Pilgrim's Progress Quotes: 25 Key Lines and Where They Occur
Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress in plain English, and many of its lines have stuck in people's memories for more than three centuries. Here are the key quotations from the first part of the book, copied word for word from the text in TheWay Library, in the order they come in the story. Each one is labeled with the scene where it occurs, so you can find it in the full text. Bunyan's spelling and punctuation are kept as printed.
For the story around each line, see the stage-by-stage summary. For who is speaking, see the characters guide.
The opening and the City of Destruction
1. The first sentence. The dreamer lies down in a den and the whole book unfolds as his dream. Many readers have taken the den to be the jail where Bunyan wrote.
As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream.
The Pilgrim's Progress, opening
2. The man with the burden. The first picture of Christian, before he has a name.
I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.
The Pilgrim's Progress, opening
3. The great question. Christian, walking in the fields with his book.
What shall I do to be saved?
The Pilgrim's Progress, the City of Destruction
4. Why he is afraid. His answer to Evangelist, who asks why he is crying.
Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand, that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgement … and I find that I am not willing to do the first … nor able to do the second.
The Pilgrim's Progress, meeting Evangelist
5. Evangelist's directions. He points across a wide field.
Do you see yonder shining light? … He said, I think I do. Then said Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto: so shalt thou see the gate
The Pilgrim's Progress, meeting Evangelist
6. Leaving home. His family calls him back, and he runs on.
the man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying, Life! life! eternal life!
The Pilgrim's Progress, leaving the City of Destruction
7. What he is looking for. Christian to Obstinate.
I seek an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away
The Pilgrim's Progress, Obstinate and Pliable
The Slough, the Gate and the Interpreter
8. The Slough of Despond. The dreamer asks why the bog has never been fixed.
This miry slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore it is called the Slough of Despond
The Pilgrim's Progress, the Slough of Despond
9. The promise about the burden. Good-will at the Wicket-Gate.
As to thy burden, be content to bear it, until thou comest to the place of deliverance; for there it will fall from thy back of itself.
The Pilgrim's Progress, the Wicket-Gate
10. Patience and Passion. The Interpreter explains the two children.
These two lads are figures: Passion, of the men of this world; and Patience, of the men of that which is to come
The Pilgrim's Progress, the Interpreter's House
11. The fire against the wall. Why the fire of grace keeps burning.
This is Christ, who continually, with the oil of his grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart
The Pilgrim's Progress, the Interpreter's House
12. The brave man. While others hang back from the guarded palace door, one steps up.
Set down my name, Sir
The Pilgrim's Progress, the Interpreter's House
13. The man in the iron cage. A warning to anyone who turns back.
I am now a man of despair, and am shut up in it, as in this iron cage.
The Pilgrim's Progress, the Interpreter's House
The Cross
14. The burden falls. The center of the whole book.
just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.
The Pilgrim's Progress, at the cross
15. Christian's song of thanks. His first words with the burden gone.
Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said, with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.”
The Pilgrim's Progress, at the cross
The Palace Beautiful and the valleys
16. The chained lions. Watchful the porter calls out to Christian.
Fear not the lions, for they are chained, and are placed there for trial of faith where it is, and for discovery of those that had none. Keep in the midst of the path, no hurt shall come unto thee.
The Pilgrim's Progress, the Palace Beautiful
17. Apollyon's challenge. The fiend blocks the road.
Then Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way, and said, I am void of fear in this matter: prepare thyself to die
The Pilgrim's Progress, the Valley of Humiliation
18. Another weapon. In the Valley of the Shadow of Death, his sword can't help him.
he was forced to put up his sword, and betake himself to another weapon called All-prayer.
The Pilgrim's Progress, the Valley of the Shadow of Death
19. Turning back the fiends.
he cried out with a most vehement voice, “I will walk in the strength of the Lord God!” so they gave back, and came no further.
The Pilgrim's Progress, the Valley of the Shadow of Death
Talkative and Vanity Fair
20. Saying and doing. Christian on Talkative, and Faithful's lesson from it.
His house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg is of savour.
The Pilgrim's Progress, Talkative
Well, I see that saying and doing are two things, and hereafter I shall better observe this distinction.
The Pilgrim's Progress, Talkative
21. What Vanity Fair is.
It beareth the name of Vanity Fair because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity; and, also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity.
The Pilgrim's Progress, Vanity Fair
22. We buy the truth. The pilgrims' answer when a merchant mocks them.
One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto them, What will ye buy? But they, looking gravely upon him, answered, “We buy the truth.”
The Pilgrim's Progress, Vanity Fair
Doubting Castle to the River
23. The key called Promise. After praying through Saturday night in Giant Despair's dungeon.
What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking Dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty. I have a Key in my bosom called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any Lock in Doubting Castle.
The Pilgrim's Progress, Doubting Castle
24. I feel the bottom. Hopeful to Christian in the river of death.
Be of good cheer, my brother, I feel the bottom, and it is good.
The Pilgrim's Progress, the river
25. The last words. After Ignorance is turned away at the gate.
Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction. So I awoke, and behold it was a dream.
The Pilgrim's Progress, closing lines
A few more worth knowing
Some shorter lines are quoted often too. Christian tells the porter, "My name is now Christian, but my name at the first was Graceless." The river is deeper or shallower, the Shining Ones say, "as you believe in the King of the place." And as Christian sinks, he says to Hopeful, "It is you, it is you they wait for; you have been Hopeful ever since I knew you."
Using these quotes
These lines are good for a Bible study, a sermon illustration or a family reading. Read the scene around a quote before you use it, because Bunyan often sets a line beside a Scripture reference and explains it a page later. The words above all come from the first part of the book. A few lines people credit to The Pilgrim's Progress, such as the verse behind the hymn "He Who Would Valiant Be," come from the second part, the story of Christiana. The library's children's edition retells that second part too.
To read every line in its place, open The Pilgrim's Progress. To learn about the tinker who wrote it, see Who Was John Bunyan?, and for families, see reading The Pilgrim's Progress with kids.