“Instead of conforming to this world—whether in the form of religious Pharisees or of irreligious pagans—we are called by Jesus to imitate our heavenly Father….Here then is the alternative, either to follow the crowd or to follow our Father in heaven, either to be a reed swayed by the winds of public opinion or to be ruled by God's word, the revelation of his character and will. And the overriding purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to present us with this alternative, and so to face us with the indispensable necessity of choice.”—John Stott

“On the first reading of the Sermon on the Mount you feel that it turns everything upside down, but the second time you read it, you discover that it turns everything right side up. The first time you read it, you feel that it is impossible, but the second time you feel that nothing else is possible.”—G.K. Chesterton