“God disciplines the individual for the sake of society. God teaches the teacher for the sake of the class.”

Original: Mae Duw yn disgyblu'r unigol er mwyn y cymdeithasol. Mae Duw'n dysgu'r athro er mwyn y class. — Presenting individual development as preparation for service to others · Sermon, Cyfamod Duw a Dyn (Welsh)

• Community
• Education
• Faith

“There is a sacred striving in a covenant to preserve order in the world, something very old and yet always new.”

Original: Y mae rhyw ymdrech gysegredig mewn cyfamod i gadw trefn yn y byd, yn beth hen iawn, ac yn beth newydd o hyd. — Seeing moral covenant as both ancient and continually renewed · Sermon, Cyfamod Duw a Dyn (Welsh)

• Change
• Faith
• Tradition

“There is something very beautiful in this cutting and covenant: first the commandments into tablets, then the laws into your palm, and finally the covenant deep into your heart.”

Original: Y mae rhywbeth yn brydferth iawn yn y torri a'r cymodi yma. Torri'r gorchmynion ar lechau i ddechreu, torri'r deddfau ar dor dy law yn nês ymlaen; torri'r cytundeb i ddyfnder dy galon yn y diwedd. — Tracing moral commitment from outward inscription towards inward conviction · Sermon, Cyfamod Duw a Dyn (Welsh)

• Faith
• Morality
• Truth

“People go to worship with hands withered and unable to do good; Christ must be there before they can be healed.”

Original: Mae dynion yn mynd i'r cwrdd â'u dwylaw wedi gwywo i wneuthur daioni, ac mae'n rhaid cael y Crist i'r cwrdd cyn eu gwella. — Using a vivid image for people who have lost the capacity or habit of doing good · Sermon, Saboth gyda'r Iesu, August 1900 (Welsh)

• Faith
• Hope
• Kindness

“No, no, the religion of Christ does not permit waste and extravagance.”

Original: Na, na, nid yw crefydd Crist yn caniatau sarnu ac afradu! — Rejecting wastefulness as incompatible with Christian responsibility · Sermon, Saboth gyda'r Iesu, August 1900 (Welsh)

• Faith
• Morality

“It was a day for service, support and help.”

Original: Yr oedd y dydd yn ddydd o wasanaeth, a chymorth, a help. — Defining a sacred day through practical service to others · Sermon, Saboth gyda'r Iesu, August 1900 (Welsh)

• Care
• Community
• Faith

“What every man should do for gladness of heart and freedom in life is worship: go to God's house to give thanks.”

Original: Y peth ddylai pob dyn wneud am fwynhad calon, a rhyddid bywyd, yw addoli,mynd i dŷ Dduw i ddiolch! — Connecting worship and gratitude with inward freedom and enjoyment of life · Sermon, Saboth gyda'r Iesu, August 1900 (Welsh)

• Faith
• Gratitude
• Joy

“What a beautiful idea the Sabbath day is: a day of rest from the ordinary work of life.”

Original: Dyna syniad hyfryd yw dydd Saboth, dydd o orffwysfa oddiwrth waith cyffredin bywyd. — Seeing the Sabbath as a welcome release from ordinary labour · Sermon, Saboth gyda'r Iesu, August 1900 (Welsh)

• Faith
• Rest
• Work

“It is not right because He gave it to us; He gave it to us because it is right.”

Original: Dyw hi ddim yn iawn am ei fod Ef wedi ei rhoi i ni, ond y mae Ef wedi ei rhoi i ni am ei bod yn iawn. — Placing moral truth before mere obedience to authority · Sermon, Ceisio Teyrnas Dduw, July 1886 (Welsh)

• Faith
• Morality
• Truth

“There is an unspeakable difference between religion having shaped a country and a country having shaped its religion.”

Original: Y mae gwahaniaeth annrhaethol rhwng crefydd wedi llunio gwlad, a gwlad wedi llunio crefydd. — Distinguishing principles that shape society from beliefs shaped for convenience · Sermon, Ceisio Teyrnas Dduw, July 1886 (Welsh)

• Faith
• Society
• Truth

“God's kingdom first, the kingdoms of the world second. Religion will not bear being mixed with such things; unless it is first, chief and foremost, it will do nothing at all.”

Original: Teyrnas Dduw yn gyntaf, teyrnasoedd y byd yn ail. Chymer crefydd ddim o'i chymysgu â phethau fel hyn, os na chaiff hi fod yn gyntaf, yn bennaf, ym mlaenaf, wna hi ddim o gwbl. — Arguing that genuine faith cannot merely be fitted around worldly priorities · Sermon, Ceisio Teyrnas Dduw, July 1886 (Welsh)

• Faith
• Truth

“Christianity is meant to face the misery of the world and seek to remove it.”

Original: Y mae wyneb Cristionogaeth i fod ar drueni'r byd, ac i geisio ei symud. — Presenting faith as an active response to human suffering · Sermon, Ceisio Teyrnas Dduw, July 1886 (Welsh)

• Compassion
• Faith
• Suffering

“There is reason to fear that far too much preaching concerns distant things: old history, people long buried, the Jews, while our own congregations go unnoticed.”

Original: Y mae lle i ofni fod llawer iawn gormod o bregethu pell, pregethu hen hanes, pregethu am hen bobl wedi eu claddu, pregethu am yr Iddewon,—a gadael ein cynulleidfaoedd ein hunain yn ddisylw. — Warning against discussing distant faults while ignoring immediate human needs · Sermon, Ceisio Teyrnas Dduw, July 1886 (Welsh)

• Community
• Faith
• Truth

“A sermon to meet his people, Jews and disciples. A sermon to meet those who were there, not those who were absent.”

Original: Pregeth i gwrdd ei bobl—Iddewon a disgyblion. Pregeth i gwrdd â'r rhai oedd yno, nid i gwrdd â'r rhai absennol. — Insisting that speech should address the people actually present · Sermon, Ceisio Teyrnas Dduw, July 1886 (Welsh)

• Faith
• Truth

“Preaching is not a craft, but ardent conviction breaking out in fiery eloquence.”

Original: Nid crefft yw pregethu, ond argyhoeddiad brwd yn torri allan yn hyawdledd tanllyd. — Describing true preaching as conviction transformed into eloquence · Address, Y Paratoad Goreu ar Gyfer y Weinidogaeth, 1895 (Welsh)

• Art
• Faith
• Truth

“Was not that great nonsense?”

A characteristically irreverent response to a clergyman's warning about damnation, preserved in a later biographical account · Conversation recalled in James Paterson, The Contemporaries of Burns, 1840

• Faith
• Truth

“When trying to explain anything, I usually find that the Bible, that great collection of magnificent and varied poetry, has said it before in the best possible way.”

Expressing her admiration for the Bible as a literary and poetic source · Essay, Why We Should Read Poetry

• Faith
• Poetry

“God is the country of the spirit, and each of us is given a little holding of ground in that country.”

Using the language of landscape to describe an intensely personal conception of the spiritual life · Letter to Pamela Hansford Johnson

• Faith
• Nature

“I care not a damn for Christ, but only for his symbol, the symbol of death.”

Revealing his early fascination with religious imagery rather than conventional belief · Letter to Pamela Hansford Johnson, Christmas Day 1933

• Art
• Death
• Faith

“Souls get lost so easily. I used to be forever leaving mine in taxicabs.”

Turning fashionable talk of spirituality into an image of comic absent-mindedness · Book review, The New Yorker, 1928

• Faith
• Joy

“I think things must be better soon. I shall, please God, make some friends in good time, and will try and be patient.”

Choosing patience and hope at a particularly lonely moment · Letter to Anna Harte, Crefeld, 1878

• Faith
• Friendship
• Hope

“It’s been up-hill work ever since I left New York, but I shall try to see it through, please God!”

Expressing determination despite loneliness and uncertainty abroad · Letter to Anna Harte, Crefeld, 1878

• Faith
• Hope

“Nothing in verse or out of verse is more wearisome than the delivery of reluctant doubt, of half-hearted hope and half incredulous faith.”

Rejecting equivocation and half-hearted conviction in art or thought · Essay, Matthew Arnold's New Poems

• Faith
• Hope
• Poetry

“New conditions of life germinate new forms of spiritual articulation.”

Suggesting that changing experience naturally creates new forms of expression · General Aims and Theories, 1925

• Art
• Faith
• Time