People say and write interesting things. Profound things. Funny things. Memorable things. Inspiring things. Whenever I copy a quote into my commonplace book, I’m aware that those few things I come across are just the teeny tiny tip of a very large iceberg. Here are a few more.

Stories give us something concrete to visualize: it is one thing to be told that bravery is important; it is another to see Frodo stand at the Council of Elrond and volunteer to take the Ring into Mordor. We need stories to show us what the good life looks like.
Leslie Anne Bustard, Strong Allies

So true. I remember reading The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew as a child. It made me want to be a better daughter and sibling more than any number of lectures could have.

I have now concentrated all my prayers into one,
and that prayer is this,
that I may die to self
and
live wholly to Him.
C.H. Spurgeon

Why use a lot of words when you can distill it all into one simple prayer?

The church is not a club or a content platform.
It is the miracle of bones coming together,
joints connecting,
breath entering dry lungs.
The Spirit does not hover over individual hearts
like vapor over isolated tea cups.
He fills a body.
A living, awkward, breathing, bruised body.
And when the body gathers,
Christ is present in a way that He is not
when you are alone.
Pastor Rich Bitterman

What do you think?

And now, in honor of Voddie Baucham (1969-2025):

We cannot continue to send our children
to Caesar for their education
and be surprised
when they come home as Romans.
Voddie Baucham

Sometimes God is glorified
when sick saints get well.
But more often than not,
God is glorified
when sick saints die well.
Voddie Baucham

This is another brother in Christ that I look forward to meeting in glory. Rest in peace, Pastor Baucham.

I’d love for you to share some quotes in the comments section that caught your eye and made you think.

If I told you that I was going to delete this in the morning, would you believe me?

More quotes to ponder:

Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry,
For anger rests in the bosom of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:9

Do not spoil the wonder with haste!
JRR Tolkien

Lots of reasons not to be hasty, apparently.

If I find in myself a desire
which no experience in this world
can satisfy,
the most probable explanation
is that I was made
for another world.
CS Lewis

Every experience God gives us
is the perfect preparation
for the future only He can see.
Corrie Ten Boom

Comparison
is the thief
of joy.
Theodore Roosevelt

Nobody ever outgrows Scripture;
the book widens and deepens
with our years.
Charles Spurgeon

That ought to be enough to chew on for now. Get those brain cells working!

This is the part where I say I will probably delete this in the morning. There – I said it.

More quotes to ponder…

When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird.
When I fall,
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.
Wendell Berry

The summer has been splendid,
but it has lasted long enough.
This morning, I viewed the falling leaves
with cheerfulness.
A.A. Milne

Don’t ever imagine that anything is too small to pray about.
If it concerns you, it concerns God.
Elisabeth Elliot

O bed! O bed! O delicious bed!
That heaven on earth to weary head!
Thomas Hood

I wonder many times that a child of God
should ever have a sad heart,
considering what their Lord
is preparing for them.
Samuel Rutherford

O blog! O blog! O deleting blog! …in the morning

I’ve been going through a dry spell with my own writing, but I can still share things that others have written or said that are worth note. Take heed and be of good cheer, friends.

“All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness.” Psalm 25:1
So your path with its unexplained sorrow, and mine with its unexplained sharp flints and briers, and both with their unexpected perplexity of guidance, their sheer mystery, are just lovingkindness, nothing else.
Amy Carmichael

Glory is the weighty goodness of a thing being and doing what it was made by God to be and do.
Brian Sauve, Haunted Cosmos p. 173

Prayer is the surest remedy against the devil and besetting sin. That sin will never stand firm which is heartily prayed against.
J.C. Ryle

It’s not the load that breaks you down.
It’s the way you carry it.
C.S. Lewis

And in honor of Charlie Kirk:

When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group. What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have reasonable disagreement where violence is not an option.

You can tell a lot about a man based on the enemies you earn.

I want to be remembered for the courage of my faith.

Charlie Kirk

That’s the way I’ll remember him. Rest in peace, my brother in Christ.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning…

Have you been hankering for a harvest of quotes to put in your vase? Here ya go!

If you look to the world, you’ll be distressed,
If you look within, you’ll be depressed,
If you look to God, you’ll be at rest.
Corrie Ten Boom

That’s a keeper, isn’t it?

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.
GK Chesterton

Think about that the next time you have a flat tire.

We need to hear the gospel every day
because we forget it every day.
Martin Luther

Amen to that!

ChatGPT creates the illusion of intelligent thought,
but there’s actually nothing going on under the hood.
Grace Snell, World Magazine August 2025

Don’t forget that.

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
Mary Oliver

Too simple? Give it a try!

This post wasn’t astonishing enough, so it will probably get deleted in the morning.

The first glimpses of fall weather have come: a slight chill in the air, the buzz saw sounds of the cicadas, a few green leaves giving way to red, flowers starting to say farewell… The glory of summer must now defer to the glory of autumn.

On that note, here are a few quotes for you to read and savor:

Faith may dance because Christ sings;
and we may come in the choir
and lift our hoarse and rough voices,
and chirp and sing,
and shout for joy with our Lord Jesus.
Samuel Rutherford

Often, the sweeter the first fruit of a habit,
the more bitter are its later fruits.
Frederic Bastiat, French Economist

How many things have I that others lack?
Can I bring my heart into a quiet, contented frame
to lack what others have?
Jeremiah Burroughs

The way God creates unity
is by making everyone different.
Daniel Ralph

The lesson for fathers (and mothers):
Be the smile of God to your children.
Joe Rigney

Lord, deliver me from the urge to open my mouth
when I should shut it.
Elisabeth Elliot

Enjoy these beautiful days, friends.

I’ll probably say farewell to this post in the morning.

Quotes for pondering:

Oh, the temptations that men of discontented spirits are subject to! The Devil loves to fish in troubled waters.
Jeremiah Burroughs

The optimist sees the opportunity in every danger;
the pessimist sees the danger in every opportunity.
Winston Churchill

If a man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him;
for you are worse than he thinks you to be.
Charles Spurgeon

To forgive is to set a prisoner free
and to discover the prisoner was you.
Corrie Ten Boom

You don’t have to give up your intellect to trust the Bible.
You have to give up your pride.
R.C. Sproul

“Books are people,” smiled Miss Marks, “In every book worth reading, the author is there to meet you, to establish contact with you. He takes you into his confidence and reveals his thoughts to you.”
D.E. Stevenson, The Four Graces page 10

Read that last quote and then consider how the Bible fits the description…

I’ll be throwing this post into troubled waters in the morning.

Some quotes to feed you this week:

I write to discover what I know.
I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.
Flannery O’Connor

This is so true about my writing as well. Good old FOC!

To study and not think is a waste.
To think and not study is dangerous.
Confucius

If Truth is on the battlefield,
let her and Falsehood grapple;
Who ever knew Truth put to worse
in a free and open encounter.
John Milton

All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those that wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
JRR Tolkien

For to know a man’s library is,
in some measure,
to know his mind.
Geraldine Brooks

Not all blog posts that glitter are gold and some must wither in the morning.

Half the world is composed of people
who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.
Robert Frost

I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book
and only reading it once.
C.S. Lewis

Vulgarity is no substitute for wit.
Violet Grantham, Downton Abbey

Confidence is silent.
Insecurities are LOUD.
Unknown

The world does not read the Bible,
The world reads Christians.
Charles Spurgeon

If we trust, we do not worry.
If we worry, we do not trust.
Amy Carmichael

Rats, I picked out a bunch of nifty fonts for those quotes, but apparently WordPress does not support them. You’ll just have to imagine them.

Feel free to share quotes you enjoy in the comments.

I’ll probably realize I have nothing to say and keep on saying it in the morning.

To see the Law by Christ fulfill’d
And hear his pard’ning voice;
changes a slave into a child,
and duty into choice.
William Cowper (1731-1800)

The world is a window through which we espy heav’n.
To look at the world and see only the world
is like looking at a window
instead of looking through the window
to see what’s beyond it.
Joe Rigney, The Things of Earth

I believe in God like I believe in the sun,
not only because I see him,
but because by him
I see everything else.
C.S. Lewis

Hold us in quiet through the age-long minutes
while Thou art quiet and the wind is shrill.
Can the boat sink while Thou, dear Lord, art in it?
Can the heart faint that waiteth on Thy will?
Hold us in quiet.
Amy Carmichael

Seeing someone read a book you love
is like hearing a book recommend a person
instead of the other way around.
Unknown

Deleting, defeating, depleting…thus it goes…in the morning.

Quotes from the Commonplace Book

A room without books is like a body without a soul.
Cicero

Let be known that we have enough book-filled rooms to ensoul our whole house.

Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God‘s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.
Jeremiah Burroughs

And this side of heaven, reality will often feel like grief. Something is wrong. Deeply wrong.
Reality itself is a puzzle with no solution in the box.
The missing pieces to the puzzle aren’t here.
…Artwork routinely comes out of the puzzle of grief, perhaps not great grief – like the loss of a loved one – but the normal every day, grief of finding yourself living in a world that you know in your bones has gone very, very wrong.
S. D. Morgan

I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
King David, Psalm 13:6

God is the source of all our blessings – He is the ocean of blessings. Creatures are but the hands which distribute his charity through a needy world.
Samuel Davies

And now, for a random photo:

A blog without an ending is deleted in the morning.