Josiah Gilbert Holland Quotes

The reason we see hypocrisy and fraud and unreality in others is because they are all in our own hearts. The great characteristic of a saint is humility-Yes, all those things and other evils would have been manifested in me but for the grace of God, therefore I have no right to judge.

Before thou reprehend another, take heed thou art not culpable in what thou goest about to reprehend. He that cleanses a blot with blotted fingers makes a greater blur.

A lot of so-called Christian souls are not fine. People need to look inside themselves and look at the lives they're leading and fix themselves before they try to fix other people.

The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful, and solid in his beliefs and obedience. Others only delude themselves and thus upset families, churches, and all other relationships. In their self-pride and judgment of others, they show great inconsistency.

I wonder how anyone can have the face to condemn others when he reflects upon his own thoughts.

'Physician, heal thyself' is more true in matters religious than mundane.

They that censure, should practice. Or else let them have the first stone, and the last too.

Therefore let us repent and pass from ignorance to knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom, from licentiousness to self-control, from injustice to righteousness, from godlessness to God.

To discern what weaknesses and faults separate you from God, you must enter into your own inward ground and then confront yourself.

Hypocrites in the Church? Yes, and in the lodge and at the home. Don't hunt through the Church for a hypocrite. Go home and look in the mirror. Hypocrites? Yes. See that you make the number one less.

The virtue of some people consists wholly in condemning the vices in others.

Our holiness is an effect, not a cause; so long as our eyes are on our own personal whiteness as an end in itself, the thing breaks down.

Know yourself to improve yourself.

As tough as I've been on anybody, as hard as I've ever been on anybody, I have been harder on myself. By far.

How well I walk my talk, and not talk my talk, determines the quality of my engagement, of all my experience with what is quite personally my God. I'm my greatest teacher, and within me, I have the power to push myself deeper and higher.

Most people repent their sins by thanking God they ain't so wicked as their neighbors.

One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.

It is better to destroy one's own errors than those of others.

I'm quite influenced in this by one of my heroes, Montaigne, who thought a man's real task was to render as honest an account of himself as he could.

Every contrition for sin is apt to encourage a not quite charitable wish that other people should exhibit a similar contrition.

The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example.

Character is the result of two great forces: the initial force which the Creator gave it when He called the man into being; and the force of all the external influence and culture that mold and modify the development of a life.

We are all hypocrites but introspective people use this insight to moderate their self-righteousness. There’s an inverse relationship between introspection and intolerance.