Tony Cooke Ministries - Tony Cooke Ministries' Free Resource Area

FAILURE
“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Losing doesn't eat at me the way it used to. I just get ready for the next play, the next game, the next season.”
- Troy Aikman

“Failure can be divided into those who thought and never did and into those who did and never thought.”
- W.A. Nance

"What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better."
- Wendell Phillips

"We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction."
- General Douglas MacArthur

"Failure is an event, never a person."
- William D. Brown

"What does not destroy me makes me stronger."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently."
- Henry Ford

"Learn from the mistakes of others; you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

It was said that Edison had some 2,000 unsuccessful experiments before he actually got the incandescent bulb he was developing to actually work. Someone asked him what it was like to fail 2,000 times. Edison replied, "I never failed, I only found out 2,000 ways it didn’t work."

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
- Bill Cosby

“I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something, but I can’t accept not trying.”
- Michael Jordan

“There is no doubt in my mind that there are many ways to be a winner, but there is really only one way to be a loser, and that is to fail and not look beyond the failure.”
- Kyle Rote Jr.

FAITH
“Faith is spiritualized imagination.”
- Henry Ward Beecher

“Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.”
- Peter Böhler (Moravian Missionary) speaking to John Wesley

“Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.”
- Charles Spurgeon (from his book, “Lectures to My Students”)

“Little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your soul.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon

"The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet in that one jump. Yet these incredible creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot solid wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. Faith is the ability to trust and act on God’s word when our eyes and mind can’t see us overcoming. We can jump higher then any problem confronting us if we agree with the promises of God and act on them!”
- Joseph Cameneti

"Faith is a refusal to panic."
- D. Martyn Lloyd

“There is nothing, indeed, which God will not do for a man who dares to step out upon what seems to be the mist; though as he puts his foot down he finds a rock beneath him.”
- F. B. Meyer

“I can get more out of God by believing Him for one minute than I can by shouting at Him all night.”
- Smith Wigglesworth

“Great faith is the product of great fights. Great testimonies are the outcome of great tests. Great triumphs can only come out of great trials.”
- Smith Wigglesworth

“Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light.”
- Edith Edman

“Christian, take good care of thy faith; for recollect faith is the only way whereby thou canst obtain blessings. If we want blessings from God, nothing can fetch them down but faith. Prayer cannot draw down answers from God’s throne except it be the earnest prayer of a man who believes. Faith is the angelic messenger between the soul and the Lord Jesus in glory.”
- Charles Spurgeon

“If faith fails, prayer perishes.”
- Augustine

“Faith is the “yes” of the heart.”
- Martin Luther

FAITHFULNESS
"I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness."
- Mother Teresa

"God has no larger field for the man who is not faithfully doing his work where he is."
- Author Unknown

“Do the duty which lies nearest thee,” which thou knowest to be thy duty. Thy second duty will already have become clear.
- Thomas Carlyle

FAMILY
Only 23.5% of U.S. households are traditional families (married couples with their children), according to the Census Bureau. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of cohabiting couples increased by 72%. They now make up 5.5% of the total population. In the same period, single-father households were up 62% and single-mother homes 25%.
- Ministry ToolBox, Jun 13, 2001

"A saint abroad, and a devil at home."
- John Bunyan

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.”
- Jane Howard

FAMILIARITY
"Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration."
- William Hazlitt

FAMOUS LAST WORDS
When the great Christian and scientist, Sir Michael Faraday, was dying, some journalists questioned him as to his speculations about life after death. "Speculations!" he said, "I know nothing about speculations. I'm resting on certainties. 'I know that my redeemer liveth, and because He lives, I shall live also.'"

Martin Luther said: "Our God is the God from whom cometh salvation: God is the Lord by who escape death."

John Knox said: Live in Christ, live in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death.

John Wesley said: "The best of all is, God is with us. Farewell! Farewell!"

Charles Wesley said: "I shall be satisfied with thy likeness -- satisfied, satisfied!"

Adoniram Judson said: "I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school."

John Pawson said: "I know I am dying, but my deathbed is a bed of roses. I have no thorns planted upon my dying pillow. Heaven is already begun!"

When Benjamin Franklin was about to die, he asked that a picture of Christ on the cross should be so placed in his bedroom that he could look, as he said, "upon the form of the Silent Sufferer." He wrote in advance the epitaph to be on his gravestone: "The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, like the cover of an old book, it's contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here...Yet the Work itself shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author."

FANATICISM
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
- Winston Churchill

"Wherever there’s light, there’s bugs."
- Harry Ironside

"Fanaticism is overcompensation for doubt."
- Carl Jung

FATIGUE
"An exhausted man easily falls prey to the adversary.”
- Oswald Sanders

"Fatigue makes cowards of us all."
- Vince Lombardi

FEAR
"The most drastic and usually the most effective remedy for fear is direct action."
- William Burnham

"It is never safe to look into the future with eyes of fear."
- E. H. Harriman

"Never take counsel of your fears.
- Andrew Jackson

"He who is afraid of a thing gives it power over him."
- Moorish Proverb

“At 18 our convictions are hills from which we look; at 45 they are caves in which we hide.”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

FINISHING
“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”
- William James

"The Greeks had a race in their Olympic games that was unique. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit. I want to run all the way with the flame of my torch still lit for Him."
Fan The Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, p. 32.

FLEXIBILITY
"He that is flexible will not get bent out of shape."
- Unknown

“A person’s age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.”
- Quincy Jones

FOCUS
"It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time."
- Sir Winston Churchill

"Look outside, be distressed.
Look inside, be depressed.
Look at Jesus, be at rest."
- Corrie Ten Boom

FORGIVENESS
“I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.”
- C.S. Lewis

“Forgiveness is simply a decision to cancel a debt.”
- Andy Stanley

“He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.”
- Lord Herbert

"When you forgive someone, you set a prisoner free… and then you find that the prisoner was you."
- Lewis Smedes

Patti Davis, the daughter of Ronald Reagan said that her dad made a lasting impression on her the day after the assassination attempt of 1982. She says, "The following day my father (Ronald Reagan) said he knew his physical healing was directly dependent on his ability to forgive John Hinckley. By showing me that forgiveness is the key to everything, including physical health and healing, he gave me an example of Christ-like thinking."
- The QuoteLetter, December, 1996

Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident. "Don’t you remember it?" her friend asked. "No," came Barton’s reply, "I distinctly remember forgetting it."

“A Christian will find it cheaper to pardon than to resent. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.”
- Hannah More

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
- Mohandas Gandhi

FORESIGHT
"Business more than any other occupation is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight."
- Henry R Luce

FRESHNESS
"Never try to live on the old manna, nor seek to find help in Egypt. All must come from Jesus or thou art undone forever. Old anointings will not suffice to impart unction to thy spirit; thine head must have fresh oil poured upon it from the golden horn of the sanctuary, or it will cease from its glory."
- Charles Spurgeon

FRIENDSHIP
“Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.”
- Elanor Roosevelt

“Friendship is a strong habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of one another.”
- Eustace Budgell

“A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles.”
- Tim Cahill

"Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them."
- W. Clement Stone

"Friendship doesn’t make you wealthy, but true friendship will reveal the wealth within you."

"I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar."
- Robert Brault

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."
- Walter Winchell

"So live that your friends can defend you but never have to."
- Arnold Glasow

"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair."
- Samuel Johnson

FREEDOM
"No man is free who is not a master of himself."
- Epictetus

FUN
"When people aren’t having any fun, they seldom produce good work. Kill the grimness with laughter. Encourage exuberance. Get rid of sad dogs that spread gloom."
- David Ogilvy

FUTURE
“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“The future is not the result of choices among alternate paths offered in the present. It is a place created – created first in the mind and the will; created next in activity.”
- Walt Disney

"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."
- Abraham Lincoln

“The future is purchased by the present.”
- Samuel Johnson

“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
- Lyndon B. Johnson

GENERALIZATIONS
"All generalizations are false, including this one."

GENEROSITY
“A man there was, tho' some did count him mad, the more he cast away, the more he had.”
- John Bunyan

"I have held many things in my hand, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands that I still possess."
- Martin Luther

"Money-giving is a good criterion of a person's mental health. Generous people are rarely mentally ill people."
- Dr. Karl Menninger

"There’s no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can’t do any business from there."
- Colonel Sanders

"The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose."
- Hada Bejar

GENIUS
"Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
- Thomas Edison

"When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him."
- Jonathan Swift

GENTLEMAN
"This is the final test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him."
- William Lyon Phelps

GIVING
“You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”
- John Bunyan

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
- Winston Churchill

“No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”
- Calvin Coolidge

GOALS
"Our plans miscarry if they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind."
- Seneca

"In absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia."
- Unknown

"You must have long-range goals to keep you from becoming frustrated by short-range failures."
- Charles C. Noble

GOD AND COUNTRY
"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."
- George Washington

"If we abide in the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper, but if we or our prosperity neglects it instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."
- Daniel Webster

GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS
"Should anyone knock at my heart and say, ‘Who lives here?’ I should reply, ‘Not Martin Luther, but the Lord Jesus Christ.’”
- Martin Luther

GOD’S LOVE
"We are all pencils in the hand of a writing God, who is sending love letters to the world."
- Mother Teresa

"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us."
- Augustine

GOD'S NATURE
"I have found God to be cordial and generous and in every way easy to live with."
- A.W. Tozer

GODLINESS
“A baptism of holiness, a demonstration of godly living is the crying need of our day.”
- Duncan Campbell

GOOD WORKS
"Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as you ever can."
- John Wesley

GOSSIP
“There’s so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it little behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us.”
- John Brantingham

"I find that when I am gossiping about my friends, as well as my enemies, I am deeply conscious of performing a social duty. But when I hear they are gossiping about me, I am rightfully filled with righteous indignation."
- Max Gluckman

"Talkers will refrain from evil speaking when listeners refrain from evil hearing."
- Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

"If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me."
- Alice Roosevelt Longworth

“I would rather play with forked lightning, or take in my hand living wires with their fiery current, than to speak a reckless word against any servant of Christ, or idly repeat the slanderous darts which thousands of Christians are hurling on others, to the hurt of their own souls and bodies.”
- A.B. Simpson

GRACE
“Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.”
- John Stott

“Sin is sovereign till sovereign grace dethrones it.”
- C.H. Spurgeon

GRATITUDE
“The unthankful heart . . . discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart . . . will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessing.
- Henry Ward Beecher

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man."
- Mark Twain

“Those who drink the water must remember those who dug the well.”
- Chinese Proverb

GREATNESS
“Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength.”
- Henry Ward Beecher

“There are no great men. Just great challenges which ordinary men, out of necessity, are forced by circumstances to meet.”
- Admiral William F. Halsey

"It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness, and I pronounce it as certain that there was never yet a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous."
- Benjamin Franklin

"Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but sail we must, and not drift, nor lie at anchor."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

GREED

“Nothing is sufficient for the person who finds sufficiency too little.”
- Epicurus

“Two-thirds of all the strifes, quarrels, and lawsuits in the world arise from one simple cause—money.”
- J.C. Ryle

"The darkest hour in any man’s life is when he sits down to plan how to get money without earning it."
- Horace Greeley

GRIEF
“‘Good-bye’ is a word the heart doesn’t know.”
- Holley Gerth

"Grief is a form of validation; It says the wound mattered."
- John Eldredge

GUILT
“Leaders who carry unresolved guilt are forced to hide a part of themselves from those to whom they are closest. They have a secret. They are forced to expend time and energy to ensure that no one finds them out. They know they are not completely trustworthy. Often they assume no one else is either. Guilty leaders have a difficult time trusting. Consequently, guilty leaders have a difficult time building teams.”
- Andy Stanley

HABITS
“Good habits are as addictive as bad habits, and a lot more rewarding.”
- Harvey Mackay

HAPPINESS
“I think I began learning long ago that those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”
- Booker T. Washington

"Some cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go."
- George Burns

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
- Abraham Lincoln

"The strength and the happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way too."
- Henry Ward Beecher

HATE
“When we hate our enemies we give them power over us - power over our sleep, our appetites, our happiness. They would dance with joy if they knew how much they were worrying us. Our hate is not hurting them at all, but it is turning our days and our nights into hellish turmoil.”
- Dale Carnegie

HEARING GOD
"Retire from the world each day to some private spot. Stay in the secret place till the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart and a sense of God’s presence envelops you. Deliberately tune out the unpleasant sounds and come out of your closet determined not to hear them. Listen for the inward voice till you learn to recognize it."
- A.W. Tozer

"God is our true Friend, who always gives us the counsel and comfort we need. Our danger lies in resisting Him; so it is essential that we acquire the habit of hearkening to His voice, or keeping silence within, and listening so as to lose nothing of what He says to us."
- Francois Fenelon

HELP
"When a person is down in the world, an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching."
- Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

HELL

“There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than the doctrine of hell, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, especially, of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by the Christian Church, and it has the support of reason.”
- C.S. Lewis

“No one should ever preach on the topic of hell without a tear in his eye.”
- D.L. Moody

Many people have reacted to the hellfire-and-brimstone preaching as it’s called, and said, ‘Well, I don’t like that kind of preaching.’ But frankly, I can’t remember the last time I heard a hellfire-and-brimstone preacher. We’ve swung so far to the other side that we’ve lost sight of the importance of what the Scripture says, that we need to warn some, and they need to know that there are consequences for their sin. To leave that out is to do them a disservice, and it is to fail to declare the whole counsel of God. We certainly shouldn’t do it in a gleeful manner, but with compassion and love, and warning them that the last thing God wants is for any person created in his image to end up separated from him in this place called hell.”
- Greg Laurie

HELPING OTHERS
"There is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being—to help someone succeed."
- Alan Loy McGinnis

“The person who keeps busy helping the one who is below him won’t have time to envy the person above him.”
- Henrietta Mears

HEROES

“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“God is preparing his heroes; and when the opportunity comes, he can fit them into their places in a moment, and the world will wonder where they came from.”
- A. B. Simpson

HEROISM
“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others whatever the cost.”
- Unknown

HISTORY
“The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.”
- Harry Truman

HOLINESS
“We must teach plainly that the faith which saves the soul is not a dead faith, but a faith which operates with purifying effect upon our entire nature, and produces in us fruits of righteousness to the praise and glory of God.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon

“A holy life will produce the deepest impression. Lighthouses blow no horns; they only shine.”
- D.L. Moody

“A holy life is in itself a wonderful power, and will make up for many deficiencies; it is in fact the best sermon a man can ever deliver.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon

“Whatever call a man may pretend to have, if he has not been called to holiness, he certainly has not been called to the ministry.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon

HOLY SPIRIT
"If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference."
- A.W. Tozer

HOME
Whitfield replied to the question "Is such a one a good man?" "How should I know that? I never lived with him."

HONESTY
“I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
- George Washington

A young lady was soaking up the sun's rays on a Florida beach when a little boy in his swimming trunks, carrying a towel, came up to her and asked her, "Do you believe in God?" She was surprised by the question but she replied, "Why, yes, I do." Then he asked her: "Do you go to church every Sunday?" Again, her answer was "Yes!" He then asked: "Do you read your Bible and pray everyday?" Again she said, "Yes!" By now her curiosity was very much aroused. The little lad sighed with relief and said, "Will you hold my quarter while I go in swimming?"

HONOR
“Don’t drown the man who taught you to swim. If you learned your trade or profession from the man, do not set up in opposition to him.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon

HOPE
“Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances we know to be desperate.”
- G.K. Chesterton

“No hope, no action.”
- Peter Levi

“Hell is the place where one has ceased to hope.”
- A.J. Cronin

“If there is hope in the future, there is power in the present.”
- John Maxwell

"There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them."
- Clare Booth Luce

"Everything that is done in the world is done by hope."
- Martin Luther

HUMAN NATURE
"There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud."
- Carl Sandburg

“Human nature is like a drunk peasant. Lift him into the saddle on one side, over he topples on the other side.”
- Martin Luther

HUMILITY
“There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord, but few of us are willing to do the little things.”
- D.L. Moody

“What good is it for you to be able to discuss the Trinity with great profundity, if you lack humility, and thereby offend the Trinity?
- Thomas a Kempis

"The cleverest person of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month."
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“A great man is always willing to be little”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When I was much younger than I am now, I thought myself almost infallible; but I bless God, I know myself better now.”
- John Wesley

“Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon

“Young man, the secret of my success is that at an early age I discovered that I was not God.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

"I believe that God wants to put His hand upon us so that we may reach ideal definitions of humility, of human helplessness, of human insufficiency, until we will rest no more upon human plans, but have God’s thoughts, God’s voice, and the Holy Spirit to speak to us."
- Smith Wigglesworth

Alex Haley, the author of Roots, has a picture in his office, showing a turtle sitting atop a fence. The picture is there to remind him of a lesson he learned long ago: "If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he had some help." Says Alex, "Any time I start thinking, "Wow, isn't this marvelous what I've done!" I look at the picture and remember how this turtle - me - got up on that post.

"The wise person possesses humility. He knows that his small island of knowledge is surrounded by a vast sea of the unknown."
- Harold C Chase

"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals."
- Benjamin Franklin

"I may have my faults, but being wrong ain’t one of them."
- Jimmy Hoffa

"Lord, when we are wrong, make us willing to change. And when we are right, make us easy to live with."
- Peter Marshall

"There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart."
- St. Augustine

“Humility never means denying the value of what we do. It does, however, mean keeping the things we do in proper perspective. Humility never claims to have done nothing. Instead, it is a realization that all we have done has been done in God’s strength and by God’s grace.”
- Dean Shriver

St. Augustine being asked "What is the first article in the Christian religion?" replied, "Humility." "And what the second?" "Humility." "And what the third?" "Humility."

“Humility is the great preserver of peace and order in all Christian churches and societies, consequently pride is the great disturber of them, and the cause of most dissensions and breaches in the church.”
- Matthew Henry

“God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.”
- Martin Luther

HUMOR
"If I had no sense of humor, I should long ago have committed suicide."
- Mahatma Gandhi

"The man who has had the job I’ve had and didn’t have a sense of humor wouldn’t still be here."
- Harry S. Truman

HURRY
"Westerners are people with gods on their wrists."
- Filipino saying

HUSBANDS
“At work, the man may be creative, passionate, zealous, ambitious, and a leader. At home, the same man may become placid, opinion-less, a bad listener, vacillating, uncreative, uncommunicative, and humorless. The fact is, if he behaved at work as he behaves at home, he would never be promoted or rewarded. To the contrary, he would probably be fired… A woman wants the same creative, passionate, zealous, ambitious, and leader traits to be manifested at home to the same degree they are displayed at work.”
- Tommy Nelson