Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Rowland Hill

English Preacher, Teacher, Inventor and Social Reformer

"We never can willingly offend where we sincerely love."

"Life is but one continual course of instruction. The hand of the parent writes on the heart of the child the first faint character which time deepens into strength so that nothing can efface them."

"We can do more good by being good, than in any other way."

"I do not want the walls of separation between different orders of Christians to be destroyed, but only lowered, that we may shake hands a little easier over them."

"I don't like those mighty fine preachers who round off their sentences so beautifully that they are sure to roll 0ff the sinner's conscience."

"I have learned by experience that no character can be eventually injured but by his own acts."

"I would give nothing for that man's religion, whose very dog and cat are not the better for it."

"Let us not run out of the path of duty, lest we run into the way of danger."

"My mom taught me to be the best person you can be. Strive to live your life to the fullest and don't let one day go by without trying to live it the best way you can."

"Prayer is the breath of a new-born soul, and there can be no Christian life without it."

"The ancients had a significant and truthful saying, that hunger was the best sauce for supper."

"There is a perpetual frost in the pockets of some rich people; as soon as they put their hands into them, they are frozen so they cannot draw out their purses.—Had I my way, I would hang all misers; but reversing the common mode, I would hang them up by the heels, that their money might run out of their pockets."

"We went to court about this and won. But that's not the point. They wanted to see the bits of paper that document what we demand of our suppliers {in the way of ethical treatment of their own employees} and we didn't have them."

"Why should the devil have all the good tunes?"

"Ask yourself where the painting comes from."

"But I am unable to reach the lofty theme; ? yet I do not think that the smallest fish that swims in the boundless ocean ever complains of the immeasurable vastness of the deep. So it is with me, I can plunge with my puny capacity, into a subject, the immensity of which I shall never be able fully to comprehend."

"Cast thy burden on the Lord, only lean upon His word; Thou wilt soon have cause to bless"

"Conformity to the world has in all ages proved the ruin of the church. It is utterly impossible to live in nearness to God, and in friendship with the world."

"He did not see any reason why the devil should have all the good tunes."

"His unchanging faithfulness."

"I like ejaculatory prayer; it reaches heaven before the devil can get a shot at it."

"It is impossible for us to comprehend the infinity of God; that which belongs to his superior mind is infinitely beyond the comprehension of our pigmy powers. I might as well go down to the seaside and attempt to carry away the waters of that mighty reservoir in a little shell, as to attempt to understand a millionth part of the infinity of God."

"The artist needs the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in his head at once."

"Use the fewest words to sing your song."