Matthew Henry Men Quotations

Here is bread, which strengthens man's heart, and therefore is called the staff of Life.

Men of polite learning and a liberal education.

If ill thoughts at any time enter into the mind of a good man, he doth not roll them under his tongue as a sweet morsel.

The remains of great and good men, like Elijah's mantle, ought to be gathered up and preserved by their survivors, that as their works follow them in the reward of them, they may stay behind in their benefit.

Those may justly be reckoned void of understanding that do not bless and praise God; nor do men ever rightly use their reason till they begin to be religious, nor live as men till they live to the glory of God. As reason is the substratum or subject of religion (so that creatures which have no reason are not capable of religion), so religion is the crown and glory of reason, and we have our reason in vain, and shall one day wish we had never had it, if we do not glorify God with it.

Were a man to live as long as Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must follow, would far outweigh them.

We cannot expect too little from man nor too much from God.

As if men did not die fast enough, they are ingenious at finding out ways to destroy one another.

The greatest of men must turn beggars when they have to do with Christ.

Riches, in the hands of a man that is wise and generous, are good for something, but in the hands of a sordid, sneaking, covetous miser, they are good for nothing.

Riches are a blessing or a curse to a man according as he has or has not a heart to make good use of them.

Prayer is the breath of the new man, drawing in the air of mercy in petitions, and returning it in praises; it proves and maintains the spiritual life.

To a good man, God gives not only wisdom and knowledge, but joy.

A man that is endued with the powers of reason, by which he is capable of knowing, serving, glorifying, and enjoying his Maker, and yet lives without God in the world, is certainly the most despicable and the most miserable animal under the sun.

The anger of a meek man is like fire struck out of steel, hard to be got out, and when it is, soon gone.

A good man is willing to know the worst of himself, and particularly under affliction, desires to be told wherefore God contends with him and what God designs in correcting him.

Esther came to a proud imperious man; we come to the God of love and grace.

Men may die like lambs and yet have their place forever with the goats.

That which is won ill, will never wear well, for there is a curse attends it, which will waste it; and the same corrupt dispositions which incline men to the sinful ways of getting, will incline them to the like sinful ways of spending.

It is a sin against God not to pray for the Israel of God, especially for those of them that are under our charge. Good men are afraid of the guilt of omissions ( I Samuel 12).

Men cannot expect to do ill and fare well, but to find that done to them which they did to others.

Death to a good man is his release from the imprisonment of this world, and his departure to the enjoyments of another world.

God cannot be represented by an image. We ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. We wrong God, and put an affront upon him, if we think so. God honoured man in making his soul after his own likeness; but man dishonours God if he makes him after the likeness of his body. The Godhead is spiritual, infinite, immaterial, incomprehensible, and therefore it is a very false and unjust conception which an image gives us of God.

You may as soon find a living man who does not breathe, as a living Christian who does not pray.

Nothing can make a man truly great but being truly good, and partaking of God's holiness.

The counsels and decrees of God do not truckle to the frail and fickle will of man.

No man will say, "There is no God" 'till he is so hardened in sin that it has become his interest that there should be none to call him to account.

The meek are those who quietly submit themselves to God, to His Word and to His rod, who follow His directions, and comply with His designs, and are gentle toward all men.

Man takes great pains to heap up riches, and they are like heaps of manure in the furrows of the field, good for nothing unless they be spread.

You have been asked to take notice of the sayings of dying men—this is mine: that a life spent in the service of God and communion with Him is the most pleasant life that anyone can live in this world.

It was the greatest honor God did to man that he made man in the image of God; but it is the greatest dishonor man has done to God that he has made God in the image of man.

A modest dress is a very good thing, if it be the genuine indication of a humble heart, and is to instruct; but it is a bad thing if it be the hypocritical disguise of a proud ambitious heart, and is to deceive. Let men be really as good as they seem to be, but not seem to be better than really they are.