Henry Drummond Quotes on Love, Rest, Christ and the Will of God
Henry Drummond (1851–1897) was a Scottish evangelist, scientist and speaker to students. He's best known for The Greatest Thing in the World, his address on love in 1 Corinthians 13, which has stayed in print for well over a century. He wrote the way he talked: short, bright sentences that stick in the mind. That's why his lines turn up on cards, in wedding programs and on quote sites.
Many of the Drummond quotes you find online have no source, and some are trimmed or reworded. Every quotation below is copied exactly from his books in TheWay Library, with the book and address it comes from. For his life story, see who was Henry Drummond. For a guide to all his books, see Henry Drummond books.
On love, the greatest thing
Drummond's most famous address asks what the supreme good is, and answers with Paul: love. These lines come from it and from his other talks on the same theme.
Love is greater than faith, because the end is greater than the means.
The Greatest Thing in the World, The Greatest Thing in the World
To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to live forever.
The Greatest Thing in the World, The Greatest Thing in the World
Love is success, Love is happiness, Love is life.
The Greatest Thing in the World, The Greatest Thing in the World
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love.
The Greatest Thing in the World, The Greatest Thing in the World
He was practical about it. Love, for him, showed up in small daily things:
Lose no chance of giving pleasure; for that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit.
The Greatest Thing in the World, The Greatest Thing in the World
Courtesy is said to be love in little things.
The Greatest Thing in the World, The Greatest Thing in the World
We hear much of love to God; Christ spoke much of love to man.
Addresses by Henry Drummond, Love: The Greatest Thing in the World
Love is the divine element in life, because “God is love.”
The Greatest Thing in the World, Lessons from the Angelus
On rest and Christ's yoke
In Pax Vobiscum Drummond takes Christ's words, "Come unto me... and I will give you rest," and asks how rest is actually found. His answer: it has a cause, and the cause is learning of Christ.
The Christian life is not casual but causal.
Pax Vobiscum, Effects Require Causes
Rest, that is to say, is not a thing that can be given, but a thing to be acquired.
Pax Vobiscum, Effects Require Causes
A yoke is not an instrument of torture; it is an instrument of mercy.
Pax Vobiscum, What Yokes Are For
Christ's yoke is simply His secret for the alleviation of human life, His prescription for the best and happiest method of living.
Pax Vobiscum, What Yokes Are For
There is no suggestion here that religion will absolve any man from bearing burdens. That would be to absolve him from living, since it is life itself that is the burden.
Pax Vobiscum, What Yokes Are For
In reality, Joy is as much a matter of Cause and Effect as pain.
Pax Vobiscum, How Fruits Grow
To do nothing but pray is a wrong done to prayer itself, and can only end in disaster.
The Greatest Thing in the World, Pax Vobiscum
On becoming like Christ
The Changed Life takes 2 Corinthians 3:18: we are changed into Christ's image by beholding Him. Drummond warned against trying to build a character one virtue at a time by sheer effort.
In will power, in mere spasms of earnestness, there is no salvation.
The Greatest Thing in the World, The Changed Life
Character is a unity, and all the virtues must advance together to make the perfect man.
The Greatest Thing in the World, The Changed Life
Reflect the character of Christ, and you will become like Christ.
The Greatest Thing in the World, The Changed Life
God is all for quality; man is for quantity.
The Greatest Thing in the World, The Changed Life
Fruit-bearing without Christ is not an improbability, but an impossibility.
Beautiful Thoughts, July 25
On the kingdom and the will of God
Drummond loved to talk about the kingdom of God, and he told young people plainly that the aim of life is to do God's will.
Wherever there is a boy whose heart is loyal to the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God is within him.
The Greatest Thing in the World, "First!" An Address to Boys
It is not worth seeking the Kingdom of God unless we seek it first.
The Greatest Thing in the World, "First!" An Address to Boys
The kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, it is to raise men by the contact of one life with another.
A Life for a Life, A Life for a Life
The real object of life is simply to do the will of God.
A Life for a Life, The Ideal Man
When life is all over, nothing greater can be said of any man than that he did the will of God, whatever that was.
A Life for a Life, The Ideal Man
He is a great man who has a great plan to his life — the greatest who has the greatest plan and keeps it.
The Ideal Life, The Man After God's Own Heart
There is a will of God for me which is willed for no one else besides.
The Ideal Life, How to Know the Will of God
On work, temptation and daily life
Much of Drummond's speaking was to college men. He talked to them about their work, their temptations and their need of one another.
The proof that work is religious is that the most of Christ's life was spent in work.
Stones Rolled Away, The Three Elements of a Complete Life
We must bear Christ with us wherever we go, because the sense of God is not kept up by logic but by experience.
Stones Rolled Away, The Three Elements of a Complete Life
The proof, of course, that temptation is no sin is that Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
Stones Rolled Away, The Man Who Is Down
Temptation is the practice of the soul; and the man who has most temptations has most practice.
Stones Rolled Away, The Man Who Is Down
Let no man here to-night think or say that he can get victory over sin alone.
Stones Rolled Away, Life on the Top Floor
On doubt and faith
Drummond spent years with students who had honest questions. He urged Christian workers to be patient with them.
Christ never failed to distinguish between doubt and unbelief.
The Greatest Thing in the World, Dealing with Doubt
Faith is never opposed to reason in the New Testament; it is opposed to sight.
The Greatest Thing in the World, Dealing with Doubt
On eternal life and new birth
Last, a few lines on the life that death can't touch.
The quality of the Eternal Life alone makes the heaven; mere everlastingness might be no boon.
Eternal Life
The act of being born again is as mysterious as God.
The Ideal Life, Marvel Not
A holy life is always a phenomenon.
The Ideal Life, The Eccentricity of Religion
Where to read more Drummond
If you read only one thing by Drummond, make it The Greatest Thing in the World. It takes under an hour, and the same volume holds Pax Vobiscum, The Changed Life and Dealing with Doubt. For a year of short readings from his books, try Beautiful Thoughts. All his books are on the Henry Drummond author page, and our reading guide explains which is which.