first

Christianity without distinction professes an equal regard for all human beings, and was characterised by her first promulgator as the messenger of ‘glad tidings to the poor’.

—William Wilberforce

Christ is not the founder of Christianity, nor the first confessor of it, nor the first Christian. But he is Christianity itself, in its preparation, fulfillment, and consummation.

—Herman Bavinck

Christ is not the founder of Christianity, nor the first confessor of it, nor the first Christian. But he is Christianity itself… its preparation, fulfillment, and consummation.

—Herman Bavinck

Truth is the offspring of silence and meditation. I keep the subject constantly before me and wait ’til the first dawning opens slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light.

—Isaac Newton

I like to avoid concessions to faint-heartedness.

One can never tell where that road may lead one; one gives way first in words, and then little by little in substance too.

—Sigmund Freud

Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

—Sun Tzu

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.

—Friedrich Nietzsche

The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.

—Thomas Edison

They’re thinking of turning the peasant into an educated man. Why, first of all they should make him a good and prosperous farmer and then he’ll learn all that is necessary for him to know.

—Nikolai Gogol

I loved him as we always love for the first time; with idolatry and wild passion.

—Voltaire

We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.

—Sigmund Freud

The first and grand thing, is to get a true and lively faith in CHRIST JESUS, seeking for it by earnest prayer.

—George Whitefield

But there is nothing enduring in the world, and therefore even joy in the second minute is already not as acute as in the first; in the third minute it becomes still weaker and finally merges unnoticeably with the usual condition of the soul, as a circle on the water, caused by the fall of a pebble, finally merges with the smooth surface.

—Nikolai Gogol

First, always take care of business.

—Peter R. Rose