1001Philosophers

John Calvin Quotes

John Calvin was a French Protestant theologian, pastor, and the principal architect of the Reformed branch of the Reformation. After legal training at Orleans and a sudden conversion in the early 1530s, he settled in Geneva, where, with one significant interruption, he shaped a distinctive ecclesiastical, civil, and intellectual order from 1541 until his death. The quotes below are attributed to John Calvin, organized by topic.

John Calvin on God

  • Attributed to John Calvin:

    “True wisdom consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”

  • Attributed to John Calvin:

    “The human heart is a perpetual factory of idols.”

  • Attributed to John Calvin:

    “All the blessings we enjoy are divine deposits committed to our trust.”

  • Attributed to John Calvin:

    “Wherever we cast our eyes, all things on which they fall are works of God.”

  • Attributed to John Calvin:

    “There is no part of our life and no action so minute that it ought not to be directed to the glory of God.”

Read all John Calvin quotes on God