“Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is attitude. You have never seen people more active than those who have been set on fire by the grace of God.”

—  Dallas Willard

The quote "Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is at…" is famous quote by Dallas Willard (1935–2013), American philosopher.

Life Life to the Full, Christian Herald (UK), 14 April 2001
Source: The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update April 18, 2023. History

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Dallas Willard photo
Dallas Willard 14
American philosopher 1935–2013

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Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 3, p. 37 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

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“As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us, for he has allowed us to see where we’ve been blind. He has given us the chance, where we’ve been lost, to find our best selves. We may not have earned it, this grace,”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2015, Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney (June 2015)
Context: As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us, for he has allowed us to see where we’ve been blind. He has given us the chance, where we’ve been lost, to find our best selves. We may not have earned it, this grace, with our rancor and complacency, and short-sightedness and fear of each other -- but we got it all the same. He gave it to us anyway. He’s once more given us grace. But it is up to us now to make the most of it, to receive it with gratitude, and to prove ourselves worthy of this gift.

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“You cannot be too active as regards your own efforts; you cannot be too dependent as regards Divine grace. Do every thing as if God did nothing; depend upon God as if He did every thing.”

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Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 241.

“Earning trust is not easy, nor is it cheap, nor does it happen quickly. Earning trust is hard and demanding work. Trust comes only with genuine effort, never with a lick and a promise.”

Max DePree (1924–2017) American businessman and writer

Source: Leading Without Power: Finding Hope in Serving Community

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“A high station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace.”

Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) American playwright
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“If I have a face that rejoices in God's grace, my brother, it is because I have learned more from those who have lived within these [prison] walls than from those who live outside them. I have learned more from those who have fallen down than those who have remained upright.”

Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author

the cathedral pastor visiting Ólafur
Heimsljós (World Light) (1940), Book Four: The Beauty of the Heavens

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“It is the very nature of grace to make a man strive to be most eminent in that particular grace which is most opposed to his bosom sin.”

Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) English Puritan

Source: Quotes from secondary sources, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, 1895, P. 294.

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“The U. S. knows that I have attacked it, by the grace of God, for more than 10 years now. The U. S. alleges that I am fully responsible for the killing of its soldiers in Somalia. God knows that we have been pleased at the killing of American soldiers. This was achieved by the grace of God and the efforts of the mujahedin from among the Somali brothers and other Arab mujahedin who had been in Afghanistan before that. America has been trying ever since to tighten its economic blockade against us and to arrest me. It has failed. This blockade does not hurt us much. We expect to be rewarded by God.”

Osama bin Laden (1957–2011) founder of al-Qaeda

In response to the interviewer stating: 'The U.S. is trying to stop the flow of funds to your organization. Has it been able to do so?'
1990s, Time magazine interview (1998)

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“Here may we see that we have verily of Nature to hate sin, and we have verily of Grace to hate sin. For Nature is all good and fair in itself, and Grace was sent out to save Nature and destroy sin, and bring again fair nature to the blessed point from whence it came: that is God; with more nobleness and worship by the virtuous working of Grace. For it shall be seen afore God by all His Holy in joy without end that Nature hath been assayed in the fire of tribulation and therein hath been found no flaw, no fault. Thus are Nature and Grace of one accord: for Grace is God, as Nature is God: He is two in manner of working and one in love; and neither of these worketh without other: they be not disparted.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

Summations, Chapter 63

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