Abraham Kuyper Quotes

15 Sourced Quotes

To have faith in the Word, Scripture must not grasp us in our critical thought, but in the life of the soul.

Abraham Kuyper
The Holy Scripture is like a diamond: in the dark it is like a piece of glass, but as soon as the light strikes it the water begins to sparkle, and the scintillation of life greets us.

Abraham Kuyper
God created hand, head, and heart; the hand for the deed, the head for the world, the heart for mysticism.

Abraham Kuyper
There are two kinds of beauty; there is a beauty which God gives at birth, and which withers as a flower. And there is a beauty which God grants when by His grace men are born again. That kind of beauty never vanishes but blooms eternally.

Abraham Kuyper
Genius is a sovereign power; it forms schools; it lays hold on the spirits of men, with irresistible might; and it exercises an immeasurable influence on the whole condition of human life. This sovereignty of genius is a gift of God, possessed only by his grace. It is subject to no one and is responsible to him alone who has granted it this ascendancy.

Abraham Kuyper
It is impossible, Bible in hand, to limit Christ's Church to one's own little community. It is everywhere, in all parts of the world; and whatever its external form, frequently changing, often impure, yet the gifts wherever received increase our riches.

Abraham Kuyper
Lutheranism restricted itself to an exclusively ecclesiastical and theological character, while Calvinism put its impress in and outside the church upon every aspect of human life.

Abraham Kuyper
Every science in a certain degree starts from faith, and, on the contrary, faith, which does not lead to science, is mistaken faith or superstition, but real, genuine faith it is not.

Abraham Kuyper
What is hell other than a realm in which unholiness works without restraint in body and soul?

Abraham Kuyper
Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'

Abraham Kuyper
The curse should no longer rest upon the world itself, but upon that which is sinful in it, and instead of monastic flight from the world the duty is now emphasized of serving God in the world, in every position in life.

Abraham Kuyper
We have gratefully to receive from the hand of God the institution of the state with its magistrates as a means of preservation.... On the other hand... by virtue of our natural impulse, we must ever watch against the danger which lurks for our personal liberty in the power of the state.

Abraham Kuyper
We understand hereby, that the family, the business, science, art and so forth are all social spheres, which do not owe their existence to the State, but obey a high authority within their own bosom; an authority which rules, by the grace of God, just as the sovereignty of the State does.

Abraham Kuyper
There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus does not cry out, 'This is mine!'

Abraham Kuyper
The sovereignty of the state as the power that protects the individual and that defines the mutual relationships among the visible spheres, rises high above them by its right to command and compel. But within these spheres... another authority rules, an authority that descends directly from God apart from the state. This authority the state does not confer but acknowledges.

Abraham Kuyper