John Wesley Quotes on Grace, Holiness, Love and Money, with Sources
John Wesley preached for more than fifty years and wrote for ordinary people, so his sentences are short and easy to remember. That's also why so many lines are credited to him online that he never wrote. "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can" is the best-known example. It sounds like him, but no one has found it in his writings.
Every quotation below is copied exactly from Wesley's own words in TheWay Library, with the book and the sermon or letter it comes from, so you can read each one in its setting. We've left out the volumes of his Works that hold his extracts of other writers, such as William Law and Thomas à Kempis, because those words aren't his. For his life story, see who was John Wesley. For a guide to every book, see John Wesley books.
On the Bible
Wesley called himself a man of one book. His preface to his sermons explains why.
I am a creature of a day, passing thro' life, as an arrow thro' the air. I am a spirit, come from God, and returning to God.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, The Preface
I want to know one thing, the way to heaven: how to land safe on that happy shore.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, The Preface
O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God!
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, The Preface
I design plain truth for plain people.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, The Preface
On grace and faith
The first sermon in his collection starts with grace, and everything else in his preaching follows from it.
ALL the blessings which God hath bestowed upon man are of his mere grace, bounty or favour: his free, undeserved favour; favour altogether undeserved; man having no claim to the least of his mercies.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, Sermon I: Salvation by Faith
Grace is the source, faith the condition, of salvation.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, Sermon I: Salvation by Faith
First, that I believe justification by faith alone.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 16, The Principles of a Methodist
The one restores us to the favour, the other to the image of God.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 2, Sermon XIX: The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born of God
He spoke there of justification and the new birth: one changes our standing with God, the other changes us.
On the almost Christian
Wesley preached this sermon at Oxford in 1741, and he included himself in it.
Yet my own conscience beareth me witness in the Holy Ghost, that all this time I was but almost a Christian.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, Sermon II: The Almost Christian
Such a love is this, as engrosses the whole heart, as takes up all the affections, as fills the entire capacity of the soul, and employs the utmost extent of all its faculties.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, Sermon II: The Almost Christian
On assurance and the new birth
Wesley taught that God lets His children know they are His.
The testimony of the Spirit is an inward impression on the souls of believers, whereby the Spirit of God directly testifies to their spirit, that they are children of God.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, Sermon XI: The Witness of the Spirit
Faith is the life of the soul.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, Sermon III: Awake, Thou That Sleepest
It is that great change which God works in the soul, when he brings it into life: when he raises it from the death of sin, to the life of righteousness.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 3, Sermon XLV: The New Birth
Know your disease! Know your cure! Ye were born in sin: therefore ye must be born again, born of God. By nature ye are wholly corrupted: by grace ye shall be wholly renewed.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 3, Sermon XLIV: Original Sin
On holiness and perfect love
No teaching of Wesley's was argued over more than Christian perfection. In his own words it was simply love filling the heart.
But what is perfection? The word has various senses: here it means, perfect love. It is love excluding sin: love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 3, Sermon XLIII: The Scripture Way of Salvation
Christian perfection therefore does not imply (as some men seem to have imagined) an exemption either from ignorance or mistake, or infirmities or temptations.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 3, Sermon XL: Christian Perfection
By perfection, I mean perfect love, or the loving God with all our heart, so as to rejoice evermore, to pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks.
Christian Perfection, The Nature of Christian Perfection
Two things are certain: the one, that it is possible to lose even the pure love of God; the other, that it is not necessary, it is not unavoidable.
Christian Perfection, Full Salvation May Be Lost
On love among Christians
Wesley held his beliefs firmly, but he refused to make agreement on every opinion the test of fellowship.
Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike?
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 3, Sermon XXXIX: Catholic Spirit
If thine heart is as my heart, if thou lovest God and all mankind, I ask no more: give me thine hand.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 3, Sermon XXXIX: Catholic Spirit
But as to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 15, The Character of a Methodist
I shall endeavour to shew, that Christianity is essentially a social religion; and that to turn it into a solitary religion, is indeed to destroy it.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 2, Sermon XXIV: Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, Discourse IV
On money and self-denial
Wesley lived simply and gave most of his income away. His sermon on money is still one of his most quoted.
The love of money, we know, is the root of all evil: but not the thing itself.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 4, Sermon L: The Use of Money
Having first gained all you can, and secondly saved all you can, then give all you can.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 4, Sermon L: The Use of Money
But no character more exactly agrees with the present state of man than that of a steward.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 4, Sermon LI: The Good Steward
If we do not take up our cross daily, we do not come after him: but after the world, or the prince of the world, or our own fleshly mind.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 4, Sermon XLVIII: Self-Denial
On the means of grace
Wesley taught that God meets us in prayer, Scripture and the Lord's Supper, but that the means save no one apart from Christ.
The chief of these means are prayer, whether in secret, or with the great congregation; searching the scriptures (which implies reading, hearing and meditating thereon) and receiving the Lord's supper.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, Sermon XVI: The Means of Grace
Settle this in your heart, that the opus operatum, the mere work done profiteth nothing: that there is no power to save, but in the Spirit of God; no merit, but in the blood of Christ.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 1, Sermon XVI: The Means of Grace
From his letters
Wesley wrote thousands of letters of counsel. These come from his letters to Methodist friends and preachers.
You are nothing; but Christ is all, and he is yours.
Select Letters, Chiefly on Personal Religion, To Lady Maxwell
Whatever raises the mind to God is good; and in the same proportion as it does this.
Select Letters, Chiefly on Personal Religion, To Lady Maxwell
It is a happy thing, if we can learn obedience by the things which we suffer.
Select Letters, Chiefly on Personal Religion, To Miss Furly
Be all alive to God, and you will be useful to men!
Select Letters, Chiefly on Personal Religion, To Mr. Joseph Benson
We are called to propagate Bible religion through the land; that is, faith working by love; holy tempers, and holy lives.
Select Letters, Chiefly on Personal Religion, To Mr. Joseph Benson
On what a Methodist is
Wesley's critics called his people enthusiasts and fanatics. He answered by describing the religion he wanted them to have.
A Methodist is one, who has the love of God shed abroad in his heart, by the Holy Ghost given unto him.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 15, The Character of a Methodist
This religion we long to see established in the world, a religion of love, and joy, and peace, having its seat in the inmost soul, but ever shewing itself by its fruits.
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 14, An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion
And to ministers he put one searching question about their calling:
Was it always, and is it now, wholly and solely, to glorify God, and save souls?
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 10, An Address to the Clergy
Read Wesley for yourself
These lines read best in the sermons they come from. Start with volume 1 of the Works, which opens with "Salvation by Faith" and "The Almost Christian," or with Forty-Four Sermons. For his teaching on holiness, go to Christian Perfection. All his books are on the John Wesley author page.