PROVIDENCE QUOTES
quotations about Providence
My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaveth steadily.
CORRIE TEN BOOM
"Life is but a Weaving"
The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes should be one of the principal studies and endeavors of our lives. The only method of doing this is to assume a perfect resignation to the Divine will, to consider that whatever does happen, must happen; and that, by our uneasiness, we cannot prevent the blow before it does fall, but we may add to its force after it has fallen. These considerations, and others such as these, may enable us in some measure to surmount the difficulties thrown in our way; to bear up with a tolerable degree of patience under the burden of life; and to proceed with a pious and unshaken resignation, till we arrive at our journey's end, when we may deliver up our trust into the hands of Him who gave it, and receive such reward as to him shall seem proportioned to our merit.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to John Page, July 15, 1763
The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.
WILLIAM HUTCHISON MURRAY
The Scottish Himalayan Expedition
Above all, you can believe in Providence in either of two ways, either as thirst believes in the orange, or as the ass believes in the whip.
VICTOR HUGO
The Man Who Laughs
God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.
LAURENCE STERNE
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
BIBLE
Proverbs 16:9
Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial
To my proportion'd strength.
JOHN MILTON
Comus
Princes rule the people, and their own passions rule Princes; but Providence can over-rule the whole, and draw the instruments of his inscrutable purposes from the vices, no less than the virtues of Kings.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
My trust is in the mercy and wisdom of a kind Providence, who ordereth all things for our good.
ROBERT E. LEE
R. E. Lee: A Biography
There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Hamlet
God's providence is always one step ahead of us.
POPE FRANCIS
Sunday Angelus Prayer, July 31, 2016
I don't deny that it was more than a coincidence which made things turn out as they did, it was a whole train of coincidences. But what has providence to do with it? I don't need any mystical explanation for the occurrence of the improbable; mathematics explains it adequately, as far as I'm concerned.
MAX FRISCH
Homo Faber
By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability and expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, altho' death was levelling my companions on every side.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to John A. Washington, July 18, 1755
Perceiving the world as well designed and thus the product of a designer, and even seeing divine providence in the daily affairs of life, may be the product of a brain adapted to finding patterns in nature.
MICHAEL SHERMER
Why Darwin Matters
In a clock, stop but one wheel and you stop every wheel, because they are dependent upon one other. So when God has ordered a thing for the present to be thus and thus, how do you know how many things depend upon this thing? God may have some work to do twenty years hence that depends on this passage of providence that falls out this day or this week.
JEREMIAH BURROUGHS
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
God's providence is always a beauty to behold, and we can see through these events that God is always nudging us in the right direction, inspiring saints throughout the centuries to proclaim God's marvelous love.
PHILIP KOSLOSKI
"Which Country Was First to Get Papal Approval to Celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart?", Aleteia, June 1, 2016
The ways of Providence being inscrutable, and the justice of it not to be scanned by the shallow eye of humanity, nor to be counteracted by the utmost efforts of human power or wisdom, resignation, and as far as the strength of our reason and religion can carry us, a cheerful acquiescence to the Divine Will, is what we are to aim.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to Colonel Bassett, April 25, 1773
I've always shrunk from usurping the functions of Providence, and when I have to exercise them I decidedly prefer that it shouldn't be on an errand of destruction.
EDITH WHARTON
"The Eyes", Tales of Men and Ghosts
Today I think that if for no other reason than that an Auschwitz existed, no one in our age should speak of Providence.
PRIMO LEVI
Survival in Auschwitz
For the steps of a man are ordered by the Lord, and He shall dispose his way.
ST. AUGUSTINE
Confessions