Piety Quotes - Page 2

• The United States is only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it. Militarily. They also lead economically but they're getting weak. But they don't lead morally and politically anymore. The world has no leadership. The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope, whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States. Today, we lost that hope.

  Lech Walesa

  Doubt, Today, Lasts

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• You smile with pomp and rigor, you talk of benevolence and virtue; I act with benevolence and virtue and get murdered time after time.

  William Blake

  Feelings, Religion, Virtue

  William Blake (1906). “Poetical Works”

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• Sensible of the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement ... Manners, by which not only the freedom, but the very existence of the republics, are greatly affected, depend much upon the public institutions of religion and the good education of youth; in both these instances our fathers laid wise foundations, for which their posterity have had reason to bless their memory.

  John Hancock

  Christian, Wise, Encouragement

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• Let sleep itself be an exercise in piety, for such as our life and conduct have been, so also of necessity will be our dreams.

  Saint Basil

  Dream, Sleep, Exercise

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• Piety does not mean that a man should make a sour face about things, and refuse to enjoy in moderation what his Maker has given.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Mean, Men, Doe

  Thomas Carlyle (1866). “On the Choice of Books. The inaugural address of Thomas Carlyle, Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh. Reprinted from “the Times,” with additional articles, a memoir of the author, etc”, p.30

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• Among the many strange servilities mistaken for pieties, one of the least lovely is that which hopes to flatter God by despising the world, and vilifying human nature.

  George Henry Lewes

  Lovely, World, Strange

  George Henry Lewes (1874). “Problems of Life and Mind”, p.23

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• Jesus is the purest among the mighty, and the mightiest among the pure, who, with his pierced hand has raised empires from their foundations, turned the stream of history from its old channel, and still continues to rule and guide the ages

  Jean Paul

  Jesus, Hands, Age

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• Pathos, piety, courage, they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.

  E. M. Forster

  Filth, Pathos, Identical

  'A Passage to India' (1924) ch. 14

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• Oaths are the fossils of piety.

  George Santayana

  Promise, Fossils, Swearing

  George Santayana (1950). “Atoms of Thought: An Anthology of Thoughts”

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• When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community. The objects of their desires are changed; what they were fond of before has become indifferent; they were free while under the restraint of laws, but they would fain now be free to act against law.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Ambition, Law, Community

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• Wonder, connected with a principle of rational curiosity, is the source of all knowledge and discover, and it is a principle even of piety; but wonder which ends in wonder, and is satisfied with wonder, is the quality of an idiot.

  Samuel Horsley

  Curiosity, Quality, Principles

  Samuel Horsley (1811). “Sermons”, p.121

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• But if they are well-founded and just, they can be no less than the high requirements of heaven, addressed by the voice of God to the reason and understanding of man, concerning things deeply affecting his relations to his sovereign, and essential to the formation of his character and of course to his destiny, both for this life and for the life.

  Simon Greenleaf

  Character, Destiny, Men

  Simon Greenleaf (1995). “The Testimony of the Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence”, p.10, Kregel Publications

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• We may learn by practice such things upon earth as shall be of use to us in heaven. Piety, unostentatious piety, is never out of place.

  Edwin Hubbel Chapin

  Practice, Heaven, Use

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• Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.

  Edmund Burke

  Religious, Atheism, Zealous

  Speech, 18 February 1788, in E. A. Bond (ed.) 'Speeches...in the Trial of Warren Hastings' (1859) vol. 1, p. 104

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• Paganism is infectious, more infectious than diphtheria or piety.

  E. M. Forster

  Literature, Paganism

  E. M. Forster (2016). “A Room With A View: England Literature”, p.133, 谷月社

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• He asks how the evil is to be remedied. I tell him that there seems to be little chance for avoiding the extremes of despotism or anarchy; that the only ground of hope must be the morals of the people, but that these are, I fear, too corrupt.

  Gouverneur Morris

  People, Evil, Littles

  Gouverneur Morris (1888). “The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris: Minister of the United States to France ... Etc”

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• The true makes of history are the spiritual men whom the world knew not, the unregarded agents of the creative action of the Spirit. The supreme instance of this-the key to the Christian understanding of history-is to be found in the Incarnation- the presence of the maker of the world in the world unknown to the world. ... The Incarnation is itself in a sense the divine fruit of history-of the fullness of time-and it finds its extension and completion in the historic life of the Church.

  Christopher Dawson

  Christian, Spiritual, Men

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• In the beds which the piety of the public has prepared on every side, stricken men await the verdict of fate.

  Georges Duhamel

  Fate, Men, Bed

  Georges Duhamel (1918). “The New Book of Martyrs: From the French of Georges Duhamel”

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• Patience is a noble virtue, and, when rightly exercised, does not fail of its reward.

  George Washington

  Doe, Noble, Rewards

  George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson (1784). “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799”, p.1

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• It is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues.

  Thomas Paine

  Slavery, Republican, Failing

  Thomas Paine (2014). “Selected Writings of Thomas Paine”, p.19, Yale University Press

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• It is impossible for the mind which is not totally destitute of piety, to behold the sublime, the awful, the amazing works of creation and providence - the heavens with their luminaries, the mountains, the ocean, the storm, the earthquake, the volcano, the circuit of the seasons, and the revolutions of empires - without marking in them all the mighty hand of God, and feeling strong emotions of reverence toward the Author of these stupendous works.

  Timothy Dwight V

  Strong, Ocean, Volcanoes

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 273), 1895.

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• Piety is indifferent whether she enters at the eye or at the ear. There is none of the senses at which she does not knock one day or other. The Puritans forgot this, and thrust Beauty out of the meeting-house and slammed the door in her face.

  James Russell Lowell

  Eye, Doors, House

  James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.76

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• I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.

  George Washington

  Political, Littles, Path

  George Washington (1800). “Legacies of Washington: being a collection of the most approved writings of the late General Washington, with an appendix containing a sketch of the life of this illustrious patriot, &c. &c. (By J. M. Williams.) [With an engraved portrait.]”, p.222

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• These are no ordinary claims; and it seems hardly possible for a rational being to regard them with even a subdued interest; much less to treat them with mere indifference and contempt. If not true they are little else than the pretensions of a bold imposture, which not satisfied with having already enslaved millions of the human race, seeks to continue its encroachments upon human liberty, until all nations be subjected under its iron rule.

  Simon Greenleaf

  Iron, Race, Liberty

  Simon Greenleaf (1995). “The Testimony of the Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence”, p.10, Kregel Publications

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• Faith is nothing but obedience and piety.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Obedience

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