While quotes directly from the Bible are always best, quotes about the Bible can inspire us to pick it up, open it up, and feast on it as well! To celebrate the launch of The 40-Day Feast, a daily devotional all about feasting on God’s sweet and satisfying Word, here are 100 of my favorite quotes about the Bible.
Some of these quotes about the Bible are centuries old but as applicable as ever, while others are brand new — straight out of The 40 Day Feast. I pray that they all work to whet your appetite for the supernatural feast which is God’s Word.
DIG IN!

100 Best quotes about the bible
The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.
— A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
The primary purpose of reading the Bible is not to know the Bible but to know God. — James Merritt
I’ve experienced His presence in the deepest hell that man can create. . . . I have tested the promises of the Bible, and believe me, you can count on them. — Corrie ten Boom
Want to hear God speak? Read your Bible. Want to hear God speak audibly? Read your Bible out loud! — Justin Peters
The goal isn’t to have a Bible collection on your shelf, but a collection of the Bible stored up in yourself. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
I have sometimes seen more in a line of the Bible than I could well tell how to stand under, and yet at another time the whole Bible hath been to me as dry as a stick. — John Bunyan
I am convinced that a prayerless approach to God’s Word is a major reason for the low- level dissatisfaction that hums beneath the surface of our lives. — Matt Smethhurst
The Bible is something more than a body of revealed truths, a col- lection of books verbally inspired by God. It is also the living voice of God. The living God speaks through its pages. Therefore, it is not to be valued as a sacred object to be placed on a shelf and neglected, but as holy ground, where people’s hearts and minds may come into vital contact with the living, gracious, and disturbing God. For a proper perspective on Scripture and for a valid understanding of revelation, there must be constant interworking of these factors; an infallible and authoritative Word, the activity of the Holy Spirit in interpreting and applying that Word, and a receptive human heart. No true knowledge of God takes place without these elements. — James Montgomery Boice
The questions we ask of the Bible impact the wisdom we glean from it. — Tara-Leigh Cobble
This is why we feast on the Word of God, to understand the love of God, shown in the flesh-and-blood person of God, that we might find our way back to God. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
Don’t let the push to check boxes keep you from lingering over a text, whether to seek to understand it (‘study’) or to emotionally glory in what you understand (‘meditation’). — David Mathis
God’s way is perfect and his Word is flawless. A perfect God could have nothing less than perfect communication with his people. It is we who read hastily, skip prayer, and fail to meditate on his Word, who find it confusing. — Tim Keller
Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done. — Sally Lloyd-Jones
When you open your Bible, God opens His mouth. — Mark Batterson
We are not powerless to change when we hold a Bible in our hands, for that Bible holds the power to change us. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
To read the Bible as God’s word one must read it with His heart in His mouth, on tip-toe, with eager expectancy, in conversation with God. To read the Bible thoughtlessly or carelessly or academically or professionally is not to read the Bible as God’s Word. As one reads it as a love letter is read, then one reads it as the Word of God. — Soren Kierkegaard
When asked, ‘What is more important: prayer or reading the Bible?’ I ask, ‘What is more important: breathing in or breathing out?’” — Charles Spurgeon
The Bible redirects my will, cleanses my emotions, enlightens my mind, and quickens my total being. — E Stanley Jones
We speak only to the degree we are spoken to. . . . Our prayers should arise out of immersion in the Scripture. — Tim Keller
The Word tells us how to live, and then, with the indwelling help of the Holy Spirit, enables us to live it out. Dear friend, do not settle for being somewhat informed and a little reformed but never transformed. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
The spectacular thing about Scripture . . . is that, like no other book held in human hands, its ink may be dry but it is the furthest thing from dead. The words are alive and active, and the Holy Spirit who inspired them can animate the most familiar passage and spring it to fresh life in your soul. — Beth Moore
The Bible is powerful and able to change your life from the inside out. No other means is given by God to accomplish such a task. The Spirit of God, who is at work in the hearts of Christians, uses the Word of God to transform them into Christlike people. — Nate Pickowicz
[People] do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself but because it contradicts them. — E. Paul Hovey
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. — D.L. Moody
Many people never read the Bible because they were not raised in a Bible-reading home. And yet, innately, deep in the fiber of their being, they long to know and be known by its Author. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
Scripture is God’s way of initiating a conversation; prayer is our response. — Mark Batterson
The Bible is a vein of pure gold, unalloyed by quartz or any earthly substance. This is a star without a speck; a sun without a blot; a light without darkness; a moon without its paleness; a glory without a dimness. O Bible! It cannot be said of any other book that it is perfect and pure; but of thee we can declare all wisdom is gathered up in thee, without a particle of folly. This is the judge that ends the strife, where wit and reason fail. This is the book untainted by any error; but is pure, unalloyed, perfect truth. — Charles Spurgeon
I scanned the Scriptures thoughtlessly—
My haste had closed my ear;
Then prayerfully I read once more—This time my heart could hear.
—Gustafson
The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible. — D.L. Moody
It is possible to read the Bible and not know the God of the Bible. We must read His words in order to know the One who is the Word. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
The Bible—banned, burned, beloved. More widely read, more frequently attacked than any other book in history. Generations of intellectuals have attempted to discredit it; dictators of every age have outlawed it and executed those who read it. Yet soldiers carry it into battle believing it more powerful than their weapons. Fragments of it smuggled into solitary prison cells have transformed ruthless killers into gentle saints. — Charles Colson
The Bible is authoritative on everything of which it speaks. Moreover, it speaks of everything. — Cornelius Van Til
Leave not off reading the Bible till you find your hearts warmed. Let it not only inform you but inflame you. — Thomas Watson
Here then, is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God’s Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy. — R.C. Sproul
Just as we all grow hungry and thirsty without food or drink, God uses dry spiritual seasons to awaken in us a deep thirst for His Word. He allows us to get to the place where we cry out as the psalmist did, “I lie in the dust; revive me by your word” (119:25 NLT). Unlike the Israelites of old, we have the whole of God’s Word with us today. God is always speaking, but we refuse to listen when we refuse to read. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
One proof of the inspiration of the Bible is that it has withstood so much poor preaching. — A.T. Robertson
No one ever graduates from Bible study until he meets its Author face to face. — Everett Harris
God the Father is the giver of Holy Scripture; God the Son is the theme of Holy Scripture; and God the Spirit is the author, authenticator, and interpreter of Holy Scripture. — J.I. Packer
“There are two ways to read Scripture — the way a lawyer reads a will and the way an heir reads a will.” — Alexander Whyte
If we are inquisitive and God is communicative, then we ought to get to the place where we are demonstrative because His Word is transformative. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feas
Do not look for the church nearest to your house. Look for the church closest to the Bible. — Paul Washer
The faith will totter if the authority of the Holy Scriptures loses its hold on men. We must surrender ourselves to the authority of Holy Scripture, for it can neither mislead nor be misled. — Augustine
God’s plan for sanctifying us, that is, for making us holy and godly, is accomplished by means of “the truth”— His Word. If we settle for a poor quality intake of hearing, reading and studying God’s Word, we severely restrict the main flow of God’s sanctifying grace toward us… For those who use their Bibles little are really not much better off than those who have no Bible at all. — Don Whitney
Whatever keeps me from my Bible is my enemy, however harmless it may appear to me. — A.W. Tozer
The same Holy Spirit who inspired the writing of the Bible inspires us in the reading of the Bible. Therefore, all that is necessary for a person to read, understand, and apply God’s Word are these three things: the inspired Word, the Holy Spirit who inspired it, and a human heart that is eager to be inspired. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
A scarlet thread running all through the Bible—the whole book points to Christ. — D.L. Moody.
Scripture has but one sense, which is the literal sense. — William Tyndale
The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me. — Martin Luther
Prayer is the “open sesame” to the Bible. Always begin your Bible reading with prayer for divine guidance. All of us in reading some current book have wished the author were present to answer and explain some things, but this is rarely possible. Amazing as it seems, this is possible when reading the Bible. – George Sweeting
A Bible that’s falling apart represents a life that’s been put back together. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
The branches of growing trees not only reach higher, but their roots grow deeper. It’s impossible for a strong tree to have high branches without having deep roots. It would become top-heavy and topple over in the wind.” The same is true with Christians. It’s impossible for us to grow in the Lord without entwining our roots around His Word and deepening our life in His commands.” – Joni Eraeckson Tada
The Word is both a glass to show us the spots of our soul and a laver to wash them away. — Puritan Thomas Watson
Do not look for the church nearest to your house. Look for the church closest to the Bible. — Paul Washer
The Bible is my church. It is always open, and there is my High Priest ever waiting to receive me. There I have my confessional, my thanksgiving, my psalm of praise, a field of promises, and a congregation of whom the world is not worthy—prophets and apostles, and martyrs and confessors—in short, all I can want, there I find. — Charlotte Elliot
Don’t simply read your Bible to get to heaven tomorrow; allow the Word to bring a taste of heaven into your life today. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. — Mark Twain
To me the greatest thing that has happened on this earth of ours is the rise of the human race to the vision of God. That story of the human rise to what I call the vision of God is the story which is told in the Bible. — Jan Christian Smuts
Reading good books about the BIble is not the same as reading the Bible. Always give priority to reading the Bible. — Dustin Benge
More people are troubled by what is plain in Scripture than by what is obscure. — Roy L Smith
God has given us His Word for such a time as this. The lamplight of God’s Word applies to these dark days. It is the light source we need to help us live right when the world lives wrong. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
Centuries of experience have tested the Bible. It has passed through critical fires no other volume has suffered, and its spiritual truth has endured the flames and come out without so much as the smell of burning. — W.E. Sangster
In the Old Testament the new lies hidden, in the New Testament the old is laid open. — Augustine
The family Bible is more often used to adorn coffee tables or press flowers than it is to feed souls and discipline lives. — Charles Colson
Backsliders begin with dusty Bibles and end with filthy garments. — Charles Spurgeon
We must get into our Bibles to the point that the Bible gets into us. We must memorize His Word daily so that He might speak to us during our daily lives. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
It is your duty to believe and to teach what the Bible teaches, not what you want it to teach. — R.C. Sproul
To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn than to the imperishable truth to be found in this treasure house, the Bible? — Queen Elizabeth II
In this one book are the two most interesting personalities in the whole world—God and yourself. The Bible is the story of God and man, a love story in which you and I must write our own ending, our unfinished autobiography of the creature and the Creator. — Fulton Oursler
A man who loves his wife will love her letters and her photographs because they speak to him of her. So if we love the Lord Jesus, we shall love the Bible because it speaks to us of him. — John Stott
Those who know the Word of God are more likely to know the voice of God. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
Once you and I are face to face with the Word of God. . . we can only accept or reject it. Jesus becomes the two-edged sword that cuts right down the middle, dividing us into believers and nonbelievers. — John Powell
God’s Word is pure and sure, in spite of the devil, in spite of your fear, in spite of everything. — R.A. Torrey
One of the many divine qualities of the Bible is this: that it does not yield its secrets to the irreverent and censorious. — J.I. Packer
A bit of the Book in the morning,
To order my onward way.
A bit of the Book in the evening,
To hallow the end of the day.
Margaret Sanster
We gobble up His presence and gobble up His Word as if we’re in a rush. Brushing the crumbs from our lap, we stand up and move on with more indigestion than transformation and wonder why we don’t look more like Him. One pastor put it this way, “Reading the Bible without meditating on it is like eating without chewing.” — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years. — Charles Spurgeon
My own experience is that the Bible is dull when I am dull. When I am really alive, and set in upon the text with a tidal pressure of living affinities, it opens, it multiplies discoveries, and reveals depths even faster than I can note them. The worldly spirit shuts the Bible; the Spirit of God makes it a fire, flaming out all meanings and glorious truths. — Horace Bushnell
The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favourite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian. – A W Tozer
The book which closes the New Testament “shuts up all” “with a seven-fold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies” as Milton says in his stately music, and may well represent for us, in that perpetual cloud of incense rising up fragrant to the Throne of God and of the Lamb, the unceasing love and thanksgiving which should be man’s answer to Christ’s love and sacrifice. — Alexander Maclaren
Spending time with Jesus in the counsel of His Word provides the common woman with uncommon wisdom and the ordinary man with extraordinary understanding. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
Make it the first morning business of your life to understand some part of the Bible clearly, and make it your daily business to obey it in all that you do understand. — John Ruskin
The Bible is none other than the voice of him that sitteth upon the throne. Every book of it, every chapter of it, every syllable of it, every letter of it, is the direct utterance of the Most High. — John William Burgon
It is not the Word hidden in the head but in the heart that keeps us from sin. – Vance Havner
The church no more created the canon than Newton created the law of gravity; recognition is not creation. — J.I. Packer
With the Bible so widely available, it’s hard not to wonder why so many Bible-believing Christians are still not Bible-reading Christians. Perhaps it’s because we’ve developed a “been there, done that” mentality. The Bible is now readily available to us, but we are not as available to it as we ought to be. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
Devout meditation on the Word is more important to soul-health even than prayer. It is more needful for you to hear God’s words than that God should hear yours, though the one will always lead to the other. — F. B. Meyer
The Holy Scriptures tell us what we could never learn any other way: they tell us what we are, who we are, how we got here, why we are here and what we are required to do while we remain here.- A.W. Tozer
If I were the devil, one of my first aims would be to stop folk from digging into the Bible. — J.I. Packer
My rule for Christian living is this: anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it. – Dr. Wilbur Chapman
The Bible was given to change us, not the other way around. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
The Bible is God’s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor is, and how to reach it without running on rocks or bars. — Henry Ward Beecher
The Bible is the only thing that can combat the devil. Quote the Scriptures and the devil will run . . . use the Scriptures like a sword and you’ll drive temptation away. — Billy Graham
The jewel of the Word should not hang in our ears, but be locked up in a believing heart. — William Jenkyn
Bible study is like eating peanuts. The more you eat, the more you want to eat. — Paul Little
The progressive movement of today invites everyone to come as they are, while refusing to address what they are: sinners in need of grace. The invitation must remain, “Come as you are,” but through the reading and loving application of God’s Word—praise Him—we don’t have to remain as we are! This is the good news of the gospel. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast
God’s Book is packed full of overwhelming riches; they are unsearchable—the more we have the more there is to have. — Oswald Chambers
The Bible does not thrill, the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible, and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically. — Oswald Chambers
I know the Bible is inspired because it finds me at a greater depth of my being than any other book. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge
When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, “It is talking to me, and about me.” — Soren Kierkegaard
Each Bible passage has the power to transcend its historical context and apply directly to the context of our daily struggles. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast