Dwight Lyman Moody (February 5, 1837 – December 26, 1899), also known as D. L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher connected with Keswickianism, who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts (now Northfield Mount Hermon School), Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers. One of his most famous quotes was “Faith makes all things possible… Love makes all things easy.” Moody gave up his lucrative boot and shoe business to devote his life to revivalism, working first in the Civil War with Union troops through YMCA in the United States Christian Commission. In Chicago, he built one of the major evangelical centers in the nation, which is still active. Working with singer Ira Sankey, he toured the country and the British Isles, drawing large crowds with a dynamic speaking style.
Dwight L. Moody Quotes
1. “Moses spent forty years thinking he was somebody; forty years learning he was nobody; and forty years discovering what God can do with a nobody.”
— Dwight L. Moody
2. “Christians should live in the world, but not be filled with it. A ship lives in the water; but if the water gets into the ship, she goes to the bottom. So Christians may live in the world; but if the world gets into them, they sink.”
— Dwight L. Moody
3. “God doesn’t expect the impossible from us. He wants us to expect the impossible from Him!”
— Dwight L. Moody
4. “The Bible was not given for our information but for our transformation.”
— Dwight L. Moody
5. “Give your life to God; he can do more with it than you can!”
— Dwight L. Moody
6. “I’d rather be able to pray than to be a great preacher; Jesus Christ never taught his disciples how to preach, but only how to pray.”
— Dwight L. Moody
7. “I have never met a man who has given me as much trouble as myself.”
— Dwight L. Moody
8. “I prayed for Faith, and thought that some day Faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But Faith did not seem to come. One day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, ‘Now Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God’. I had closed my Bible, and prayed for Faith. I now opened my Bible, and began to study, and Faith has been growing ever since.”
— Dwight L. Moody
9. “Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian.”
— Dwight L. Moody
10. “Everybody wants to enjoy heaven after they die, but they don’t want to be heavenly-minded while they live.”
— Dwight L. Moody
11. “We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining- they just shine.”
— Dwight L. Moody
12. “Joy is love exalted; peace is love in response; long-suffering is love enduring; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love in tough situations; and temperance is love in training.”
— Dwight L. Moody
13. “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”
— Dwight L. Moody
14. “There will be no peace in any soul until it is willing to obey the voice of God.”
— Dwight L. Moody
15. “Character is what a man is in the dark.”
— Dwight L. Moody
16. “There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord, but few of us are willing to do little things.”
— Dwight L. Moody
17. “The difference between listening to a radio sermon and going to church…is almost like the difference between calling your girl on the phone and spending an evening with her.”
— Dwight L. Moody
18. “God likes His people to believe that there is nothing too hard for Him…We are all the time limiting God’s power by our own ideas. Let us get our eyes off one another and fix them upon God. There is nothing to hard for Him.”
— Dwight L. Moody
19. “He who kneels the most, stands the best.”
— Dwight L. Moody
20. “The Christian on his knees sees more than the philosopher on tiptoe. God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.”
— Dwight L. Moody
21. “In our prayers, we talk to God, in our Bible study, God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— Dwight L. Moody
22. “Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray Him to empty us.”
— Dwight L. Moody
23. “God will not accept a divided heart. He must be an absolute monarch. There is no room in your heart for two thrones. You cannot mix the worship of the true God with the worship of any other god more than you can mix oil and water. It cannot be done. There is no room for any other throne in the heart of Christ is there. If worldliness should come in, godliness would go out.”
— Dwight L. Moody
24. “I have noticed this, that when a man is full of the Holy Ghost he is the very last man to be complaining of other people.”
— Dwight L. Moody
25. “The Scriptures were not given to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives.”
— Dwight L. Moody
26. “This lost world will never be reached and brought back to loyalty to God until the children of God wake up to the fact that they have a mission in the world. If we are true Christians we should all be missionaries.”
— Dwight L. Moody
27. “The measure of a man is not how many servants he has but how many men he serves .”
— Dwight L. Moody
28. “Right now I’m having so much trouble with D.L. Moody that I don’t have time to find fault with the other fellow.”
— Dwight L. Moody
29. “Moses spent forty years in the king’s palace thinking that he was somebody; then he lived forty years in the wilderness finding out that without GOD he was a nobody; finally he spent forty more years discovering how a nobody with GOD can be a somebody.”
— Dwight L. Moody
30. “Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows through persecution and opposition. It is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart; a secret spring the world can’t see and doesn’t know anything about.”
— Dwight L. Moody
31. “Excuses are the cradle … that Satan rocks men off to sleep in.”
— Dwight L. Moody
32. “If God is your partner, make your plans BIG!”
— Dwight L. Moody
33. “We ought to see the face of God every morning before we see the face of man.”
— Dwight L. Moody
34. “Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is not to come at all.”
— Dwight L. Moody
35. “Someone has said that there are four things necessary in studying the Bible: Admit, submit, commit, and transmit.”
— Dwight L. Moody
36. “Take courage. We walk in the wilderness today and in the Promised Land tomorrow.”
— Dwight L. Moody
37. “Those who say they will forgive but can’t forget, simply bury the hatchet but leave the handle out for immediate use.”
— Dwight L. Moody
38. “There is no greater honour than to be the instrument in God’s hands of leading one person out of the kingdom of Satan into the glorious light of Heaven.”
— Dwight L. Moody
39. “Real true faith is man’s weakness leaning on God’s strength.”
— Dwight L. Moody
40. “I thought when I became a Christian I had nothing to do but just to lay my oars in the bottom of the boat and float along. But I soon found that I would have to go against the current.”
— Dwight L. Moody
41. “The work of the Spirit is to impart life, to implant hope, to give liberty, to testify of Christ, to guide us into all truth, to teach us all things, to comfort the believer, and to convict the world of sin.”
— Dwight L. Moody
42. “Small numbers make no difference to God. There is nothing small if God is in it.”
— Dwight L. Moody
43. “Spread out your petition before God, and then say, “Thy will, not mine, be done.” The sweetest lesson I have learned in God’s school is to let the Lord choose for me.”
— Dwight L. Moody
44. “Be humble, or you’ll stumble.”
— Dwight L. Moody
45. “Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.”
— Dwight L. Moody
46. “Whatever you love more than God is your idol.”
— Dwight L. Moody
47. “The first thing a man must do if he desires to be used in the Lord’s work, is to make an unconditional surrender of himself to God.”
— Dwight L. Moody
48. “Faith makes all things possible… love makes all things easy.”
— Dwight L. Moody
49. “It does not take long to tell where a man’s treasure is. In fifteen minutes’ conversation with most men, you can tell whether their treasures are on the earth or in Heaven.”
— Dwight L. Moody
50. “God has cast our confessed sins into the depths of the sea, and He’s even put a ‘No Fishing’ sign over the spot.”
— Dwight L. Moody
51. “God never made a promise that was too good to be true.”
— Dwight L. Moody
52. “The Lord gives his people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to him.”
— Dwight L. Moody
53. “The fact is, we are leaky vessels, and we have to keep right under the fountain all the time to keep full of Christ, and so have fresh supply.”
— Dwight L. Moody
54. “A holy life will produce the deepest impression. Lighthouses blow no horns; they only shine.”
— Dwight L. Moody
55. “Our Faith must be tested. God builds no ships but what He sends to sea.”
— Dwight L. Moody
56. “I like my way of doing things better than your way of not doing them.”
— Dwight L. Moody
57. “The best way to revive a church is to build a fire in the pulpit.”
— Dwight L. Moody
58. “More depends on my walk than talk.”
— Dwight L. Moody
59. “God has two thrones, on in the highest heavens, the other in the lowliest heart.”
— Dwight L. Moody
60. “A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility.”
— Dwight L. Moody
61. “The object of the Bible is not to tell how good men are, but how bad men can become good.”
— Dwight L. Moody
62. “Many a professing Christian is a stumbling block because his worship is divided. On Sunday he worships God; on weekdays God has little or no place in his thoughts.”
— Dwight L. Moody
63. “The world does not understand theology or dogma, but it understands love and sympathy.”
— Dwight L. Moody
64. “There is no true prayer without confession. As long as we have unconfessed sin in our souls, we are not going to have power with God in prayer. He says if we regard iniquity in our hearts, He will not hear us, much less answer. As long as we are living in any known sin, we have no power in prayer. God is not going to hear it.”
— Dwight L. Moody
65. “I cannot convert men; I can only proclaim the Gospel.”
— Dwight L. Moody
66. “I believe many a man is praying to God to fill him when he is full already with something else. Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray Him to empty us.”
— Dwight L. Moody
67. “I firmly believe a great many prayers are not answered because we are not willing to forgive someone.”
— Dwight L. Moody
68. “Some say if only my fears and doubts will leave then I will get to work. But instead, you should get to work and then your fears and doubts will leave.”
— Dwight L. Moody
69. “A man who prays much in private will make short prayers in public.”
— Dwight L. Moody
70. “Use me then, my Saviour for whatever purpose and whatever way thou mayest require. Here is my poor heart, and empty vessel; fill it with Thy Grace.”
— Dwight L. Moody
71. “The world knows little of the works wrought by prayer.”
— Dwight L. Moody
72. “When a man is not deeply convicted of sin, it is a pretty sure sign that he has not truly repented. Experience has taught me that men who have very slight conviction of sin sooner or later lapse back into their old life.”
— Dwight L. Moody
73. “I would rather a thousand times be five minutes at the feet of Christ than listen a lifetime to all the wise men in the world.”
— Dwight L. Moody
74. “The Gospel of John opens with Jesus Christ in the bosom of God, and closes with the sinner in the bosom of Jesus Christ.”
— Dwight L. Moody
75. “God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without trial.”
— Dwight L. Moody
76. “No matter how low down you are; no matter what your disposition has been; you may be low in your thoughts, words, and actions; you may be selfish; your heart may be overflowing with corruption and wickedness; yet Jesus will have compassion upon you. He will speak comforting words to you; not treat you coldly or spurn you, as perhaps those of earth would, but will speak tender words, and words of love and affection and kindness. Just come at once. He is a faithful friend – a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
— Dwight L. Moody
77. “When a man is filled with the Word of God you cannot keep him still, If a man has got the Word, he must speak or die.”
— Dwight L. Moody
78. “Let us expect that God is going to use us. Let us have courage and go forward, looking to God to do great things.”
— Dwight L. Moody
79. “When God gave Christ to this world, He gave the best He had, and He wants us to do the same.”
— Dwight L. Moody
80. “The grand question of life is, Is my name written in heaven?”
— Dwight L. Moody
81. “Grace means undeserved kindness. It is the gift of God to man the moment he sees he is unworthy of God’s favor.”
— Dwight L. Moody
82. “I believe Satan exists for two reasons: first, the Bible says so, and second, I’ve done business with him.”
— Dwight L. Moody
83. “What makes the Dead Sea dead? Because it is all the time receiving, never giving out anything. Why is it that many Christians are cold? Because they are all the time receiving, never giving out anything.”
— Dwight L. Moody
84. “I firmly believe that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and self-seeking and every thing that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Ghost will come and fill every corner of our hearts; but if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and self-seeking and pleasure and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God; and I believe many a man is praying to God to fill him when he is full already with something else.”
— Dwight L. Moody
85. “If I walk with the world, I can’t walk with God.”
— Dwight L. Moody
86. “I hunted all through the four Gospels trying to find one of Christ’s funeral sermons, but I couldn’t find any. I found He broke up every funeral He ever attended! Death couldn’t exist where He was.”
— Dwight L. Moody
87. “If we do not love one another, we certainly shall not have much power with God in prayer.”
— Dwight L. Moody
88. “Fervency in prayer by the power of the Holy Spirit is a good preservative against thoughts rushing in. Flies never settle on the boiling pot.”
— Dwight L. Moody
89. “When I first became a Christian I thought I would be glad when I got farther on, and got established. I thought I would be so strong and there would not be any danger; but the longer I live, the more danger I see there is. The only hope of any Christian…is to keep hold of Christ.”
— Dwight L. Moody
90. “I never saw a fruit-bearing Christian who was not a student of the Bible.”
— Dwight L. Moody
91. “A man ought to live so that everybody knows he is a Christian… and most of all, his family ought to know.”
— Dwight L. Moody
92. “God doesn’t seek for golden vessels and does not ask for silver ones, but He must have clean ones.”
— Dwight L. Moody
93. “So few grow, because so few study.”
— Dwight L. Moody
94. “If our circumstances find us in God, we shall find God in all our circumstances.”
— Dwight L. Moody
95. “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). That is whence faith comes. It is not for me to sit down and wait for faith to come stealing over me with a strong sensation, but is for me to take God at His Word.”
— Dwight L. Moody
96. “Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal-a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.”
— Dwight L. Moody
97. “A Christian in the world is one thing, and the world in a Christian is quite another thing. A ship in the water is all right, but when the water gets in the ship, it is quite a different thing.”
— Dwight L. Moody
98. “The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.”
— Dwight L. Moody
99. “We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God.”
— Dwight L. Moody
100. “Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live. The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.”
— Dwight L. Moody
101. “Whitewashing the pump won’t make the water pure.”
— Dwight L. Moody
102. “It is not the man that can preach the best that is the most successful, but the man who knows how to get his people together to pray.”
— Dwight L. Moody
103. “The best definition I can find of faith is the dependence upon the veracity of another. The Bible definition in the 11th chapter of Hebrews is, ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ In other words, faith says amen to everything that God says. Faith takes God without any ifs, If God says it, Faith says I believe it; Faith says amen to it.”
— Dwight L. Moody
104. “Ministry need not be an office; it’s a lifestyle devoted to attracting the lost to Christ and encouraging other believers in the faith.”
— Dwight L. Moody
105. “The preaching that this world needs most is the sermons in shoes that are walking with Jesus Christ.”
— Dwight L. Moody
106. “If you have so much business to attend to that you have no time to pray, depend upon it that you have more business on hand than God ever intended you should have.”
— Dwight L. Moody
107. “If a man just stops to think what he has to praise God for, he will find there is enough to keep him singing praises for a week.”
— Dwight L. Moody
108. “The valley of the shadow of death holds no darkness for the child of God. There must be light, or else there could be no shadow. Jesus is the light. He has overcome death.”
— Dwight L. Moody
109. “David was the last one we would have chosen to fight the giant, but he was chosen by God.”
— Dwight L. Moody
110. “Prayer does not mean that I am to bring God down to my thoughts and my purposes and bend his government according to my foolish, silly, and sometimes sinful notions. Prayer means that I am to be raised up into feeling, into union and design with him; that I am to enter into his counsel and carry out his purpose fully.”
— Dwight L. Moody
111. “If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of me.”
— Dwight L. Moody
112. “The voice of sin is loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder.”
— Dwight L. Moody
113. “The Bible without the Holy Spirit is a sundial by moonlight.”
— Dwight L. Moody
114. “Every one of our children will be brought into the ark if we pray and work earnestly for them.”
— Dwight L. Moody
115. “Lust is the devil’s counterfeit for love. There is nothing more beautiful on earth than a pure love and there is nothing so blighting as lust.”
— Dwight L. Moody
116.“ Dr. Bonar once said that he could tell when a Christian was growing. In proportion to his growth in grace he would elevate his Master, talk less of what he himself was doing, and become smaller and smaller in his own esteem, until, like the morning star, he faded away before the rising sun.”
— Dwight L. Moody
117. “If a man gets drunk and goes out and breaks his leg so that it must be amputated, God will forgive him if he asks it, but he will have to hop around on one leg all his life.”
— Dwight L. Moody
118. “We may easily be too big for God to use, but never too small.”
— Dwight L. Moody
119. “It is the greatest pleasure of living to win souls to Christ.”
— Dwight L. Moody
120. “When I was a young man I heard Henry Barley say that the world has yet to see what God can do for a man fully yielded to Him, and I said I wanted to be that man. But I can say today the world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully yielded to Him.”
— Dwight L. Moody
121. “Careful for nothing, prayerful for everything, thankful for anything.”
— Dwight L. Moody
122. “You might as well try to hear without ears or breathe without lungs, as to try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart.”
— Dwight L. Moody
123. “The man that is popular with the world is not a friend of Jesus. You cannot serve two masters. The world hates Christ, and if you are a friend of the world you cannot be a friend of His. You may be sure that something is wrong with you when everybody is your friend.”
— Dwight L. Moody
124. “Satan is willing to have us worship anything, however sacred – the Bible, the crucifix, the church – if only we do not worship God Himself.”
— Dwight L. Moody
125. “To be tempted is not to sin. The strongest attacks are made on the strongest forts.”
— Dwight L. Moody
