Quote

I would not favour a fiction to keep a whole world out of hell. The hell that a lie would keep any man out of is doubtless the very best place for him to go to. It is truth... that saves the world.

George MacDonald

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

George MacDonald
Age: 80 †
Born: 1824
Born: December 10
Died: 1905
Died: September 18
Author
Cleric
Journalist
Minister
Novelist
Philosopher
Poet
Theologian
Writer
Place
Doubtless
Truth
Saves
Best
Favour
Whole
Honesty
Would
Fiction
Men
Hell
World
Lying
Keep

More quotes by George MacDonald

Image
The direst foe of courage is the fear itself, not the object of it and the man who can overcome his own terror is a hero and more.
George MacDonald
Image
A beast does not know that he is a beast, and the nearer a man gets to being a beast, the less he knows it.
George MacDonald
Image
The boy should enclose and keep, as his life, the old child at the heart of him, and never let it go. He must still, to be a right man, be his mother's darling, and more, his father's pride, and more. The child is not meant to die, but to be forever fresh born.
George MacDonald
Image
Things come to the poor that can't get in at the door of the rich. Their money somehow blocks it up. It is a great privilege to be poor--one that no man covets, and brat a very few have sought to retain, but one that yet many have learned to prize.
George MacDonald
Image
Attitudes are more important than facts.
George MacDonald
Image
Remember, then, that whoever does not mean good is always in danger of harm. But I try to give everybody fair play, and those that are in the wrong are in far more need of it always than those who are in the right: they can afford to do without it.
George MacDonald
Image
We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there is one thing much more necessary.' What is that, grandmother?' To understand other people.' Yes, grandmother. I must be fair - for if I'm not fair to other people, I'm not worth being understood myself. I see.
George MacDonald
Image
Two people may be at the same spot in manners and behaviour, and yet one may be getting better, and the other worse, which is the greatest of differences that could possibly exist between them.
George MacDonald
Image
The miracles of Jesus were the ordinary works of his Father, wrought small and swift that we might take them in.
George MacDonald
Image
And her life will perhaps be the richer, for holding now within it the memory of what came, but could not stay.
George MacDonald
Image
The greatest forces lie in the region of the uncomprehended.
George MacDonald
Image
You must learn to be strong in the dark as well as in the day, else you will always be only half brave.
George MacDonald
Image
It is when people do wrong things wilfully that they are the more likely to do them again.
George MacDonald
Image
If you care to see God, be pure. If you will not be pure, you will grow more and more impure.
George MacDonald
Image
All those evil doctrines about God that work misery and madness have their origin in the brains of the wise and prudent, not in the hearts of children.
George MacDonald
Image
In the hearts of witches, love and hate lie close together and often tumble over each other.
George MacDonald
Image
As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy.
George MacDonald
Image
As to the pure all things are pure, so the common mind sees far more vulgarity in others than the mind developed in genuine refinement.
George MacDonald
Image
All that man sees has to do with man. Worlds cannot be without an intermundane relationship. The community of the centre of all creation suggests an interradiating connection and dependence of the parts. Else a grander idea is conceivable than that which is already embodied.
George MacDonald
Image
Truth is truth, whether from the lips of Jesus or Balaam.
George MacDonald