25 Phillips Brooks Quotes From the Clergyman Who Wrote The Song “O Little Town of Bethlehem”

Check out these Phillips Brooks quotes to learn more about the famous clergyman.

Phillips Brooks is known for his time as an American Episcopal clergyman and author.

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1835 and died in Boston in 1893 at the age of 57.

Brooks graduated from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1859 and became a rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in 1862.

During the Civil War, he supported the North as he opposed slavery, and his sermons on Abraham Lincoln’s death and the end of the Civil War attracted national attention.

When he became the rector of the Trinity Church in Boston in 1869, he helped to make Trinity Church into a magnificent structure that still draws people today.

Take a look at these Phillips Brooks quotes to learn more about his life.

Top 10 Phillips Brooks Quotes

Here are ten important pieces of insight shared by Phillips Brooks.

1. “The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t.” — Phillips Brooks

2. “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.” — Phillips Brooks

3. “I do not pray for a lighter load, but for a stronger back.” — Phillips Brooks

4. “Charity should begin at home, but should not stay there.” — Phillips Brooks

5. “Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious.” — Phillips Brooks

6. “Christianity helps us face the music even when we don’t like the tune.” — Phillips Brooks

7. “Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours.” — Phillips Brooks

8. “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.” — Phillips Brooks

9. “It does not take great men to do great things; it only takes consecrated men.” — Phillips Brooks

10. “The solution to sin is not to impose an ever-stricter code of behavior. It is to know God.” — Phillips Brooks

Phillips Brooks Quotes for Life

These quotes share what Phillip Brooks learned about life and how to live.

11. “Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.” — Phillips Brooks

12. “Set yourself earnestly to see what you are made to do, and then set yourself earnestly to do it.” — Phillips Brooks

13. “The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.” — Phillips Brooks

14. “A man who lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than another has by his words.” — Phillips Brooks

15. “It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawn on you.” — Phillips Brooks

16. “Life is too short to nurse one’s misery. Hurray across the lowlands so that you may spend more time on the mountain tops.” — Phillips Brooks

17. “No one ever fell under the burden of the day; it is only when the burden of tomorrow is added that the load becomes unbearable.” — Phillips Brooks

More Phillips Brooks Quotes to Motivate and Encourage You

Gain wisdom from these encouraging Phillips Brooks quotes.

18. “Nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer except that which lies outside the will of God.” — Phillips Brooks

19. “It is almost as presumptuous to think you can do nothing as to think you can do everything.” — Phillips Brooks

20. “The truest liver of the truest life is like a voyager who, as he sails, is not indifferent to all the beauty of the sea around him.” — Phillips Brooks

21. “Do not dare to live without some clear intention toward which your living shall be bent. Mean to be something with all your might.” — Phillips Brooks

22. “You cannot think a prayer so large that God, in answering it, will not wish you had made it larger. Pray not for crutches but for wings.” — Phillips Brooks

23. “The man who goes through life with an uncertain doctrine not knowing what he believes, what a poor, powerless creature he is!” — Phillips Brooks

24. “You must learn, you must let God teach you, that the only way to get rid of your past is to make a future out of it. God will waste nothing.” — Phillips Brooks

25. “The Bible is a thing to be looked through, to see that which is beyond; but most people only look at it, and so they see only the dead letter.” — Phillips Brooks

What Legacy Did Phillips Brooks Leave?

Brooks is well known for his work as the rector at Boston’s Trinity Church, but he is also famous for writing the song “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

A statue of Brooks was built at North Andover, Massachusetts, which faces the North Parish Church, and every 23rd of January, he is remembered on the anniversary of his death.

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