Absolution Quotes

• There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.

  Oscar Wilde

  Self, Luxury, Blame

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 8 (1891)

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• Our own acts are isolated and one act does not buy absolution for another.

  William Butler Yeats

  Doe, Isolated

  William Butler Yeats (2010). “Autobiographies: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats”, p.371, Simon and Schuster

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• There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses. Both the strong and the weak grasp at this alibi. The latter hide their malevolence under the virtue of obedience: they acted dishonorably because they had to obey orders. The strong, too, claim absolution by proclaiming themselves the chosen instrument of a higher power -- God, history, fate, nation, or humanity.

  Bruce Lee

  Strong, Powerful, Responsibility

  Bruce Lee (2015). “Bruce Lee: Artist of Life”, p.240, Tuttle Publishing

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• It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.

  Oscar Wilde

  Keeping Secrets, Giving, Guilt

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 8 (1891)

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• I tell you, guilt dwells nowhere but in the eyes of the accuser. This men know even as they deny it, which is why they so often make murder their absolution. The truth of crime lies not with the victim but with the witness.

  R. Scott Bakker

  Lying, Eye, Men

  R. Scott Bakker (2008). “The Thousandfold Thought: The Prince of Nothing, Book Three (The Prince of Nothing)”, p.47, The Overlook Press

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• There are things about organized religion which I resent. Christ is revered as the Prince of Peace, but more blood has been shed in his name than any other figure in history. You show me one step forward in the name of religion, and I'll show you a hundred retrogressions…I'm for decency—period. I'm for anything and everything that bodes love and consideration for my fellow man. But when lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday—count me out.

  Frank Sinatra

  Sunday, Men, Blood

  Interview with Joe Hyams, Playboy magazine, February 1963.

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• A dead man is the worst enemy alive, I thought. You can't alter his power over you. You can't alter what you love or owe. And it's too late to ask him for his absolution. He has beaten you all ways.

  John le Carre

  Regret, Men, Worst Enemy

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• Forgive! How many will say, forgive, and find a sort of absolution in the sound to hate a little longer!

  Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Forgiveness, Hate, Forgiving

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Illustrated)”, p.1240, Delphi Classics

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• Victimization status is the modern promised land of absolution from personal responsibility.

  Laura Schlessinger

  Responsibility, Land, Modern

  Dr. Laura Schlessinger (2009). “How Could You Do That?!: Abdication of Character, Courage, Consci”, p.17, Harper Collins

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• The sunshine dreaming upon Salmon's heightIs not so sweet and whiteAs the most heretofore sin-spotted SoulThat darts to its delightStraight from the absolution of a faithful fight.

  Coventry Patmore

  Dream, Sweet, Sunshine

  Coventry Patmore, “The Unknown Eros. Book I.”

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• No excuses ever, for anyone; that is my principle at the outset. I deny the good intention, the respectable mistake, the indiscretion, the extenuating circumstance. With me there is no giving of absolution or blessing.

  Albert Camus

  Mistake, Blessing, Giving

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Fall”, p.131, Vintage

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• The truth brings with it a great measure of absolution, always.

  R. D. Laing

  Honesty, Ethics, Honest Truth

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• There is nothing absolute and final. If everything were ironclad, all the rules absolute and everything structured so no paradox or irony existed, you couldn't move. One could say that man sneaks through the crack where paradox exists.

  Itzhak Bentov

  Spiritual, Moving, Men

  Itzhak Bentov (2000). “A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness: A Cosmic Book on the Mechanics of Creation”, p.78, Inner Traditions / Bear & Co

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• You can't let the fear of something completely and absolutely inevitable.

  Jeb Corliss

  Fear, Inevitable, Completeness

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• Self-condemnation is God's absolution; and pleading guilty, acquittal at his bar.

  C. A. Bartol

  Self, Bars, Guilty

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• To be absolved, especially if you commit a crime, there is no absolution, you must pay. But for forgiveness, with God or nature, you have to accept what you've done.

  Gael Garcia Bernal

  Done, Pay, Crime

  Source: www.movieweb.com

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• I give and bequeath my soul to Almighty God that gave it me, hoping that through the meritorious death and passion of our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ to receive absolution and remission for all my sins.

  George Mason

  Jesus, Passion, Giving

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• Yon Kippur. Greatest Jewish holiday ever. The Jewish day of attonement. You don't ear for one day, all your sins for the year are wiped clean. Beat that with your little Lent. What is Lent? Forty days of absolution. Forty days to one day. Even in sin you're paying retail.

  Jon Stewart

  Holiday, Years, One Day

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• [Dawn] is always such a forgiving time. When that first cold, bright streak comes over the water, it's as if all our sins were pardoned; as if the sky leaned over the earth and kissed it and gave it absolution.

  Willa Cather

  Sky, Water, Forgiving

  Willa Cather (1938). “The Novels and Stories of Willa Cather ...”

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• As however the ancients say that in case of necessity any Christian lay person can administer the sacrament of baptism, so Luther says the same thing about absolution in case of necessity, where no priest is present.

  Martin Chemnitz

  Christian, Baptism, Luther

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• Offer it up personally,then. Right now. I thought of how many people go to their graves unforgiven and unforgiving. I thought of how many people have had siblings or friends or children or lovers disappear from their lives before precious words of clemency or absolution could be passed along. How do the survivors of terminated relationships ever endure the pain of unfinished business? From that place of meditation, I found the answer-you can finish the business yourself, from within yourself. It's not only possible, it's essential.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Children, Pain, Sibling

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.177, A&C Black

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• Do you think my husband and his soldiers will be overly upset with me?" The priest broke into a wide grin. "I'll stand by your side when we find out," he said. "I would be honored to escort you to your husband." The priest took hold of Johanna's arm. She didn't notice. "I expect them to be a little upset at first," she explained. "But only just a little." "Yes," he agreed. "Tell me, lass. When was your last confession?" "Why do you ask?" "It's preferred to receive absolution before you meet your Maker.

  Julie Garwood

  Husband, Thinking, Your Side

  Julie Garwood (2011). “Saving Grace”, p.215, Penguin

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• I have committed many sins in my life. This precise sin-the sin against poets-is without absolution.

  E. L. Doctorow

  Sin, Poet, Committed

  E.L. Doctorow (2010). “Loon Lake: A Novel”, p.114, Random House

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• Like a cross between Paul Auster's The Book of Illusions and Janice Lee's Damnation, The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing is at once smart and slyly unsettling. It is expert at creating a quietly building sense of dread while claiming to do something as straightforward as describe lost films—like those conversations you have in which you realize only too late that what you actually talking about and what you think you are talking about are not the same thing at all. With Rombes, Two Dollar Radio deftly demonstrates why it is rapidly becoming the go-to press for innovative fiction.

  Brian Evenson

  Smart, Book, Thinking

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• Day offers two equally necessary sacraments - the benediction of morning and the absolution of dusk. In the morning coffee blesses and in the evening wine absolves.

  Michael Foley

  Morning, Coffee, Wine

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