From
a governor down to a dog pelter, I would not vote for a man that touches,
tastes or handles whiskey to save my life, and you can never redeem America
with a legislature whose breath is tainted with whiskey.
If God will empty your heads and hearts of all the error you have packed away in them, I will preach enough truth to save you to-night.
The less sense a fellow has, and the less he thinks, the more opinions he has.
What is culture worth if it is but the whitewash on a rascal? I would rather be in heaven learning my A, B, C's than sitting in hell reading Greek.
If a man hasn't enough religion to pray in his family, he hasn't enough to take him to heaven.
I don't care what a man says he believes with his lips; I want to know with a vengeance what he says with his life and actions.
The best way in the world to kill a fellow is to love him to death; then you don't have to bury him.
How did I become a drunkard? By drinking wine like some of you do. If any man had tasted what I have and been where I have been, he'd be recreant if he did not preach as I do. You get some letters as I do and it would go to your heart. I'm not only not going to drink but I'll fight it to perdition, and when perdition freezes, then I'll fight it on the ice. If you can make it any stronger than that, put my name to it.
Nobody but an infernal scoundrel will sell whiskey, and nobody but an infernal fool will drink it.
There are ten thousand ways to hell and only one to heaven, but with a good guide we need have no fear of losing our way.
Every barroom is a recruiting office for hell.
The wife either makes or unmakes her husband.
God pity a mother that has to send her children to a dancing school to learn grace and manners.
If I had a thousand tongues they should all talk for Christ; a thousand hands, they should all work for Christ; a thousand feet, I'd put them in the way to heaven.
David was a great sinner, but he was a first-class repenter.
What the alphabet is to a man of learning, repentance is to the man going to heaven.
It is the little things in this life that keep up the worry.
Religion, when you boil it down to concrete, is nothing more than something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
I pray for my daily bread, but I have to hunt for my corn-pone with the sweat running down the hoe-handle.
A man of conviction—who says a thing because he means it, and means it because he says it! I like that kind of a man.
The secret of a happy life is to do your duty and trust in God.
God never does anything for a man that he can do for himself. The Lord is too busy for that—to be doing things for men that they can do themselves. God never quit drinking for a man; that is the man's own lookout. God never quit lying for anybody; that is your own job. God never quit stealing for anybody; that is your business to look after.
If you think the world needs you you're a fool. You die and they lay you out here and the world moves on as though you were never born.
Let's make it fashionable to love God and keep His commandments.
A man once asked me how long it had been since I had been at a theater. I told him I had not been at the theater since I had quit being a vagabond.
Salvation or damnation is a personal matter. Nobody will die for you; nobody will stand in your place at the judgment bar of God.
The best thing a man can do in the world is to do right, the worst thing a man can do is to do wrong.
I believe every word in the Bible. I accept everything between the lids of the Book. I have good reason for my faith.
Infidelity can grow only on the soil littered by the lives of unfaithful members of the church. That's it. Oh, for the faith that takes God in as He is. The man who don't believe is a mere pygmy in the church. I believe the Bible just as it was written, and I believe that the whale swallowed Jonah. I would have believed it just the same if it had said that Jonah swallowed the whale. I've got no better sense than to believe the Bible. Call me a fool for it, and I'm a happy fool.
This is the Book of books. This is the Book of knowledge. This the Book which tells how to get to heaven. Glory to God for this precious Book. My mother lived by its precepts and pillowed her head upon it. It was the Book of my father and the light of his home.
Don't worry about your money. God bless you, bud, they haul you off in a shroud without a pocket—and if it had a pocket your arm would be too stiff to get into it.
There are four things you can appeal to in a boy—his sense of honor, his conscience, his pride, and lastly, his hide.
I believe that the whale swallowed Jonah, and the only reason I don't believe that Jonah swallowed the whale is because the Bible don't say so.
Whiskey is a good thing in its place, and that place is hell.
Let's quit singing the "Sweet-By-and-by" and sing the "Sweet Now-and-now."
If you tell me what you love and what you hate, I will tell you your character.
Old sinners are not satisfied with us unless we live better than they do.
Gossip is always about a person. Decent talk is about things, unless your neighbor is a thing you frequently indulge in gossip.
I rather like the expression of that good old woman who cried out: "Oh, Lord, if you will only save me in this world, you shall never hear the last of it in the next."
The roar of commerce, the click of the telegraph and the whistle of the engine have well-nigh drowned out the voice of God.
When I first started out I was afraid I would hurt somebody's feelings. Now I am afraid I won't.
Sow whiskey and you'll reap drunkards.
The tune of America is pitched to the dollar.
A conversion isn't worth anything unless it's a double conversion. A man must be converted from something to something.
From The Life and Sayings of Sam P. Jones: A Minister of the Gospel by His Wife. 2nd and rev. ed. Atlanta: Franklin-Turner Co., ©1907.
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