“It is not great men who change the world, but weak men in the hands of a great God.”
Brother Yun (1958) Chinese christian house church leader
Source: The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun
(Hudson Taylor’s Choice Sayings: A Compilation from His Writings and Addresses. London: China Inland Mission, n.d., 29).
Variant: All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.
“It is not great men who change the world, but weak men in the hands of a great God.”
Brother Yun (1958) Chinese christian house church leader
Source: The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun
Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter
Religion Without God (1928). p. 90
“God, being a great abyss, to men his depth reveals
Who climb the highest peak of the eternal hills”
Angelus Silesius (1624–1677) German writer
The Cherubinic Wanderer
“All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.”
Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American writer
William Law (1686–1761) English cleric, nonjuror and theological writer
As quoted in Art and the Message of the Church (1961) by Walter Ludwig Nathan, p. 120.
François Fénelon (1651–1715) Catholic bishop
Les hommes sont fort à plaindre d'avoir à être gouvernés par un roi, qui n'est qu'homme semblable à eux; car il faudroit des dieux pour redresser les hommes. Mais les rois ne sont pas moins à plaindre, n'étant qu'hommes, c'est-à-dire foibles et imparfaits, d'avoir à gouverner cette multitude innombrable d'hommes corrompus et trompeurs.
Bk. 10, p. 72; translation p. 174.
Les aventures de Télémaque (1699)