75 Best George MacDonald Quotes From The Scottish Author
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George MacDonald was a famous poet and author from Scotland.
Born in Huntly in Aberdeenshire, this prolific poet was also a Christian minister. He is often cited as the pioneer of modern fantasy literature by many critics.
George MacDonald wrote numerous poems and books for both adults and children. His famous works include 'Phantastes', 'Lillith', 'The Princess And The Goblin' and others.
He also wrote extensively on Christian theology as is documented in his sermons. MacDonald passed away at the age of 80 in 1905. Do give a look at this article and we are sure you will find it to be delightful.
If you find our content interesting, then do check out William Wordsworth quotes and Faust quotes.
Famous George MacDonald Quotes
Listed below are some of the best George MacDonald quotes. You will also find quotes from 'Phantastes' and numerous George MacDonald' Phantastes' quotes.
1. "To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved."
- George MacDonald.
2. "Yet all love will, one day, meet with its return."
- George MacDonald.
3. "I must be fair - for if I'm not fair to other people, I'm not worth being understood myself."
- George MacDonald, 'The Princess And The Goblin'.
4. "The odours that crept through the silence from the sleeping woods were the only signs of an outer world that invaded our solitude."
- George MacDonald.
5. "People must believe what they can, and those who believe more must not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have believed it all yourself if you hadn't seen some of it."
- George MacDonald, 'The Princess And The Goblin'.
6. "Sweet sounds can go where kisses may not enter."
- George MacDonald.
7. "Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes? But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool out of you that you will know yourself for one, and begin to be wise."
- George MacDonald.
8. "I might here find the magic word of power to banish the demon and set me free, so that I should no longer be a man beside myself."
- George MacDonald.
9. "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his."
- George MacDonald.
10. "Then I remembered that night is the fairies' day, and the moon their sun; and I thought—Everything sleeps and dreams now: when the night comes, it will be different."
- George MacDonald.
11. "If we will but let our God and Father work His will with us, there can be no limit to His enlargement of our existence."
- George MacDonald.
12. "I knew that love gives to him that loveth, power over any soul be loved, even if that soul know him not, bringing him inwardly close to that spirit; a power that cannot be but for good."
- George MacDonald.
13. "To have been thought about, born in God's thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking."
- George MacDonald.
14. "He sank, and the cloud grew gray; but the grayness touched not my heart. It carried its rose-hue within; for now I could love without needing to be loved again."
- George MacDonald.
15. "The best thing you can do for your fellow, next to rousing his conscience, is - not to give him things to think about, but to wake things up that are in him; or say, to make him think things for himself."
- George MacDonald.
16. "I forced my way to the brink, stepped into the boat, pushed it, with the help of the tree-branches, out into the stream, lay down in the bottom, and let my boat and me float whither the stream would carry us."
- George MacDonald.
17. "Every night that folds us up in darkness is a death; and those of you that have been out early, and have seen the first of the dawn, will know it - the day rises out of the night like a being that has burst its tomb and escaped into life."
- George MacDonald.
18. "The sun was below the horizon; but his rosy beams yet illuminated a feathery cloud, that floated high above the world. I arose, I reached the cloud; and, throwing myself upon it, floated with it in sight of the sinking sun."
- George MacDonald.
19. "Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best, and man will not take it."
- George MacDonald.
20. "I learned that it is better, a thousand-fold, for a proud man to fall and be humbled, than to hold up his head in his pride and fancied innocence."
- George MacDonald.
21. "Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon."
- George MacDonald.
22. "And we had met at last in this same cave of greenery, while the summer night hung round us heavy with love."
- George MacDonald.
23. "If a true princess has done wrong, she is always uneasy until she has had an opportunity of throwing the wrongness away from her by saying: 'I did it; and I wish I had not; and I am sorry for having done it."
- George MacDonald, 'The Princess And The Goblin'.
24. "My soul was like a summer evening, after a heavy fall of rain, when the drops are yet glistening on the trees in the last rays of the down-going sun, and the wind of the twilight has begun to blow."
- George MacDonald.
25. "Foolish is the man … who would rid himself or his fellows of discomfort by setting the world right … while he neglects that integral part of the world where lies his business, his first business, namely, his own character and conduct."
- George MacDonald.
26. "I learned that he that will be a hero, will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work, is sure of his manhood."
- George MacDonald.
George MacDonald Poetry Quotes
In this category you will find many quotes by George MacDonald which mainly focus on his poetry.
27. "In joy or sorrow, feebleness or might,
Peace or commotion, be thou, Father, my delight."
- George MacDonald, 'The Diary Of An Old Soul - February Poem'.
28. "Alas! how easily things go wrong!
A sigh too deep or a kiss too long,
And then comes a mist and a weeping rain,
And life is never the same again."
- George MacDonald, 'Phantastes'.
29. "Seeing our father, thou hast said,
Is by the sparrow's dying bed;
Therefore it is a blessed place,
And the sparrow in high grace."
- George MacDonald, 'Consider The Ravens'.
30. "And a beauty that grows to a weight like grief,
Till a burst of tears is the heart's relief."
- George MacDonald, 'Phantastes'.
31. "Where did you come from baby dear?
Out of the everywhere into the here...
Where did you get your eyes so blue?
Out of the skies as I came through."
- George MacDonald, 'Baby'.
32. "Thy beauty filleth the very air,
Never saw I a woman so fair."
- George MacDonald, 'Phantastes'.
33. "A voice is in the wind I do not know
A meaning on the face of the high hills
Whose utterance I cannot comprehend.
A something is behind them: that is God."
- George MacDonald, 'Within and Without, Part 1'.
34. "Sweeter dreams are in the forest,
Round thee storms would never rave;"
- George MacDonald.
35. "We must do the thing we must
Before the thing we may;"
- George MacDonald.
36. "Or, if needing years to wake thee
From thy slumbrous solitudes,
Come, sleep-walking, and betake thee
To the friendly, sleeping woods."
- George MacDonald.
George MacDonald Quotes From Children's Literature
George MacDonald wrote many books for little children and here are some of the finest quotes from George MacDonald.
37. "Death alone from death can save. Love is death, and so is brave. Love can fill the deepest grave. Love loves on beneath the wave."
- George MacDonald, 'The Light Princess'.
38. "People must believe what they can, and those who believe more must not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have believed it all yourself if you hadn't seen some of it."
- George MacDonald, 'The Princess And The Goblin'.
39. "I was doing the wrong of never wanting or trying to better. And now I see that I have been letting things go as they would for a long time. Whatever came into my head I did and whatever didn't come into my head I didn't do."
- George MacDonald, 'The Princess and Curdie'.
40. "But when we are following the light, even its extinction is a guide."
- George MacDonald, 'The Day Boy And The Night Girl'.
41. "Mankind had disappointed him, but here was a dog!"
- George MacDonald.
42. "Perhaps the best thing for the princess would have been to fall in love. But how a princess who had no gravity could fall into anything is a difficulty."
- George MacDonald, 'The Light Princess'.
43. "The truest princess is just the one who loves all her brothers and sisters best, and who is most able to do them good by being humble towards them."
- George MacDonald, 'The Princess And The Goblin'.
44. "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, 'The Princess and Curdie'.
45. "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, 'The Day Boy And The Night Girl'.
46. "To try too hard to make people good is one way to make them worse. The only way to make them good is to be good, remembering well the beam and the mote."
- George MacDonald.
George MacDonald Book Quotes From Modern Fantasy Literature
As a pioneer in writing modern fantasy literature, George MacDonald received huge fame. Here are some of the coolest quotes.
47. "You can't live on amusement. It is the froth on water - an inch deep and then the mud."
- George MacDonald.
48. "We are often unable to tell people what they need to know, because they want to know something else, and would therefore only misunderstand what we said."
- George MacDonald.
49. "Few delights can equal the mere presence of one whom we trust utterly."
- George MacDonald.
50. "You've got to save your own soul first, and then the souls of your neighbors if they will let you..."
- George MacDonald.
51. "It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is, when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear."
- George MacDonald.
52. "Now hate keeps it's object present even more than the opposite passion. Love makes everything lovely; hate concentrates itself on the one thing hated."
- George MacDonald.
53. "To give truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation."
- George MacDonald.
54. "To have what we want is riches; but to be able to do without is power."
- George MacDonald.
55. "Age is not all decay; it is the ripening,
the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husks."
- George MacDonald.
56. "When we are out of sympathy with the young, then I think our work in this world is over."
- George MacDonald.
George MacDonald Quotes on Christianity
As a Christian minister, George MacDonald wrote a lot on christian theology. Here are some of his finest quotes from his numerous writings and sermons.
57. "The Bible leads us to Jesus, the inexhaustible, the ever-unfolding Revelation of God."
- George MacDonald.
58. "The effort of nature, as that of the human heart, ever is to return to its repose, for God is Peace."
- George MacDonald.
59. "If we do not die to ourselves, we cannot live to God, and he that does not live to God, is dead."
- George MacDonald.
60. "It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe, in Him, if you do not do anything He tells you."
- George MacDonald.
61. "I am so tired by the things said about God."
- George MacDonald.
62. "Any faith in Him, however small, is better than any belief about Him, however great."
- George MacDonald.
63. "The truly wise talk little about religion and are not given to taking sides on doctrinal issues."
- George MacDonald.
64. "What if He knows prayer to be the thing we need first and most?"
- George MacDonald.
65. "In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably."
- George MacDonald.
66. "Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a person, He put them in the fire."
- George MacDonald.
67. "I dare not say with Paul that I am the slave of Christ, but my highest aspiration and desire is to be the slave of Christ."
- George MacDonald.
68. "All that is not God is death."
- George MacDonald.
69. "Religion is life essential."
- George MacDonald.
70. "There is no slave but the creature that wills against its Creator."
- George MacDonald.
71. "Heaven... a place where everything that is not music is silence."
- George MacDonald.
72. "Life and religion are one, or neither is any thing."
- George MacDonald.
73. "I believe that no hell will be lacking which would help the just mercy of God to redeem his children."
- George MacDonald.
74. "Faith is obedience, not compliance."
- George MacDonald.
75. "The whole trouble is that we won't let God help us."
- George MacDonald.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for George MacDonald quotes then why not take a look at A.W. Tozer quotes or Keats quotes.
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Bachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English
Rajnandini RoychoudhuryBachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English
With a Master of Arts in English, Rajnandini has pursued her passion for the arts and has become an experienced content writer. She has worked with companies such as Writer's Zone and has had her writing skills recognized by publications such as The Telegraph. Rajnandini is also trilingual and enjoys various hobbies such as music, movies, travel, philanthropy, writing her blog, and reading classic British literature.
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