Grace

Glory be to the Graces! ~ ‎Robert Herrick

Grace is a word referring to elegant movement, poise or balance, and also to free and undeserved favor, especially in Christian theology, in reference to the divine grace of God. It is derived from the Latin word gratus, and is also used to refer to any of the Gratiae or Charites of Greek and Roman mythology.

See also:

Gracefulness

Quotes

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider. ~ Augustine of Hippo

Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for humanity. Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for me. ~ Eugène Ionesco

Christianity is just as lenient as it is austere, just as lenient, that is to say, infinitely lenient. When the infinite requirement is heard and upheld, heard and upheld in all its infinitude, then grace is offered, or rather grace offers itself, and to it the individual, each for himself, as I also do, can flee for refuge. ~ Søren Kierkegaard

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav'd a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see. ~ John Newton

All our life is in three: in the first we have our Being, in the second we have our Increasing, and in the third we have our Fulfilling: the first is Nature, the second is Mercy, and the third is Grace. ~ Julian of Norwich

Find the Grace in the things you can’t change, and help somebody if you can. ~ Van Zant

• Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.
  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (1265–1274), I, q. 1, art. 8, ad 4

• Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.
  • Augustine of Hippo, in De Libero Arbitrio (388 - 395)

• Every time your enemy fires a curse, you must fire a blessing, and so you are to bombard back and forth with this kind of artillery. The mother grace of all the graces is Christian good-will.
  • Henry Ward Beecher, in Life Thoughts, Gathered from the Extemporaneous Discourses (1858), p. 274

• Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace.
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Discipleship (1937)

• When a person expends the least amount of motion on one action, that is grace.
  • Anton Chekhov, Letter to Maxim Gorky

• Whatever he did, was done with so much ease,
  In him alone 'twas natural to please.
  • John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel (1681), Part I, line 27

• Let grace and goodness be the principal lodestone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.
  • Thomas Fuller, in The Holy State and the Prophane State (1642), this has sometimes been misattributed to John Dryden, as early as its occurrence in A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, both Ancient and Modern (1908) edited by Tryon Edwards

• Grace is beauty in motion, or rather grace regulates the air, the attitudes and movements of beauty.
  • Henry Fuseli, Aphorism 43, in The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli (1831) Vol. III, edited by John Knowles

• Nature makes no parade of her means— hence all studied grace is unnatural.
  • Henry Fuseli, Aphorism 44, in The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli (1831) Vol. III, edited by John Knowles

• All actions and attitudes of children are graceful, because they are the luxuriant and immediate offspring of the moment — divested of affectation, and free from all pretence.
  • Henry Fuseli, Aphorism 45, in The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli (1831) Vol. III, edited by John Knowles

• Proportion, or symmetry, is the basis of beauty; propriety, of grace.
  • Henry Fuseli, Aphorism 46, in The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli (1831) Vol. III, edited by John Knowles

• Grace in women has more effect than beauty.
  • William Hazlitt, in "On Manner", The Examiner (August 27, 1815); reprinted in The Round Table (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1817), p. 119

• Grace has been defined, the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.
  • William Hazlitt, in "On Manner", The Examiner (August 27, 1815); reprinted in The Round Table‎ (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1817), p. 120

• Glory be to the Graces!
  That doe in publike places,
  Drive thence what ere encumbers,
  The listning to my numbers.

  Honour be to the Graces!
  Who doe with sweet embraces,
  Shew they are well contented
  With what I have invented.

  • ‎Robert Herrick in "A Psalme or Hymne to the Graces" in Hesperides : Or the Works Both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick (1846), p. 70

• Worship be to the Graces!
  Who do from sowre faces,
  And lungs that wo'd infect me,
  For evermore protect me.
  • ‎Robert Herrick in "A Psalme or Hymne to the Graces" in Hesperides : Or the Works Both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick (1846), p. 70

• Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for humanity. Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for me.
  • Eugène Ionesco, in The Hermit (1973)

• Instead of giving the impression, in however small a degree, that there are such difficulties about Christianity that an apology for it is needed if men are to be persuaded to enter into it, rather to represent it as a thing so infinitely lofty, as in truth it is, that the apology belongs in another place, is required, that is to say, of us for the fact that we venture to call ourselves Christians, or it transforms itself into a contrite confession that we have God to thank if we merely assume to regard ourselves as a Christian. But neither must this ever be forgotten: Christianity is just as lenient as it is austere, just as lenient, that is to say, infinitely lenient. When the infinite requirement is heard and upheld, heard and upheld in all its infinitude, then grace is offered, or rather grace offers itself, and to it the individual, each for himself, as I also do, can flee for refuge.
  • Søren Kierkegaard, in The Point of View of My Work as an Author (1848, 1851, 1859)

• There is a great analogy between grace and genius, for genius is a grace. The real man of genius is the one who acts by grace or by impulsion, without ever contemplating himself and without ever saying to himself: Yes! It is by grace that I act.
  • Joseph de Maistre, An Examination of the Philosophy of Francis Bacon (1836), p. 37

• And grace that won who saw to wish her stay.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book VIII, line 43

• Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
  That sav'd a wretch like me!
  I once was lost, but now am found,
  Was blind, but now I see.
  • John Newton in "Amazing Grace" in Olney Hymns (1779)

• 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
  And grace my fears reliev'd;
  How precious did that grace appear,
  The hour I first believ'd!
  • John Newton in "Amazing Grace" in Olney Hymns (1779)

• Thro' many dangers, toils and snares,
  I have already come;
  'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
  And grace will lead me home.
  • John Newton in "Amazing Grace" in Olney Hymns (1779)

• In this life mercy and forgiveness is our way and evermore leadeth us to grace. And by the tempest and the sorrow that we fall into on our part, we be often dead as to man’s doom in earth; but in the sight of God the soul that shall be saved was never dead, nor ever shall be.
  • Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love (c. 1393), Ch. 50

• All our life is in three: in the first we have our Being, in the second we have our Increasing, and in the third we have our Fulfilling: the first is Nature, the second is Mercy, and the third is Grace.
  • Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love (c. 1393), Chapter 58

• According to the Christian tradition, grace is not earned. Grace is not merited. It’s not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.
  • Barack Obama, Remarks by the President in Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney at College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA (June 26, 2015)

• We don’t earn grace. We're all sinners. We don't deserve it. But God gives it to us anyway.
  • Barack Obama, Remarks by the President in Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney at College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA (June 26, 2015)

• The path of grace involves an open mind -- but, more importantly, an open heart. [...] If we can find that grace, anything is possible. If we can tap that grace, everything can change.
  • Barack Obama, Remarks by the President in Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney at College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA (June 26, 2015)

• Grace comes secretly into the soul after the hearing of the message of salvation
  • Pope Paul VI (1964), Ecclesiam Suam, paragraph 19

• Let me not so much, so much be lost; just to see the hue, grace, glory gone Off the face of my beloved as I’d wake and be conscious.
  • Suman Pokhrel, Entanglement

• From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part,
  And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art.
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1709), line 152

• You've told me the way, and now I'm trying to get there
  And this life sentence that I'm serving
  I admit, that I'm every bit deserving
  But the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair.
  • Reliant K, "Be My Escape", on Mmhmm (2004)

• God give him grace to groan!
  • William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1595-96), Act IV, scene 3, line 21

• O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,
  That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!
  • William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1595-96), Act I, scene 1, line 206

• Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven,
  Before, behind thee and on every hand,
  Enwheel thee round!
  • William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act II, scene 1, line 85

• For several virtues
  Have I lik'd several women; never any
  With so full soul, but some defect in her
  Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd,
  And put it to the foil.
  • William Shakespeare, The Tempest (c. 1610-12), Act III, scene 1, line 42

• He does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural.
  • William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act II, scene 3, line 88

• Grace […] is a participation in the Divine Nature.
  • Fulton J. Sheen, Three to Get Married (1951), Ch. 2

• If you should find me dead one morning, don't worry. It's just that papa le bon Dieu has come to fetch me. Without doubt it is a great grace to receive the Sacraments, but when God does not permit it, that is fine just the same. All is Grace.
  • Thérèse of Lisieux (June 5, 1897), in Last Conversations (Derniers entretiens de sainte Thérèse de l'Enfant Jésus, 1927)

• She carries a pearl
  In perfect condition.
  What once was hers,
  What once was friction,
  What left a mark,
  No longer stains,
  Because Grace makes beauty
  Out of ugly things.
  • U2, "Grace", on All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000)

• Find the Grace in the things you can’t change, and help somebody if you can.
  • Van Zant, Help Somebody (March 7, 2005). As quoted in: The Swift Agency (undated): The Speak Now Tour Arm Lyrics. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024.

• Narcissus is the glory of his race:
  For who does nothing with a better grace?
  • Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725-28), Satire IV, line 85

• Sola gratia
  • Anonymous, one of the Five solas of the Protestant Reformation

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 335.

• There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford.
  • John Bradford (seeing a criminal pass by), in his Writings, Volume II. Pub. by Parker Society, Cambridge, 1853. Biog. notice, p. 13. Credited to him also by Dean Farrar, Eternal Hope, Fourth Sermon. S. O. VII. 269. 351. Credited also to Baxter, Bunyan, John Wesley.

• An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
  • Book of Common Prayer, Catechism

• Ye are fallen from grace.
  • Galatians, V, 4

• Stately and tall he moves in the hall,
  The chief of a thousand for grace.
  • Kate Franklin, Life at Olympus, Godey's Lady's Book, Volume XXIII, p. 33

• The three black graces, Law, Physic, and Divinity.
  • Horace and James Smith, Punch's Holiday

See also

• Amen
• Atonement
• Blessings
• Higher self
• Inspiration
• Karma
• Meditation
• Mindfulness
• Om
• Perfection
• Worship