Quotes from John Bunyan

Want of reverence of the Word is the ground of all disorders that are in the heart, life, conversation, and in Christian communion.

The bitter must come before the sweet, and that also will make the sweet the sweeter.

The word in its several, especially of the chiefest, acceptations. First, then by this word fear we are to understand even God himself, who is the object of our fear. Second, by this word fear we are to understand the Word of God, the rule and director of our fear.

There is an endless kingdom to be enjoyed, and everlasting life to be given us, that we may live in that kingdom forever.

Then I saw in my Dream, that when they were got out of the Wilderness, they presently saw a Town before them, and the name of that Town is Vanity; and at the Town there is a Fair kept, called Vanity Fair: it is kept all the year long; it beareth the name of Vanity Fair, because the Town where 'tis kept is lighter than Vanity; and also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is Vanity. As is the saying of the wise, All that cometh is Vanity.

Though the hill is high, I still desire to walk up it. I don't care how difficult it is, because I understand that it leads to the way of life. Cheer up heart and don't grow faint or fear, because even if it is difficult, it is better to go this way because it is the right way, for while the wrong way is easier, it ends in anguish.

The Word of God gives wounded Christian the victory. God renews his hope with His own promises, and Christian gives the Destroyer a deadly thrust resulting in a mortal wound to the enemy of the pilgrim's soul. Christian on his own could not defeat Apollyon. The sword of the Word of God is the only instrument that can accomplish such a task.

Prud. What is Man? Joseph. A Reasonable Creature, so made by God, as my Brother said. Prud. What is supposed by this word saved? Joseph. That Man by Sin has brought himself into a state of Captivity and Misery. Prud. What is supposed by his being saved by the Trinity? Joseph. That Sin is so great and mighty a Tyrant, that none can pull us out of its clutches but God; and that God is so good and loving to man, as to pull him indeed out of this miserable state.

For in the multitude of dreams, there are also divers vanities, but fear thou God; that is, take heed unto his Word (Eccl 5:7; Isa 8:20). Here the fearing of God is opposed to our overmuch heeding dreams: and there is implied, that it is for want of the fear of God that men so much heed those things.

But verily that sudden rushing wind was, as if an angel had come upon me; but both it, and the salutation, I will leave until the day of judgment: only this I say, it commanded a great calm in my soul; it persuaded me there might be hope: it showed me, as I thought, what the sin unpardonable was, and that my soul had yet the blessed privilege to flee to Jesus Christ for mercy. 

When God giveth his presence to his people, that his presence causeth them to appear to themselves more what they are, than at other times, by all other light, they can see. "O my lord," said Daniel, "by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me"; and why was that, but because by the glory of that vision, he saw his own vileness more than at other times.

There is but little of this faithful dealing with men now-a-days, and that makes religion to stink so in the nostrils of many, as it doth; for they are these talkative fools whose religion is only in word, and are debauched and vain in their conversation, that (being so much admitted into the fellowship of the godly) do puzzle the world, blemish Christianity, and grieve the sincere.