidated his totalitarian control over Germany without its use. One never can tell what hands will reach out to lay hold on scientific gifts, or to what employment they will be put. Ever the old barbarian emerges, destructively using the new civilization. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Great living starts with a picture, held in your imagination, of what you would like to do or be. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Life asks not merely what you can do; it asks how much can you endure and not be spoiled. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

When you hear a person say, "I hate," adding the name of some race, nation, religion, or social class, you are dealing with a belated mind. That person may dress like a modern, ride in an automobile, listen to the radio, but his or her mind is properly dated about 1000 B.C. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Every failure can be considered as a tragedy or a chance to learn something. The latter is healthier — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Fearr imprisons, faith liberates; fear paralyzes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens, faith heals; fear makes useless, faith also makes serviceable az quotes. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

What a testing of character adversity is. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

I hate war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatreds it arouses. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Religion is not a burden, not a weight, it is wings. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

No steam or gas drives anything until it is confined. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, and disciplined. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

We must take the abiding spiritual values which inhere in the deep experiences of religion in all ages and give them new expression in terms of the framework which our new knowledge gives us. Science forces religion to deal with new ideas in the theoretical realm and new forces in the practical realm. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

All altruism springs from putting yourself in the other person's place. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

In the foothills of the Himalayas, one hears the prayer: "Oh Lord, we know not what is good for us. You know what it is. For it we pray." — Harry Emerson Fosdick

One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world
making the most of one's best. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

No virtue is more universally accepted as a test of good character than trustworthiness . — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

God has put within our lives meanings and possibilities that quite outrun the limits of mortality. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Of all mad faiths maddest is the faith that we can get rid of faith. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Divinity is not something supernatural that ever and again invades the natural order in a crashing miracle. Divinity is not in some remote heaven, seated on a throne. Divinity is love ... Wherever goodness, beauty, truth, love, are-there is the divine. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

The all but unanimous judgment seems to be that we, the democracies, are just as responsible for the rise of the dictators as the dictatorships themselves, and perhaps more so. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

The process has now run full circle: Preaching originates in personal counseling; preaching is personal counseling on a group basis; personal counseling originates in preaching. Personal counseling imparts to the preacher a practical familiarity with human nature which he would not otherwise obtain. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

No man need stay the way he is. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Self-pity gets you nowhere. But insight to see that something can be done with the second-bests and adventurous daring to try might be a handle to take hold of. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

One could almost phrase the motto of our modern civilization thus: Science is my shepherd; I shall not want. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Nothing in human life, least of all in religion, is ever right until it is beautiful. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Nothing in this world is more inspiring than a soul up against crippling circumstances who carries it off with courage and faith and undefeated character-nothing! See Light From Many Lamps, edited by L. E. Watson, article by H. E. Fosdick, pp. 93-94 re: a serious cripple who succeeded. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

My friends, nothing in all the world is so much worth thinking of as God, Christ, the Bible, sin and salvation, the divine purposes for humankind, life everlasting. But you cannot challenge the dedicated thinking of this generation to these sublime themes upon any such terms as are laid down by an intolerant church. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Every year the inventions of science weave more inextricably the web that binds man to man, group to group, nation to nation. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Whatever you laugh at in others, laughs at yourself. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

One of the most amazing things ever said on this earth is Jesus's statement: "He that is greatest among you shall be your servant." Nobody has one chance in a billion of being thought really great after a century has passed except those who have been the servants of all. That strange realist from Bethlehem knew that. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Happiness is not mostly pleasure, it is mostly victory. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

One never finds life worth living. One always has to make it work living. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

It is by acts (actions) and not by ideas (mere thoughts) that people [really] live. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Some things mankind can finish and be done with, but not ... science, that persists, and changes from ancient Chaldeans studying the stars to a new telescope with a 200-inch reflector and beyond; not religion, that persists, and changes from old credulities and world views to new thoughts of God and larger apprehensions of his meaning. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Democracy is not simply a political system; it is a moral movement and it springs from adventurous faith in human possibilities. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

I hate war ... for the dictatorships it puts in the place of democracies, and for the starvation that stalks after it. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

[L]ife ceases to be a fraction and becomes an integer. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

It is going to be a long, hard haul; it will require patience, courage, faith that hangs on when hope fails, if we are to tame the rude barbarity of man, so that the atomic age becomes a blessing, not a curse. There never was such a day for the Christian gospel. God help us all in these years ahead to make that gospel live in men and nations! — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Life is like a library owned by the author. In it are a few books which he wrote himself, but most of them were written for him. — Harry Emerson Fosdick

The more we know about this universe, the more mysterious it is. The old world that Job knew was marvelous enough, and his description of its wonders is among the noblest poetry of the race, but today the new science has opened to our eyes vistas of mystery that transcend in their inexplicable marvel anything the ancients ever dreamed. — Harry Emerson Fosdick