Against the persecution of a tyrant the godly have no remedy but prayer.
John CalvinRead
Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humans constantly create ideals and beliefs that can distract them from reality.
This quote by John Calvin suggests that humans have an innate tendency to create and cling to various concepts, ideals, and beliefs—referred to as 'idols'—that often overshadow their understanding of true life and reality. These idols can manifest as material possessions, ideology, or even false notions of worth, ultimately leading individuals away from genuine spiritual and existential truths.
Themes
IdolsBeliefsNatureHumanPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion on the impact of consumerism in society.
More from John Calvin
All quotes →The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.
John CalvinRead
Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.
John CalvinRead
Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.
John CalvinRead
For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any book, however fair, is set before them, though they perceive that there is something written, are scarcely able to make out two consecutive words, but, when aided by glasses, begin to read distinctly, so Scripture, gathering together the impressions of Deity, which, till then, lay confused in our minds, dissipates the darkness, and shows us the true God clearly.
John CalvinRead
When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.
John CalvinRead
Similar quotes
Evil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity.
Reinhold NiebuhrRead
For most people, it is enough for the world to know that they aspire. The world does not ask what their aspirations are, trusting that those aspirations are for the best and greatest things. But with regard to the Negroes in America, there is a feeling that their aspirations in some way are not consistent with the great ideals.
W. E. B. Du BoisRead
Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.
Francis Ford CoppolaRead
Truth is always the enemy of power. And power the enemy of truth.
Edward AbbeyRead
Why does man not see things? He is himself standing in the way: he conceals things.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
I believed that there was a God because I was told it by my grandmother and later by other adults. But when I found that I knew not only that there was God but that I was a child of God, when I understood that, when I comprehended that, more than that, when I internalized that, ingested that, I became courageous.
Maya AngelouRead