Preaching is to much avail, but practice is far more effective. A godly life is the strongest argument you can offer the skeptic.
~ Hosea Ballou

If you think practicing what you preach is rough, just try preaching what you practice.
~ Bowen Baxter

I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.
~ Richard Baxter

The clergyman is expected to be a kind of human Sunday.
~ Samuel Butler

The world looks at preachers out of church to know what they mean in it.
~ Richard Cecil

He preaches well that lives well.
~ Miguel De Cervantes

Sermons remain one of the last forms of public discourse where it is culturally forbidden to talk back.
~ Harvey Cox

Preaching is the expression of moral sentiments applied to the duties of life.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The good rain, like a bad preacher, does not know when to leave off.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of music. This is an advantage itinerant preachers have over those who are stationary, as the latter can not well improve their delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals.
~ Benjamin Franklin

I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day; I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way: The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear, fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear.
~ Edgar A. Guest

A man who is good enough to go to heaven is not good enough to be a clergyman.
~ Samuel Johnson

Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most.
~ Samuel Johnson

It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people's attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg

Preaching is heady wine. It is pleasant to tell people where they get off.
~ Sir Arnold Lunn

Some plague the people with too long sermons; for the faculty of listening is a tender thing, and soon becomes weary and satiated.
~ Martin Luther

Preach in the name of God. The learned will smile; ask the learned what they have done for their country. The priests will excommunicate you; say to the priests that you know God better than all of them together do, and that between God and His law you have no need of any intermediary. The people will understand you, and repeat with you: We believe in God the Father, who is Intelligence and Love, Creator and Teacher of Humanity. And in this saying you and the People will conquer.
~ Giuseppe Mazzini

One filled with joy preaches without preaching.
~ Mother Teresa

The Christian ministry is the worst of all trades, but the best of all professions.
~ Sir Isaac Newton

If the truth were known, many sermons are prepared and preached with more regard for the sermon than the souls of the hearers.
~ George F. Pentecost