Inspirational Quotes by Philip Yancey
“In a cruel irony, a refusal to forgive works its negative energy most powerfully in the wronged party. Archbishop Desmond Tutu2, a master of forgiveness, describes the process: To forgive is not just to be altruistic; in my view it is the best form of self-interest. The process of forgiving does not exclude hatred and anger. These emotions are all part of being human. When I talk of forgiveness I mean the ability to let go of the right to revenge and to slip the chains of rage that bind you to the person who harmed you. When you forgive you are free of the hatred and anger that locks you in a state of victimhood. If you can find it in yourself to forgive, you can move on, and you may even help the perpetrator to become a better person.”
“At last I understood: in the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out. I leave in God’s hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy.”
“Christianity has a principle, “Hate the sin but love the sinner,” which is more easily preached than practiced. If Christians could simply recover that practice, modeled so exquisitely by Jesus, we would go a long way toward fulfilling our calling as dispensers of God’s grace.”
“So I'm trying, instead of shaming or pretending, to come to terms with my emotions, and bring them before God honestly. I have come to realize that I'm never going to stop having emotions, and probably strong emotions, because that is the way I'm wired.”
― Philip Yancey ,
from Prayer
“God already knows who we are; we are the ones who must find a way to come to terms with our true selves.”
― Philip Yancey ,
from Prayer
“Overlong sermons break in upon family concerns and often call off the thoughts from the sermon to the pudding at home that is in danger of being overboiled.”
“The health of the body depends largely on its attentiveness to the pain network.”
“From all this rapid-fire activity—five trillion chemical processes a second—we form patterns of meaning about the world.”
“The basis for our unity within Christ’s Body begins not with our similarity but with our diversity.”
“Paradoxically, pain seems like something done to us, though in reality we have done it to ourselves, manufacturing the sensation. Whatever we might conceive of as “pain” occurs in the mind.”
“Some cells do choose to live in the body, sharing its benefits while maintaining complete independence — they become parasites or cancer cells.”
“Pain is always a mental or psychological event, a magician’s trick the mind knowingly plays on itself.”
“the average American household is in more danger from chemical germ-killers than from germs. I prefer to leave the battle to my own cells.”
“Few experiences in life are more universal than pain, which flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life. I”
“If each of us can learn to glory in the fact that we matter little except in relation to the Body, and if each will acknowledge the worth in every other member, then perhaps the cells of Christ’s Body will begin acting as Christ intended.”
“Treating a disease and treating a person are very different concerns, because recovery depends in large part on the mind and spirit of the patient. Suffering, a state of mind, involves the entire person.”
“Those two images, brought together by our conversation, underscored an important fact about pain: pain takes place in the mind, nowhere else.”
“Pain takes place in the mind, and what calms the mind will enhance my ability to cope with pain.”
“Under optimum conditions the human eye can detect a candle at a distance of fifteen miles.”
Group of Brands
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Philip Yancey is an American Christian author. Fourteen million of his books have been sold worldwide, making him one of the best-selling evangelical Christian authors. Two of his books have won the ECPA's Christian Book of the Year Award: The Jesus I Never Knew in 1996, What's So Amazing About Grace in 1998. He is published by Zondervan Publishing.
Yancey was born in Atlanta, Georgia. When Yancey was one year old, his father, stricken with polio, died after his church elders suggested he go off life support in faith that God would heal him. This was one of the reasons he had lost his faith at one point of time. Yancey earned his MA with highest honors from the graduate school of Wheaton College. His two graduate degrees in Communications and English were earned from Wheaton College Graduate School and the University of Chicago.
Yancey moved to Chicago, Illinois, and in 1971 joined the staff of Campus Life magazine--a sister publication of Christianity Today directed towards high school and college students--where he served as editor for eight years. Yancey was for many years an editor for Christianity Today and wrote articles for Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post, Publishers Weekly, Chicago Tribune Magazine, Eternity, Moody Monthly, and National Wildlife, among others. He now lives in Colorado, working as a columnist and editor-at-large for Christianity Today. He is a member of the editorial board of Books and Culture, another magazine affiliated with Christianity Today, and travels around the world for speaking engagements.