Quotes about blessing
page 7

“This Vision was shewed me, according to mine understanding, that it is speedful to some souls to feel on this wise: sometime to be in comfort, and sometime to fail and to be left to themselves. God willeth that we know that He keepeth us even alike secure in woe and in weal. And for profit of man’s soul, a man is sometime left to himself; although sin is not always the cause: for in this time I sinned not wherefore I should be left to myself — for it was so sudden. Also I deserved not to have this blessed feeling. But freely our Lord giveth when He will; and suffereth us in woe sometime. And both is one love.”

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

The Seventh Revelation, Chapter 15

Love, God, Feeling, Soul

“Praise consists in the love of God, in wonder at the goodness of God, in recognition of the gifts of God, in seeing God in all things He gives us, ay, and even in the things that He refuses to us; so as to see our whole life in the light of God; and seeing this, to bless Him, adore Him, and glorify Him.”

Henry Edward Manning (1808–1892) English Roman Catholic archbishop and cardinal

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 456.

Love, Life, God, Light

“Under the benignant providence of Almighty God the representatives of the States and of the people are again brought together to deliberate for the public good. The gratitude of the nation to the sovereign arbiter of all human events should be commensurate with the boundless blessings which we enjoy.
Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world.”

James K. Polk (1795–1849) American politician, 11th President of the United States (in office from 1845 to 1849)

Fourth Annual Message to Congress (5 December 1848) http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(sj0404)).

God, People, World, Peace

“Abu Sa'id al-Khudri reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The Garden (heaven) and the Fire argued and the Fire said, 'I have the tyrants and the arrogant.' The Garden said, 'I have the weak and poor people.' Allah judged between them, 'You, the Garden, are My mercy. By you I show mercy to whomever I wish. You, the Fire, are My punishment by whom I punish whomever I will. It is My duty to fill both of you."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 615
Sunni Hadith

People, Peace

“Gather every promise. This is Jesus, the life of every grace, the life of every promise, the life of every ordinance, the life of every blessing.”

Ellen G. White (1827–1915) American author and founder/leader of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church

Book II, Ch. 25, p. 244
Selected Messages (1958 - 1980)

Life

“As Love can exquisitely bless,
Love only feels the marvellous of pain;
Opens new veins of torture in the soul,
And wakes the nerve where agonies are born.”

Tobias Smollett (1721–1771) 18th-century poet and author from Scotland

Edward Young, The Brothers (1753), Act V, scene i.
Misattributed

Love, Pain, Feeling, Soul

“And so, in calm expectation of a blessed future and a finished work which will explain the past, in honest submission of out way to God, in supreme delight in Him who is the gladness of our joy, the secret of tranquillity will be ours.”

Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) British minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 448.

God, Secret, Way, Past

“He will bless God, and love England ever after”

James Howell (1594–1666) Anglo-Welsh historian and writer

Instructions for Forraine Travel(1642, 1650)

Love, God

“Even if this earth is only a vestibule, we ought undoubtedly to make such a use of its blessing that we are assisted rather than delayed in our journey.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Page 84.
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life (1551)

“The Army of the Revolution is recruited by the Soldiers of Despair. Therefore, down with any Scheme which gives men Hope. In so far as it succeeds it curtails our recruiting ground and reinforces the ranks of our Enemies. Such opposition is to be counted upon, and to be utilised as the best of all tributes to the value of our work. Those who thus count upon violence and bloodshed are too few to hinder, and their opposition will merely add to the momentum with which I hope and believe this Scheme will ultimately be enabled to surmount all dissent, and achieve, with the blessing of God, that measure of success with which I verily believe it to be charged.”

William Booth (1829–1912) British Methodist preacher

In Darkest England : And The Way Out (1890), p. 81

Men, God, Hope, Success

“Ibn 'Abbas said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "There are two blessings which deceive many people: health and free time."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 1, hadith number 97
Sunni Hadith

People, Health, Peace, Time

“To act with common sense, according to the moment, is the best wisdom I know; and the best philosophy, to do one's duties, take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one's lot, bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness with it, whatever it is, and despise affectation.”

Horace Walpole (1717–1797) English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician

Letter to Sir Horace Mann (27 May 1776)

Wisdom, Happiness, World, Sense

“Oh! my name is John Wellington Wells,
I'm a dealer in magic and spells,
In blessings and curses
And ever-filled purses,
In prophecies, witches, and knells.

If you want a proud foe to "make tracks"—
If you'd melt a rich uncle in wax—
You've but to look in
On our resident Djinn,
Number seventy, Simmery Axe!”

W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) English librettist of the Gilbert & Sullivan duo

Mr Wells' song, Act I.
"Simmery Axe" is the traditional pronunciation of "St. Mary Axe", a road in the City of London.
In Gilbert's day, the last building was number 68, though number 70 was built later.
The Sorcerer (1877)

“Convinced that character is all and circumstances nothing, [the Puritan] sees in the poverty of those who fall by the way, not a misfortune to be pitied and relieved, but a moral failing to be condemned, and in riches, not an object of suspicion … but the blessing which rewards the triumph of energy and will.”

R. H. Tawney (1880–1962) English philosopher

Part IV, Ch. 3
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926)

Way

“At the foot of the cross, in all humility and in all adoration, we have learned at once the depth and the height of human nature; we have learned to think all wisdom but foolishness for the knowledge of Christ; all purity but sin, unwashed by His atonement; all hope in earth, of all hopes the most miserable, but in the faith of His most blessed resurrection; content to bear the struggles of life, at His command; and submitting to the grave, with a consciousness that it can sting no more.”

George Croly (1780–1860) Irish poet, novelist, historian, and divine

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 172.

Life, Wisdom, Faith, Hope

“Innumerable men had passed by, across this Universe, with a dumb vague wonder, such as the very animals may feel; or with a painful, fruitlessly inquiring wonder, such as men only feel;—till the great Thinker came, the original man, the Seer; whose shaped spoken Thought awakes the slumbering capability of all into Thought. It is ever the way with the Thinker, the spiritual Hero. What he says, all men were not far from saying, were longing to say. The Thoughts of all start up, as from painful enchanted sleep, round his Thought; answering to it, Yes, even so! Joyful to men as the dawning of day from night;—is it not, indeed, the awakening for them from no-being into being, from death into life? We still honor such a man; call him Poet, Genius, and so forth: but to these wild men he was a very magician, a worker of miraculous unexpected blessing for them; a Prophet, a God!”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Divinity

Life, Death, Men, God

“An-Nu'man ibn Bashir reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The metaphor of the believers in their mutual love, mercy and affection is that of the body. When one limb of it complains, the rest of the body collapses with sleeplessness and fever."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 2, hadith number 224
Sunni Hadith

Love, Peace

“An artist using statistics as a brush could paint two very different pictures of our country. One would have warning signs: increasing layoffs, rising energy prices, too many failing schools, persistent poverty, the stubborn vestiges of racism. Another picture would be full of blessings: a balanced budget, big surpluses, a military that is second to none, a country at peace with its neighbors, technology that is revolutionizing the world, and our greatest strength, concerned citizens who care for our country and care for each other.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2001, Address to Joint Session of Congress on Administration Goals (February 2001)

World, School, Peace, Painting

“I relish the fact that we New Yorkers talk funny, and that art deco skyscrapers symbolize our city. […] But we must set boundaries to this love of variety. I accept the need, even the blessings, of standardization in practical matters: we require a worldwide telephone dialing system and a network of national highways […]. We need domains of standardization, and realms of regionalism, each in its appropriate place, and linked in mutual respect and recognition. I accept and even want McDonalds at the highway interchange—but not in my little neighborhood of ethnic restaurants, and not next to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.”

Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American evolutionary biologist

"Baseball : Joys and Lamentations", p. 309; originally published in The New York Review of Books (1993-11-04)
Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville (2003)

Love, Art

“Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people, the multitude brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endow with Thy spirit of wisdom those whom in Thy name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

This is a misquotation of a prayer from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (ministry should be industry and arrogance should be arrogancy). This was a revision from an earlier edition. The original form, written by George Lyman Locke, appeared in the 1885 edition. In 1994 William J. Federer attributed it to Jefferson in America's God and Country: Encyclopedia of Quotations, pp. 327-8. See the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/national-prayer-peace. Misattributed

Wisdom, God, People, Peace

“We are not rich in the bank, but we have always prospered and we have quite enough. I never walk out with my husband but I hear the people bless him. I never lie down at night, but I know that in the course of that day he has alleviated pain and soothed some fellow creature in the time of need. Is not this to be rich?”

Charles Dickens book Bleak House

Source: Bleak House (1852-1853), Ch. 67

Pain, People, Lie, Time

“In heav'n, the saint nor pity feels, nor care,
For those thus sentenced - pity might disturb
The delicate sense and most divine repose
Of spiritus angelical
Blessed be God,
The measure of his judgments is not fixed
By man's erroneous standard. He discerns
No such inordinate difference and vast
Betwixt the sinner and the saint, to doom
Such disproportion'd fates.
Compared with him,
No man on earth is holy called: they best
Stand in his sight approved, who at his feet
Their little crowns of virtue cast, and yield,
To him of his own works the praise, his due.”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

Composed at midnight, as quoted in The Poetical Works of Charles Lamb, p. 72.

God, Fate, Angels, Feeling

“The work on satisfactory formulation of technical patents was a true blessing for me. It compelled me to be many-sided in thought, and also offered important stimulation for thought about physics. Following a practical profession is a blessing for people of my type. Because the academic career puts a young person in a sort of compulsory situation to produce scientific papers in impressive quantity, a temptation to superficiality arises that only strong characters are able to resist.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

From his "Autobiographische Skizze" (18 April 1955), original German version here http://philoscience.unibe.ch/documents/kursarchiv/WS99/Skizze.pdf. Translation from Einstein from 'B' to 'Z by John J. Stachel (2001), p. 5 http://books.google.com/books?id=OAsQ_hFjhrAC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false. Original German version: Formulierung technischer Patente ein wahrer Segen für mich. Sie zwang zu vielseitigem Denken, bot auch wichtige Anregungen für das physikalische Denken. Endlich ist ein praktischer Beruf für Menschen meiner Art überhaupt ein Segen. Denn die akademische Laufbahn versetzt einen jungen Menschen in eine Art Zwangslage, wissenschaftliche Schriften in impressiver Menge zu produzieren — eine Verführung zur Oberflächlichkeit, der nur starke Charaktere zu widerstehen vermögen. ("Autobiographische Skizze", p. 12) 1950s Variant: "Working on the final formulation of technological patents was a veritable blessing for me. It enforced many-sided thinking and also provided important stimuli to physical thought. [Academia] places a young person under a kind of compulsion to produce impressive quantities of scientific publications — a temptation to superficiality." As quoted in "Who Knew?" http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0505/resources_who.html at NationalGeographic.com (May 2005).

People, Strong, Personality

“"My burden is light," said the blessed Redeemer, a light burden indeed, which carries him that bears it. I have looked through all nature for a resemblance of this, and seem to find a shadow of it in the wings of a bird, which are indeed borne by the creature, and yet support her flight towards heaven.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) French abbot, theologian

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 88

Support, Nature, Bird, Light

“Thus in the time of our pain and our woe He sheweth us Cheer of His Passion and His Cross, helping us to bear it by His own blessed virtue. And in the time of our sinning He sheweth to us Cheer of Ruth and Pity, mightily keeping us and defending us against all our enemies. And these be the common Cheer which He sheweth to us in this life; therewith mingling the third: and that is His Blissful Cheer, like, in part, as it shall be in Heaven. And that by gracious touching and sweet lighting of the spiritual life, whereby that we are kept in sure faith, hope, and charity, with contrition and devotion, and also with contemplation and all manner of true solace and sweet comforts.”

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

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 71

Life, Pain, Faith, Hope

“Jewish success is due to a culture that promotes excellence, blessed with self discipline, education, dedication and a quest for leaving this world a better place.”

Nonie Darwish (1949) American activist

Address at the Feat of Tabernacles convention, Jerusalem (2007)

World, Education, Success

“If these Commentaries shall but inspire in the rising generation a more ardent love of their country, an unquenchable thirst for liberty, and a profound reverence for the constitution and the union, then they will have accomplished all that their author ought to desire. Let the American youth never forget that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capable, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence. The structure has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity; its foundations are solid; its compartments are beautiful as well as useful; its arrangements are full of wisdom and order; and its defences are impregnable from without. It has been reared for immortality, if the work of man may justly aspire to such a title. It may, nevertheless, perish in an hour by the folly, or corruption, or negligence of its only keepers, THE PEOPLE. Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people in order to betray them.”

Joseph Story book Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States

Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 2d ed. (1851), vol. 2, chapter 45, p. 617. This passage was not in the first edition, but in all later editions.

Love, Life, Wisdom, People

“Jabir ibn 'Abdullah reported that he heard the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say three days before his death, "None of you should die without having a good opinion of Allah, the Mighty and Exalted."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 3, hadith number 441
Sunni Hadith

Death, Peace

“I think and speak clearer since I cut the dairy out. I can breathe better and perform at a better rate, and my voice is clearer. I can explore different things with my voice that I couldn’t do because of my meat and dairy ingestion. I am proud and blessed to be a vegetarian, everything became clear.”

Common (rapper) (1972) American rapper, actor and author from Illinois

From the documentary Holistic Wellness for the Hip-Hop Generation (2003); as quoted in "Common, Sticman, Badu Featured In New Health Documentary" https://allhiphop.com/2003/08/13/common-sticman-badu-featured-in-new-health-documentary/, AllHipHop (13 August 2003). Interviews

Thinking

“This year, my Friend, is big with mighty events. Nothing less than the fate of America depends on the virtue of her sons, and if they do not have virtue enough to support the most Glorious Cause ever human beings were engaged in, they don’t deserve the blessings of freedom.”

William Whipple (1730–1785) American signatory of the Declaration of Independence

As quoted in "William Whipple" http://www.dsdi1776.com/signers-by-state/william-whipple/ (11 December 2011), The Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Fate, Support, Freedom, Dependency

“Yahya ibn Yahya related to me from Ishaq ibn Abdullah ibn Abi Talha al-Ansari from Anas ibn Malik that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "O Allah! Bless them in their measure, and bless them in their sa and mudd."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

He meant the people of Madina. Muwatta of Imam Malik, Madina, hadith 1 http://ahadith.co.uk/permalink-hadith-4654 Sunni Hadith

People, Peace

“Under a tyranny, most friends are a liability. One quarter of them turn "reasonable" and become your enemies, one quarter are afraid to speak, and one quarter are killed and you die with them. But the blessed final quarter keep you alive.”

Sinclair Lewis book It Can't Happen Here

It Can't Happen Here (1935)

“Anacharsis said a man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible favours and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, 11
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Perfection

“The blessing that the market does not ask about birth is paid for in the exchange society by the fact that the possibilities conferred by birth are molded to fit the production of goods that can be bought on the market.”

Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) German philosopher and sociologist

E. Jephcott, trans., p. 9.
Dialektik der Aufklärung [Dialectic of Enlightenment] (1944)

Birth

“A general Dissolution of Principles & Manners will more surely overthrow the Liberties of America than the whole Force of the Common Enemy. While the People are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their Virtue they will be ready to surrender their Liberties to the first external or internal Invader. How necessary then is it for those who are determin'd to transmit the Blessings of Liberty as a fair Inheritance to Posterity, to associate on publick Principles in Support of publick Virtue.”

Samuel Adams (1722–1803) American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and political philosopher

Letter to James Warren (12 February 1779) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2094

People, Support

“Abu Karima al-Miqdam ibn Ma'dikarib said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, "A human being fills up no vessel worse than his belly. Enough for a son of Adam are some morsels which will kept his back straight. If it cannot be avoided, then a third is for his food, a third for his drink, and a third for himself."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 516
Sunni Hadith

Peace, Food, Drink

“Bring the little ones to Christ. Lord Jesus, we bring them to-day, the children of our Sunday-schools, of our churches, of the streets. Here they are; they wait Thy benediction. The prayer of Jacob for his sons shall be my prayer while I live, and when I die: " The angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads."”

Thomas De Witt Talmage (1832–1902) American Presbyterian preacher, clergyman and reformer during the mid-to late 19th century.

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 571.
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Children, School, Angels, Evil

“Jews like presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders have forgotten that riches are a reward for work well done. In the Jewish faith's infinite wisdom, wealth justly acquired is a sign of God's blessing.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

"Burn-the-Wealth Bernie & His Partial Enslavement System," http://www.quarterly-review.org/burn-the-wealth-bernie/The Quarterly Review, October 16, 2015 2010s, 2015

Wisdom, God, Faith, Hope

“Ain't no doubt about it
We were doubly blessed
Cause we were barely seventeen
And we were barely dressed.”

Jim Steinman (1947) American musician

Bat out of Hell (1977), Paradise by the Dashboard Light

“Thou blessed season of our spring,
When hopes are angels on the wing;
Bound upwards to their heavenly shore,
Alas! to visit earth no more.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

Poetical Portrait II
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

Hope, Angels, Spring, Season

“Papers say: "Congress is deadlocked and can't act." I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall this country.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Weekly Article #59, 1924-01-27
Weekly columns

Thinking, Country

“The method for practicing this ardent love is short and easy. Its subject is constant and loving aspiration. But to be perfect, aspiration must be practice so eagerly and continually that it becomes as easy as breathing. It has a number of degrees, all of which can be reduced to four. The first consists in offering oneself and all created things to God. As far as possible, this should be done in an abstract manner. The second degree consists in making requests of the divine Spouse, asking him for his gifts in him and for his own sake. The third degree consists in being resigned and completely conformed to him. This conformity is very lofty and perfect, and is characterized by a great love. Moreover, the soul also desires it for creatures who are capable of such exalted love. The fourth degree is that of unitive love which unites the soul to God. Here the souls yearns for him and pursues him with acts of love until he opens his loving and super essential bosom to it. Here it feast upon his immense beauty in great abundance and intoxication, eating and drinking at the table of the Blessed. But since this does not last very long, the soul soon returns to itself to feed upon its former spiritual fare. From this it derives renewed strength, until God again receives it into his bosom with the same effect.”

John of St. Samson (1571–1636)

From Prayer, Aspiration, and Contemplation

Love, God, Beauty, Soul

“Mechanical instruments, potentially a vehicle of rational human purposes, are scarcely a blessing when they enable the gossip of the village idiot and the deeds of the thug to be broadcast to a million people each day.”

Lewis Mumford book Technics and Civilization

Source: Technics and Civilization (1934), Chapter 6, § 9

People

“You cannot imagine a more certain rule or a more powerful suggestion than this, that all the blessings we enjoy are divine deposits which we have received on this condition that we distribute them to others.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Page 35.
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life (1551)

Imagination

“Behold and see! The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood descended down into Hell and burst her bands and delivered all that were there which belonged to the Court of Heaven. The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood overfloweth all Earth, and is ready to wash all creatures of sin, which be of goodwill, have been, and shall be. The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood ascended up into Heaven to the blessed body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and there is in Him, bleeding and praying for us to the Father, — and is, and shall be as long as it needeth; — and ever shall be as long as it needeth.”

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

The Fourth Revelation, Chapter 12

Hell, Christ

“Abu Hurayra reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "It is better for one of you to take a rope and carry firewood on his back than for him to go to a man to beg from him who then gives to him or refuses to."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 540
Sunni Hadith

Peace

“It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don’t worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. … If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers.”

Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Priesthood Session of Jordan Utah South Regional Conference, March 1, 1997.

God, Faith, Confidence, Thinking

“I was born in Judaism, and have adhered to it through all my erratic career. Through that pure and simple religion I have found greatest comfort and blessing.”

Adah Isaacs Menken (1835–1868) American actress, dancer, painter and poet

Jewish Virtual Library http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/AMenken.html

Religion

“Believe in Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Redeemer, the Son of God, who came to earth and walked the dusty roads of Palestine-the Son of God-to teach us the way of truth and light and salvation, and who, in one great and glorious act offered an atonement for each of us. He opened the way of salvation and exaltation for each of us, under which we may go forward in the Church and kingdom of God. Be not faithless, but believe in the great and wonderful and marvelous blessings of the Atonement.”

Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Selections from Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, Mar. 2001, 64.

God, Truth, Way, Light

“When we soar up above ourselves, And become, in our upward striving towards God, So simple, that the naked Love in the Heights can lay hold on us, There where Love cherishes Love, above all activity and all virtue (That is to say, in our Origin, wherefrom we are spiritually born)— Then we cease, and we and all that is our own die into God. And in this death we become hidden Sons of God, and find in ourselves a new life, And that is Eternal Life. And of these Sons, St. Paul says: ‘Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.’ In our approach to God we must bear with us ourselves and all that we do, As a perpetual sacrifice to God; And in the Presence of God we must leave ourselves and all our works, And, dying in love, soar up above all created things into the Superessential Kingdom of God.
And of this the Spirit of God speaks in the Book of Hidden Things, saying: ‘Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.”

John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic

From Evelyn Underhill Ruysbroeck (1915), p171
The Sparkling Stone (c. 1340)

Love, Life, Death, God

“The Deists, and unbelievers, have a great share of my compassionate affections, and I never can think, or write of the infinite blessings of the Christian redemption, without feeling in my heart, an impatient longing to see them the happy partakers of them. And as one naturally believes, what one strongly wishes; so I cannot help hoping, that both Christians and Deists will here find truths of such a nature, as must in some degree touch their hearts, if not read with prejudice and aversion. OF THE Nature and Necessity OF R E G E N E R A T I O N, OR, THE N E W - B I R T H.”

William Law (1686–1761) English cleric, nonjuror and theological writer

The Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration (1739)

Happiness, Truth, Hope, Feeling

“Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth's mountains and rivers and oceans, every one of your forebears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so. Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result -- eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly -- in you.”

Bill Bryson book A Short History of Nearly Everything

Page 3
A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)

Life, Fate, Mountain, Time

“Every man who becomes heartily and understandingly a channel of the Divine beneficence, is enriched through every league of his life. Perennial satisfaction springs around and within him with perennial verdure. Flowers of gratitude and gladness bloom all along his pathway, and the melodious gurgle of the blessings he bears is echoed back by the melodious waves of the recipient stream.”

Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–1881) Novelist, poet, editor

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 26.

Life, Spring, Flowers, Gratitude

“.. on the banks of a very picturesque mountain stream that pours out its crystalline water in four or five waterfalls into the Dussel brook... Oh, in this cave, at this crystal flood, I often felt myself so well! Sensations frequently welled up in my bosom at this blessed place that ennoble the soul and make pour out joyful tombs; [they] give the heart impressions that neither greatness or honor can steal from us. An indomitable longing came to me, to learn more and more about these enchanting shades of beautiful and holy nature, and to transfer them on the canvas with my brush.”

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803–1862) painter from the Northern Netherlands

(original Dutch, citaat van B.C. Koekkoek:) ..aan den oever van eenen hoogst schilderachtigen bergstroom die zijn kristallijnen vocht door vier of vijf watervalletjes in de Dusselbeek uitstort.. .Oh, in deze grot, bij dezen kristallen vloed, gevoelde ik mij dikwijls zo wel! Gewaarwordingen, die den ziel veredelen, vreugdentranen uit het oog doen vloeijen, het hart indrukken geven, die grootheid noch eer ons kunnen ontvreemden, welden vaak in dit zalige oord in mijn boezem op. Een ontembare zucht greep mij aan, om die tooverachtige schakeringen der schoone en heilige natuur meer en meer te leren kennen, en die door mijn penseel op het doek over te brengen.
he frequently visited this location along the Düssel stream, as Koekoek's quote illustrates
Source: Herinneringen aan en Mededeelingen van…' (1841), p. 37-38

Beauty, Soul, Mountain, Nature

“I don't have an enemy in this state I hope, except rascals like Bill Dodd, Ray Knight and deLesseps Morrison. I'm proud of them! I'll be back. Keep your eye on the indicators. I thought I owed it to you to come look you in the eye and let as many of you see me and see I'm living and I'm not nuts. If I'm nuts, I've been nuts all my life. Thank ya, and God bless ya.”

Earl Long (1895–1960) American politician and the 45th Governor of Louisiana for three non-consecutive terms

Quoted in "1959 Year In Review: Governor Earl Long Goes Crazy," http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1959/Governor-Earl-Long-Goes-Crazy/12295509433704-5/ UPI.com (1959).

Life, God, Hope

“What one thinks is possible might not always be so. I try to do my best but, finally, everything lies in God's hands. I consider my skills as a musician to be a blessing from God. Even today, before I perform, I am unsure of whether I will be able to move my audience. I leave everything to Him… He pulls the strings in my life.”

A. R. Rahman (1966) Indian singer and composer

A R Rahman: In tune with life

Life, God, Thinking

“In a country where feeling for art is not one of the national characteristics, it is particularly difficult to arrive at a common understanding of the term "art". There are many obstacles in the way, and some of them are imposed by the mere existence of such a body as the Royal Academy, for lacking any intuition in this matter of art, the majority of people turn to that institution for guidance, and naturally assume that any work receiving its blessing must be a work of art in the strict meaning of the word, and consequently the artistic quality of a painting is, in the popular estimation, measured in ratio to its degree of photographic realism.”

James Bolivar Manson (1879–1945) British artist

Manson, J.B. The Tate Gallery, p. 8, Thomas Nelson and Sons.

People, Art, Way, Feeling

“When reflecting upon it today, that the Pearl Harbor attack should have succeeded in achieving surprise seems a blessing from Heaven. It was clear that a great American fleet had been concentrated in Pearl Harbor, and we supposed that the state of alert would be very high.”

Hideki Tōjō (1884–1948) former Prime Minister of Japan and Minister of War executed in 1948

Written in his prison diary
1940s

“Why should we fear that which will come to all that is?
We cannot tell, we do not know, which is the greater blessing — life or death. We do not know whether the grave is the end of this life, or the door of another, or whether the night here is not somewhere else at dawn. Neither can we tell which is the more fortunate — the child dying in its mother's arms, before its lips have learned to form a word, or he who journeys all the length of life's uneven road, painfully taking the last slow steps with staff and crutch.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

At A Child's Grave (1882)

Life, Death, Fear, Learning

“And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know.
Whoa, whoa, whoa
God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson,
Heaven holds a place for those who pray.
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Mrs. Robinson
Song lyrics, Bookends (1968)

Love, God

“Work is man's original vocation. It is a blessing from God, and those who consider it a punishment are sadly mistaken.”

Josemaría Escrivá (1902–1975) Spanish theologian

#482
The Furrow (1986)

God

“For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.”

William Congreve The Mourning Bride

Act V, scene 12
The Mourning Bride (1697)

Waiting

“Al-Mustawrid ibn Shaddad reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "This world in in comparison with the Next World is like putting your finger in the sea and seeing what comes back on it."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 3, hadith number 463
Sunni Hadith

World, Peace, Sea

“Abu Hurayra reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Allah, the Mighty and Exalted, said, 'Might is My wrapper, and pride is My cloak and I will punish any one who contends with me [for them]."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 618
Sunni Hadith

Peace

“According to the ritual of the Romish church, the bells were not only blessed and exorcised, but baptized as those above mentioned, and anointed with holy oil. After these ceremonies had passed it was believed that the evil spirits lurking in the air might be driven away by their sound.”

Joseph Strutt (1749–1802) British engraver, artist, antiquary and writer

pg. 292
The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801), Bell ringing

Evil

“The Providence of heaven
Has some peculiar blessing given
To each allotted state below.”

Mark Akenside (1721–1770) English poet and physician

Book I, Ode II, No. 1: "For the Winter Solstice", stanza v, lines 48–50
Odes on Several Subjects (1745)

“In our Mammonistic blindness we have unlearned how to see clearly that the doctrine of the sanctity of interest is a monstrous self-deception, that the gospel of the loan-interest that alone makes one blessed has entangled our entire thinking in the golden web of international plutocracy.”

Gottfried Feder (1883–1941) German economist and politician

"Manifesto for the Abolition of Enslavement to Interest on Money" (1919)

Thinking

“Religion, virtually without fail, provides the army at war with its blessings, and recruits from among its officials the chaplain, who in military costume counsels and consoles and stiffens the morale of men at war.”

C. Wright Mills book The Power Elite

The Power Elite (1956)

Men, War, Religion

“There is legitimate debate about many of these decisions. But there can be little debate about the results. America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil. This is a tribute to those who toil day and night to keep us safe – law enforcement officers, intelligence analysts, homeland security and diplomatic personnel, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. Our nation is blessed to have citizens who volunteer to defend us in this time of danger. I have cherished meeting these selfless patriots and their families. America owes you a debt of gratitude. And to all our men and women in uniform listening tonight: There has been no higher honor than serving as your Commander in Chief.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2009, Farewell speech to the nation (January 2009)

Women, Men, Family, Law

“For in that time He shewed our frailty and our fallings, our afflictings and our settings at nought, our despites and our outcastings, and all our woe so far forth as methought it might befall in this life. And therewith He shewed His blessed Might, His blessed Wisdom, His blessed Love: that He keepeth us in this time as tenderly and as sweetly to His worship, and as surely to our salvation, as He doeth when we are in most solace and comfort.”

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

Summations, Chapter 62

Love, Life, Wisdom, Affliction

“I saw that an humble man, with the blessing of the Lord, might live on a little, and that where the heart was set on greatness, success in business did not satisfy the craving; but that commonly with an increase of wealth the desire of wealth increased. There was a care on my mind so to pass my time that nothing might hinder me from the most steady attention to the voice of the true Shepherd”

John Woolman (1720–1772) American Quaker preacher

Source: The Journal of John Woolman (1774), p. 14

Business, Time, Success, Heart

“During the election, Prime Minister Harper ended some of his speeches with the words “God bless Canada.” Indeed, the prophet Isaiah says that God blesses you when you “share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house” (Isaiah 58.7). We urge the Prime Minister to spend tax dollars now in a way that will bring the homeless poor into their own house, and allow them the dignity of sharing their bread with others.”

Andrew Hutchison (1938) Canadian bishops

The Globe and Mail, March 29, 2006.

God, Way, Housing

“True believer that I am
I am blind, lead me on (lead me on)
Blessed receiver of your love
I own my own time
And I've been holding on (holding on)
Leave the word unspoken
And the spell will not be broken.”

James Taylor (1948) American singer-songwriter and guitarist

"I Will Follow"
Song lyrics, Dad Love His Work (1981)

Love, Time

“For all we know
Of what the blessed do above
Is, that they sing, and that they love.”

Edmund Waller (1606–1687) English poet and politician

While I listen to thy Voice; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Love, Singing

“He gave me understanding of two parts. The one part is our Saviour and our salvation. This blessed part is open and clear and fair and light, and plenteous, — for all mankind that is of good will, and shall be, is comprehended in this part.”

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

The Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 30

Understanding, Light, Parting

“Thus signifieth He where He saith: I am Ground of thy beseeching. And thus in this blessed word, with the Shewing, I saw a full overcoming against all our weakness and all our doubtful dreads.”

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

The Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 42

“Nor, perchance,
If I were not thus taught, Should I the more
Suffer my genial spirits to decay:
For thou art with me here upon the banks
Of this fair river; thou, my dearest Friend,
My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch
The language of my former heart, and read
My former pleasures in the shooting lights
Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while
May I behold in thee what I was once,
My dear, dear Sister! And this prayer I make,
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy: for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith that all which we behold
Is full of blessings.”

William Wordsworth book Lyrical Ballads

Stanza 4.
Lyrical Ballads (1798–1800), Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey (1798)

Love, Life, Men, Pleasure

“The more blessed she felt on earth, the more rarely she turned to heaven.”

Zadie Smith book White Teeth

White Teeth (2000)

“Since we must and do write each our own way, we may during actual writing get more lasting instruction not from another's work, whatever its blessings, however better it is than ours, but from our own poor scratched-over pages. For these we can hold up to life. That is, we are born with a mind and heart to hold each page up to, and to ask: is it valid?”

Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American author

On Writing (2002)

Life, Way, Heart

“Cold, impossible, ahead
Lifts the mountain's lovely head
Whose white waterfall could bless
Travellers in their last distress.”

W. H. Auden (1907–1973) Anglo-American poet

First published in book form in Look, Stranger! (1936; US title On this Island)
Source: Autumn Song (1936), Lines 17–20

Love, Travel, Mountain

“Meek and lowly, pure and holy,
Chief among the "blessed three."”

Charles Jefferys (1807–1865) British music publisher

Charity, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“They are not like the – patron’s hands or the – blessing hands of the curate – They resemble their tools, mountains, tree trunks… The time is approaching when machines will – work FOR them – Then he will have hands like his boss – WHY NOT? – He's on the way – HIS LIFE begins TODAY [written text in his painting 'Les mains – hommage a Majakovski', 1951 - [ Vladimir Mayakovsky was a Russian Futurist poet].”

Fernand Léger (1881–1955) French painter

Quotes of Fernand Leger, 1950's
Source: Fernand Léger – The Later Years -, catalogue ed. Nicolas Serota, published by the Trustees of the Whitechapel Art gallery, London, Prestel Verlag, 1988, p. 68

Life, Way, Mountain, Tree

“The cross of Christ is the pledge to us that the deepest suffering may be the condition of the highest blessing; the sign, not of God's displeasure, but of His widest and most compassionate face.”

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–1881) English churchman, Dean of Westminster

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 568.

God, Suffering, Christ

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Muwatta of Imam Malik, Speech, hadith 14 http://ahadith.co.uk/permalink-hadith-4912 Sunni Hadith Variant: Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "I was sent to perfect good character."

Peace, Personality

“Alas! such is the miseducation of these days, it is only among those that are called the uneducated classes — those educated by experience — that you can look for a Man. Even among these, such a sight is growing daily rarer. My father, in several respects, has not, that I can think of, left his fellow. Perhaps among Scottish peasants what Samuel Johnson was among English authors. I have a sacred pride in my peasant father, and would not exchange him, even now, for any king known to me. Gold and the guinea stamp — the Man and the clothes of the man. Let me thank God for that greatest of blessings, and strive to live worthily of it.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1880s, Reminiscences (1881)

God, Education, Thinking, Clothes

“Blessed, unquestionably, is he who has it in his power to do evil, yet does it not.”

Marguerite de Navarre book Heptaméron

Fifth Day, Novel XLII (trans. W. K. Kelly)
L'Heptaméron (1558)

Evil

“O, we all long for the day, the blessed day, when freedom shall at least be co-extensive with Christendom; when a slave political or domestic, shall not tread on an atom upon which the cross of Calvary has cast its shadow; when the baptism of the crucified shall be on every brow, the seal of a heavenly sonship; when the fire of a new Pentecost shall melt asunder, by its divine heat of charity, the bond which wrong or prejudice has fastened; when, to touch any spot over the wide sweep of God's Christianized earth, any spot which the gospel of the Saviour has ever visited, which the name of the Saviour has ever sanctified, shall be, in itself, the spell of a complete deliverance, the magic of a perfect franchise.”

Henry Giles (1809–1882) Irish minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 379.

God, Freedom, Perfection

“Suddenly, I wondered what the hell was going on. Ramón had been the smartest and most capable guy in our whole grade in “thinking” and “figuring” out things, and he’d been considered dumb, too. And now Gus, he was also the smartest guy of all of us during recess and he just said that he’d been flunked before. This didn’t make any damn—I mean, blessed—sense to me at all! The smartest kids I knew were all considered stupid.”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Burro Genius: A Memoir (2004)

Stupidity, Guy, Hell, Thinking

“President Obama says that conservatives hate women, that there’s a war on women, and that the only thing that women care about is birth control. Oh, Mr. President bless your heart. Which man in your administration came up with that one? Women aren’t a cheap date. Women want a little more out of life than contraceptives. Just the other day I got a call from a friend back home. She’s 64-years-old. She told me her insurance company contacted her to say that under Obamacare they would pay for contraceptives but not for her blood pressure medication. She told them to put it in writing so she could share it with her congressman. What women want is not free contraceptives. We want opportunity. We want all the potential of the American economy unlocked for us. We want the government to stay out of our way … stay out of our wallets… and stay out of our emails. We want to have choice. Not the type of choice that men in the Democratic Party talk about, but real choice.”

Marsha Blackburn (1952) American politician

Remarks To Freedom Summit, Manchester NH https://www.redstate.com/diary/marshablackburn/2014/04/12/remarks-freedom-summit-manchester-nh/ (April 12, 2014)

Life, Women, Men, Hate