quotations about doctrine
Still more do men pretend in this time of ours, wherein the habitual use of the human intelligence has sunk to its lowest, that doctrine is but a private, individual affair, creating a mere opinion. Upon the contrary, it is doctrine that drives the State; and every State is stronger in the degree in which the doctrine of its citizens is united. Nor have I met any man in my life, arguing for what should be among men, but took for granted as he argued that the doctrine he consciously or unconsciously accepted was or should be a similar foundation for all mankind. Hence battle.
HILAIRE BELLOC
The Cruise of the "Nona"
What makes all doctrines plain and clear?--
About two hundred pounds a year.
And that which was prov'd true before
Prove false again? Two hundred more.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Hudibras
There is no doctrine so false, but that it may be intermixed with some degree of truth.
D. BURGESS
attributed, Day's Collacon
We should not be more loyal to an idea, a doctrine, or an interpretation of a Bible verse than we are to people. If the teachings of the church are harming the bodies and spirits of people, we should rethink those teachings.
NADIA BOLZ-WEBER
Shameless: A Sexual Reformation
There is no such way to gain admittance, or give defence to strange and absurd Doctrines, as to guard them round about with Legions of obscure, doubtful, and undefin'd Words.
JOHN LOCKE
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.
BIBLE
II John 1:9
Doctrine is nothing but the skin of truth set up and stuffed.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter.
JOHN MILTON
Areopagitica
Any doctrine that will not bear investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest man.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL
Ingersollia: Gems of Thought
The Master made it his task to destroy systematically every doctrine, every belief, every concept of the divine, for these things, which were originally intended as pointers, were now being taken as descriptions.
ANTHONY DE MELLO
Awakening: Conversations with the Masters
Error in doctrine is not only a sin, but a sin which has a great tendency to increase. When a man once in his life believes a wrong thing, it is marvelous how quickly he believes another wrong thing.
CHARLES H. SPURGEON
The Spurgeon Series 1855 & 1856: Unabridged Sermons in Modern Language
The life of doctrine is in application.
JOSEPH HALL
Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old and New Testaments
This is my doctrine: Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child
Error in doctrine is as much a sin as error in practice.
CHARLES H. SPURGEON
The Spurgeon Series 1855 & 1856: Unabridged Sermons in Modern Language
A doctrine that does not attack and affect the life of the period in its inmost depths is no doctrine and had better not be taught.
OSWALD SPENGLER
The Decline of the West
I may know all the doctrines of the Bible, but unless I know Christ, there is not one of them that can save me.
CHARLES H. SPURGEON
The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon
Doctrine, then, is not a moldering scrim of antique prejudice obscuring the meaning of the Bible. It is a crucial aspect of the divine pedagogy, a clarifying agent for our minds fogged by self-deceptions, a challenge to our languid intellectual apathy that will too often rest in false truisms and the easy spiritual nostrums of the present age rather than search more deeply and widely for the dispersed keys to the many doors of scripture.
DANIEL J. TREIER
Proverbs & Ecclesiastes
The old and received law for above a century is not to be broken in upon by any new doctrine.
LORD KENYON
Rex v. Walter, 1799
He that has doctrinal knowledge and speculation only, without affection, never is engaged in the business of religion.
JONATHAN EDWARDS
Works: A treatise concerning religious affections
If God consistently sent lightning bolts in response to bad doctrine, our planet would sparkle nightly like a Christmas tree.
PHILIP YANCEY
Disappointment with God