H.P. Oliver Quotes

Almost anything is too much. I am trying in my poems to have the reader be the experiencer. I do not want to be there. It is not even a walk we take together.

I consider myself kind of a reporter - one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write.

All culture developed as some wild, raw creature strived to live better and longer.

If I've done my work well, I vanish completely from the scene. I believe it is invasive of the work when you know too much about the writer.

I took one look and fell, hook and tumble.

Writing a poem ... is a kind of possible love affair between something like the heart (that courageous but also shy factory of emotion) and the learned skills of the conscious mind.

The face of the moose is as sad as the face of Jesus.

I've always wanted to write poems and nothing else.

Art is ultimately schizophrenic.

Artists should be self-aware of their work and their potential places in people's lives and make their decisions accordingly.

The Impressionists had to fight the gallery system for many years before becoming accepted. One of their methods of fighting was to band together and hold their own shows.

How and when to try new things and to what degree are critical... Too soon and too radical a change and you may not master anything or develop a style.

Can a nasty, horrible person still produce good quality, uplifting and inspirational work?

You have to control, focus and temper the strength. Uncontrolled strength is usually an explosion. Sometimes on the other hand let it explode and pick up the pieces.

A copying artist should get permission or pay the original artist a fee.

Marketing of art is, and to my mind has always been, trendy. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean there is any real long-term value. As an artist I do what I like. As a collector I collect what I like.

The artist who chooses the difficult muse; or only has a difficult muse; should not be surprised with the results.

Freedom works, it turns out; the Constitution codified and structured freedom at a level unparalleled in world history.

There’s always tomorrow, until there’s not.

If you want to follow your dreams, you have to say no to all the alternatives.

If you think success will make you happy, you have it backwards.

All sporting ambition considered, there should always be a relationship to Germany.

Oliver Kahn has shown once again that he is a great sportsman.

THE PEOPLE WOULD BE JUST AS NOISY IF THEY WERE GOING TO SEE ME HANGED.

God shows us in Christ what he would have to do if he were to punish us for our sins.

[Calvinistic tradition] has fashioned and shaped my thinking since I was a teenager.

The best Reformed theology isn't just about careful arguments for theologically sophisticated conclusions. It is about how to live the Christian life.

The atonement chapter [from the book Saving Calvinism] shows how there are real riches in Reformed theology that most Christians today have no idea about.

Reformed theology belongs to this confessional tradition, and Reformed theologians and churches continue to write confessions even today.

We may think that our tradition is exactly the same as it has always been, but that is an illusion.

That is the great contribution of Reformed thinking to the Christian church: theology for a life well-lived.

For those who have only ever read about [John] Calvin, reading the man himself is an invigorating experience.

[John Calvin] writes clearly, directly, without artifice, and gets straight to the practical heart of the matter.

[John Calvin's] Humanist training makes him an excellent writer. What is more, he is as relevant today as he was 500 years ago.

One of the things we in the Reformed tradition are very good at is writing doctrinal theology!

Reading [John] Calvin is a breath of fresh air.

Christ's work is a kind of deterrent to us, and a way of upholding the justice of God's divine government of the world.

How many people in the pews know that [ Jonathan Edwards] is both a founder of evangelicalism and, say, an idealist who denied that the material world exists?

To my mind [ Jonathan Edwards] is an interesting figure because he is both a canonical Reformed thinker, and yet also someone that pushed the envelope in a number of key areas of theology.

[ Jonathan] Edwards is one of my heroes. I've learned much from him over the years.

[I'm often called a Deviant Calvinist] but that only goes to underline the point I'm trying to make about the need to broaden our account of the tradition!

I don't really have a lot of interns, although I do now use Research Assistants to help me compile indexes when that is necessary.

I'm sometimes asked about my productivity, which I find a bit embarrassing to be honest. I don't really have a particularly interesting answer to this question.

In the chapter on the nature of the atonement [in the book saving Calvinism] I argue that it is a mistake to think that penal substitution is the only option on the doctrine of atonement.

Jonathan Edwards developed a Calvinistic strand of the doctrine.

We are still living with the consequences of that today in popular Reformed thinking from the likes of John Piper, R. C. Sproul, and Tim Keller.

[Jonathan Edwards] he has to be engaged with on this issue if you're writing about Calvinism as I am in this book.

Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not rubbishing penal substitution. But there are other options that have been advocated by Reformed thinkers of the past.

No confession is inerrant; Reformed Christians are supposed to be those who seek to be constantly reformed according to the Word of God - and that includes our confessions as well.

The book [Saving Calvinism] itself is not recommending that we move the borders, so to speak. It is recommending that we look at what lies within the confessional bounds of Reformed thought.