"The creed of a true saint is to make the best of life, and to make the most of it"
About this Quote
The two-part rhythm does the heavy lifting: “make the best of life” speaks to hardship, disappointment, the givens you don’t get to rewrite. It’s a theology of acceptance with spine, not resignation. Then he tightens the screw: “and to make the most of it” shifts from endurance to agency. Not just coping well, but extracting meaning, service, and growth from the raw material. The phrase pair turns holiness into a practical double mandate: respond well to circumstance, then actively enlarge what circumstance can become.
Chapin’s context matters. As a 19th-century American clergyman, he’s preaching to a culture being reshaped by industrial time, social mobility, and moral self-improvement narratives. This is Protestant optimism without naivete: life will bruise you, but you’re still responsible for what you do with the bruise. The subtext is quietly democratic, too. Sainthood isn’t reserved for the spiritually elite; it’s available to anyone willing to treat ordinary days as a moral arena. That’s why the line lands: it makes holiness legible in the register of everyday effort.
Quote Details
| Topic | Life |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Chapin, Edwin Hubbel. (2026, January 17). The creed of a true saint is to make the best of life, and to make the most of it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-creed-of-a-true-saint-is-to-make-the-best-of-59673/
Chicago Style
Chapin, Edwin Hubbel. "The creed of a true saint is to make the best of life, and to make the most of it." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-creed-of-a-true-saint-is-to-make-the-best-of-59673/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The creed of a true saint is to make the best of life, and to make the most of it." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-creed-of-a-true-saint-is-to-make-the-best-of-59673/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
