I recently read Thomas Watson’s, The Doctrine of Repentance. Like most puritan classics, it is a thoughtful, well-developed masterpiece, which leaves no stone unturned. Here are my fifteen favorite quotes from the book:

  1. It is better to go with difficulty to heaven than with ease to hell.
  2. We are to find as much bitterness in weeping for sin as ever we found sweetness sin committing it.
  3. The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we shall taste in Christ
  4. By this self-accusing we prevent Satan’s accusing.
  5. Many had rather have their sins covered than cured (Prov. 28:13).
  6. Blushing is the color of virtue.
  7. Christ is never loved till sin be loathed.
  8. We are never more precious in God’s eyes than when we are lepers in our own.
  9. As God has two places he dwells in, heaven and a humble heart, so the devil has two places he dwells in, hell and a hard heart.
  10. Morality shoots short of heaven. It is only nature refined. A moral man is but old Adam dressed in fine clothes.
  11. Indeed, if prayer does not make a man leave sin, sin will make a man leave prayer.
  12. It is better to mortify one sin than to understand all mysteries.
  13. Never do the flowers of grace grow more than after a shower of repentant tears.
  14. Upon our turning to God we have more restored to us in Christ than ever was lost in Adam.
  15. It is the Spirit’s smiting on the rock of our hearts that makes the waters gush out.