“The wicked do not fear God from any unwillingness to offend him, provided they could do so with impunity. … But believers, as has been said, dread the offense even more than the punishment.”

Book 3, Chapter 2, Section 27, p. 480
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The wicked do not fear God from any unwillingness to offend him, provided they could do so with impunity. … But believe…" by John Calvin?
John Calvin photo
John Calvin 161
French Protestant reformer 1509–1564

Related quotes

Iain Banks photo
Joseph Lewis photo

“The Bible is not a divine revelation from God. It is not inspired; on the contrary, it is a wicked book …. It has been responsible for more suffering and torture than any other volume ever printed……”

Joseph Lewis (1889–1968) American activist

Quoted from Talreja, K. M. (2000). Holy Vedas and holy Bible: A comparative study. New Delhi: Rashtriya Chetana Sangathan.

George Washington photo

“The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

Letter to Brigadier-General Nelson, 20 August 1778, in Ford's Writings of George Washington (1890), vol. VII, p. 161. Part of this is often attached to a fragment of a letter to John Armstrong of 11 March 1782; it is also often prefaced with the spurious "governing without God" sentence, as this 1867 example from Henry Wilson (Testimonies of American Statesmen and Jurists to the Truths of Christianity) shows:
It is impossible to govern the world without God. It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits and humbly implore his protection and favor. I am sure there never was a people who had more reason to acknowledge a divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency which was so often manifested during the revolution; or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of Him, who is alone able to protect them. He must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.
1770s
Context: It is not a little pleasing, nor less wonderful to contemplate, that after two years' manoeuvring and undergoing the strangest vicissitudes, that perhaps ever attended any one contest since the creation, both armies are brought back to the very point they set out from, and that which was the offending party in the beginning is now reduced to the use of the spade and pickaxe for defence. The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. But it will be time enough for me to turn preacher, when my present appointment ceases…

Virginia Foxx photo

“I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country.”

Virginia Foxx (1943) American politician

Referring to HR 3962: To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.
Quoted in GOP Rep: Health reform scarier than terrorism, Associated Press, November 2, 2009, 2009-11-14 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gjEcKdAawSOAEpDDToijQAgFGKmwD9BNL24G0,
Health Care Reform

Wilhelm Reich photo

“Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.”

Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) Austrian-American psychoanalyst

As quoted in Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005) by James Lee Christian, p. 556

Libba Bray photo
Aron Ra photo
John Stuart Mill photo
Gay Talese photo
Osama bin Laden photo

Related topics