Devil Quotes - Page 27

• God gave humans the truth, and the devil came and he said, 'Let's give it a name and call it religion.'

  Deepak Chopra

  Names, Giving, Said

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• It takes a man to make a devil.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Men

  "Life Thoughts, Gathered from the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher, by One of His Congregation". Book edited by Edna Dean Proctor, 1859.

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• We are what we were at birth, and each trait has remained in conformity with earth's and with heaven's logic: Be the devil's tool, resort to black magic, None can diverge from the ends which Heaven foreordained.

  Marianne Moore

  Heaven, Black, Magic

  Marianne Moore (1994). “Complete Poems”, p.260, Penguin

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• All dancing is now is standing in place and letting the devil of the music enter you.

  John Updike

  Dance, Dancing, Standing

  John Updike (2010). “Rabbit Is Rich”, p.366, Random House

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• So give me the political economist, the sanitary reformer, the engineer; and take your saints and virgins, relics and miracles. The spinning-jenny and the railroad, Cunard's liners and the electric telegraph, are to me, if not to you, signs that we are, on some points at least, in harmony with the universe; that there is a mighty spirit working among us, who cannot be your anarchic and destroying Devil, and therefore may be the Ordering and Creating God.

  Charles Kingsley

  Creating, Giving, Miracle

  Charles Kingsley (1881). “The Works of Charles Kingsley: Yeast”

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• Curiously, neither God nor the devil may wear modern dress, but must retain Grecian vestments.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Dresses, May, Modern

  Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Sinclair Lewis (1931). “Why Sinclair Lewis got the Nobel prize”

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• O thou who art able to write a Book, which once in the two centuries or oftener there is a man gifted to do, envy not him whom they name City-builder, and inexpressibly pity him whom they name Conqueror or City-burner! Thou too art a Conqueror and Victor; but of the true sort, namely over the Devil: thou too hast built what will outlast all marble and metal, and be a wonder-bringing City of the Mind, a Temple and Seminary and Prophetic Mount, whereto all kindreds of the Earth will pilgrim.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Art, Book, Writing

  Thomas Carlyle, Rodger L. Tarr, Mark Engel (2000). “Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh in Three Books”, p.129, Univ of California Press

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• There's nothing like being in fashion. A man that has once got his character up for a wit is always sure of a laugh, say what he may. He may utter as much nonsense as he pleases, and all will pass current. No one stops to question the coin of a rich man; but a poor devil cannot pass off either a joke or a guinea without its being examined on both sides. Wit and coin are always doubted with a threadbare coat.

  Washington Irving

  Fashion, Character, Men

  Washington Irving, Charles Neider (1998). “The Complete Tales of Washington Irving”, p.274, Da Capo Press

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• During the day, memories could be held at bay, but at night, dreams became the devil's own accomplices.

  Sharon Kay Penman

  Dream, Memories, Night

  Sharon Kay Penman (2009). “The Reckoning”, p.521, Macmillan

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• Man creates both his god and his devil in his own image. His god is himself at his best, and his devil himself at his worst.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Men, Worst

  Elbert Hubbard (1902). “Contemplations: Being Several Short Essays Helpful Sermonettes, Epigrams and Orphic Sayings”

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• The confusion of spirit and body is quite understandable in a culture where spirit is concretized in magnificent skyscrapers, where cathedrals have become museums for tourists, where woman-flesh-devil are associated, and nature is raped for any deplorable excuse. Dieting with fierce will-power is the masculine route; dieting with love of her own nature is the feminine. Her only real hope is to care for her own body and experience it as the vessel through which her Self may be born.

  Marion Woodman

  Real, Museums, Self

  "The Owl Was a Baker's Daughter". Book by Marion Woodman, 1980.

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• A fiery shield is God's Word; of more substance and purer than gold, which, tried in the fire, loses nought of its substance, but resists and overcomes all the fury of the fiery heat; even so, he that believes God's Word overcomes all, and remains secure everlastingly, against all misfortunes; for this shield fears nothing, neither hell nor the devil.

  Martin Luther

  Believe, Fire, Gold

  Martin Luther, Alexander Chalmers (1857). “The Table Talk of Martin Luther”, p.19

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• Hail, mute devil! You are the most intense animal. An eternal mystic of the fleshly inferno.

  Federico Garcia Lorca

  Animal, Intense, Inferno

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• To bargain freedom for security is the devil's bargain. Having made the bargain, one enjoys neither freedom nor security.

  Gerry Spence

  Made, Enjoy, Bargains

  Gerry Spence (2002). “Seven Simple Steps to Personal Freedom: An Owner's Manual for Life”, p.96, Macmillan

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• Twixt devil and deep sea, man hacks his caves; Birth, death; one, many; what is true, and seems; Earth's vast hot iron, cold space's empty waves.

  William Empson

  Men, Sea, Iron

  William Empson (1984). “Collected poems”, Chatto & Windus

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• Now I just don't know who to tell to go to hell Who put the old devil in the distorted angel?

  Elvis Costello

  Angel, Hell, Knows

  Song: Distorted Angel, Album: All This Useless Beauty, 1996

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• Who strikes man with love -- God or the Devil?

  Leonid Andreyev

  Love, Men, Strikes

  Leonid Andreyev (1922). “He who Gets Slapped: A Play in Four Acts”

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• See thou, whatsoever be thy name -- whether Fate, Life, or Devil! I cast thee down my gauntlet, I challenge thee to battle! Men of faint heart may bow before thy mysterious power, thy face of stone may inspire them with dread, in thy unbroken silence they may discern the birth of calamity and an impending avalanche of woe. But I am daring and strong, and I challenge thee to battle! Let us draw our swords, and join our bucklers, and rain such blows upon each other's crests as shall cause the very earth to shake again! Ha! Come forth and fight with me!

  Leonid Andreyev

  Strong, Rain, Heart

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• I'd sell my soul to the devil if he'd buy such a weakly, puny, piffling little soul, just really to live and be something besides a "thoroughly nice girl" for one short year.

  Samuel Hopkins Adams

  Girl, Nice, Years

  Samuel Hopkins Adams (2013). “Wanted: A Husband: (With Original Illustrations)”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

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• A sneer is the weapon of the weak. Like other devil's weapons, it is always cunningly ready to our hand, and there is more poison in the handle than in the point.

  James Russell Lowell

  Hands, Poison, Weapons

  James Russell Lowell (1846). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.58

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• Don't board with the devil if you wish to be fat.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Wish, Boards, Fats

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2697, Delphi Classics

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• When God makes a beautiful woman, the devil opens a new register.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Beautiful, Women, Register

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2696, Delphi Classics

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• Chaos is God's body. Order is the Devil's chains.

  John Updike

  Order, Body, Chaos

  John Updike (1981). “Rabbit is Rich: Rabbit Redux ; Rabbit, Run”

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• Dear rulers ... I maintain that the civil authorities are under obligation to compel the people to send their children to school. ... If the government can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to bear spear and rifle, to mount ramparts, and perform other martial duties in time of war, how much more has it a right to compel the people to send their children to school, because in this case we are warring with the devil, whose object it is secretly to exhaust our cities and principalities of their strong men.

  Martin Luther

  Strong, Children, Military

  Letter to the German rulers (1524) in "The History of Compulsory Education in New England" by John William Perrin, 1896.

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• The universities only ought to turn out men who are experts in the Holy Scriptures, men who can become bishops and priests, and stand in the front line against heretics, the devil, and all the world. But where do you find that?

  Martin Luther

  Men, Experts, Bishops

  Martin Luther (1970). “Three Treatises”, p.100, Fortress Press

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