D. L. Moody Quotes from His Books, with Book and Chapter

Holy Spirit Prayer Bible Study Evangelism Christian Life

D. L. Moody (1837–1899) is one of the most quoted preachers in the English language, and a lot of what passes for Moody online is hard to trace. Every quote below is copied word for word from one of his books in TheWay Library, with the book and chapter it comes from, so you can open the book and read it in context. Most come from Secret Power, his book on the Holy Spirit. The rest come from his books on prayer, Bible study, the gospel and the Ten Commandments.

Moody spoke plainly, in the voice of a man talking to a crowd. Some of these lines were printed from his sermons, and a few of the sayings he passed on he credited to "some one" else. Where he did that, it's noted.

On the Holy Spirit

From Secret Power, 1881.

I was a Christian a long time before I found out that the Holy Ghost was a person.
Secret Power, Chapter I

Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray Him to empty us.
Secret Power, Chapter II

The fact is, we are leaky vessels, and we have to keep right under the fountain all the time to keep full of Christ, and so have a fresh supply.
Secret Power, Chapter II

There is no use in running before you are sent; there is no use in attempting to do God's work without God's power.
Secret Power, Chapter II

It is not the hard work breaks down ministers, but it is the toil of working without power.
Secret Power, Chapter II

I tell you, you can't get the stream higher than the fountain.
Secret Power, Chapter II

The difference between the Spirit in a believer and the Spirit upon a believer for service is the main teaching of the book. The Secret Power summary walks through it chapter by chapter.

On witnessing and the work of conversion

It is my work to preach and hold up the Cross and testify of Christ; but it is His work to convict men of sin and lead them to Christ.
Secret Power, Chapter III

I would a great deal rather see a hundred men thoroughly converted, truly born of God, than to see a thousand professed conversions where the Spirit of God has not convicted of sin.
Secret Power, Chapter III

The world can get on very well without you and me, but the world can not get on without Christ …
Secret Power, Chapter III

I think the greatest miracle this world has ever seen was the miracle at Pentecost.
Secret Power, Chapter III

On love, peace and joy

Moody gives this reading of the fruit of the Spirit after "Some one has put it in this way," so he was passing it on, not claiming it:

Joy is love exulting; peace is love in repose; long suffering is love on trial; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love at school; and temperance is love in training.
Secret Power, Chapter I

A man may be a very successful merchant and have no love for his customers, and yet he may do a good business and succeed; but no man can be a co-worker with God without love.
Secret Power, Chapter I

Love will rebuke evil, but will not rejoice in it. Love will be impatient of sin, but patient with the sinner.
Secret Power, Chapter IV

Faith is an outward look. Faith does not look within; it looks without.
Secret Power, Chapter IV

Happiness is caused by things which happen around me, and circumstances will mar it, but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark; joy flows in the night as well as in the day …
Secret Power, Chapter IV

On the church

One movement of God's power is worth more than all our artificial power …
Secret Power, Chapter V

The Gospel has not lost its power; it is just as powerful to-day as it ever has been. We don't want any new doctrine.
Secret Power, Chapter V

Anything that comes between me and God — between my soul and God — quenches the Spirit.
Secret Power, Chapter V

On prayer

From Prevailing Prayer, where Moody works through nine parts of prayer: adoration, confession, restitution, thanksgiving, forgiveness, unity, faith, petition and submission.

Those who have left the deepest impression on this sin-cursed earth have been men and women of prayer.
Prevailing Prayer, chapter I: The Prayers of the Bible

We are not told that Jesus ever taught His disciples how to preach, but He taught them how to pray.
Prevailing Prayer, chapter VIII: Faith

I cannot see into the future as God can; therefore, it is a good deal better to let Him choose for me than to choose for myself.
Prevailing Prayer, chapter X: Submission

On the Bible

From Pleasure and Profit in Bible Study.

When I pray, I talk to God, but when I read the Bible, God is talking to me …
Pleasure and Profit in Bible Study, Chapter I

I never saw a fruit-bearing Christian who was not a student of the Bible.
Pleasure and Profit in Bible Study, Chapter I

The more you love the Scriptures, the firmer will be your faith.
Pleasure and Profit in Bible Study, Chapter I

Read the Bible itself — do not spend all your time on commentaries and helps.
Pleasure and Profit in Bible Study, Chapter VIII

In the same chapter he passes on a rule he credits to "someone": the four things needed in studying the Bible are "Admit, submit, commit and transmit."

On the love of God and the new birth

From The Way to God and How to Find It.

If you can convince a man that you love him you have won his heart.
The Way to God, chapter I: Love That Passeth Knowledge

The trouble is that men think God hates them; and so they are all the time running away from Him.
The Way to God, chapter I: Love That Passeth Knowledge

We tell you it is utterly impossible to make a man better without Christ; but that is what men are trying to do.
The Way to God, chapter II: The Gateway into the Kingdom

Some seem to think that it is presumption not to have doubts; but doubt is very dishonoring to God.
The Way to God, chapter VII: Assurance of Salvation

On God's law and on reaping what we sow

From Weighed and Wanting, his addresses on the Ten Commandments, and Sowing and Reaping.

These ten commandments are not ten different laws; they are one law.
Weighed and Wanting, The Handwriting Blotted Out

But after all we must be weighed in God's balances, the balances of the sanctuary.
Weighed and Wanting, Weighed in the Balances

We might as well try to blot the sun out of the heavens as to blot this truth out of the Word of God.
Sowing and Reaping, chapter I

A line from his own story

Moody tells in Secret Power how he once prayed to get rich, and why God did not answer:

In former years I was very ambitious to get rich; I used to pray for one hundred thousand dollars; that was my aim …
Secret Power, Chapter III

He goes on: "But I had no warrant for such a prayer." That ambitious shoe salesman became the evangelist the rest of these books come from. For the full story, read who D. L. Moody was, and for where to start reading him, see D. L. Moody's books.