Piety Quotes

• Wherever the fear of God rules in the heart, it will appear both in works of charity and piety, and neither will excuse us from the other.

  Matthew Henry

  Heart, Charity, Christianity

  Matthew Henry, Thomas Scott (1839). “The Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible: Acts-Revelation”, p.54

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• Faith is never identical with piety even if it were the purest and finest.

  Karl Barth

  Identical

  "The Beginnings of Dialectic Theology". Book edited by James McConkey Robinson, Volume 1, 1968.

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• For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.

  Aristotle

  Love, Friendship, Truth

  Aristotle, Terence Irwin (1996). “Aristotle: Introductory Readings”, p.201, Hackett Publishing

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• Piety is not a goal but a means to attain through the purest peace of mind the highest culture.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mean, Goal, Mind

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• When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, "Who is destroying the world?" You are.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Men, Evil

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.1448, Penguin

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• The happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.

  John Adams

  Men, Dignity, Virtue

  John Adams (1841). “Letters, Addressed to His Wife”, p.277

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• My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.

  George Santayana

  Atheist, Men, Insightful

  Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies "On My Friendly Critics" (1922)

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• There are pretenders to piety as well as to courage.

  Moliere

  Courage, Literature, Wells

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• I do not doubt but that genuine piety is the spring of peace of mind; it enables us to bear the sorrows of life, and lessens the pangs of death: the same cannot be said of hypocrisy.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Spring, Hypocrisy, Doubt

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• The affectation of sanctity is a blotch on the face of piety.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Faces, Sanctity

  "Aphorisms on man. Translated from the original manuscript of the Rev. John Caspar Lavater, citizen of Zuric" by Johann Kaspar Lavater, New-York: re-printed by T. and J. Swords, for Berry and Rogers, Hanover-Square, 1790.

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• Earth has nothing more tender than a woman's heart when it is the abode of piety.

  Martin Luther

  Art, Women, Abode

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• Indifferent acts are judged by their ends sins are judged by themselves.

  Saint Augustine

  Sin, Virtue, Ends

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• I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art, finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his 'divine service.'

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Inspirational, Dance, Art

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• Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world alters the world.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Genius, World, Influence

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2004). “Essays”, p.147, 1st World Publishing

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• Faith, and hope, and patience and all the strong, beautiful, vital forces of piety are withered and dead in a prayerless life. The life of the individual believer, his personal salvation, and personal Christian graces have their being, bloom, and fruitage in prayer.

  Edward McKendree Bounds

  Beautiful, Christian, Strong

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• Without the restraints of religion and social worship, men become savages much sooner than savages become civilized by means of religion and civil government.

  Benjamin Rush

  Mean, Men, Savages

  Benjamin Rush (1951). “Letters: 1761-1792”

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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

  John Hancock

  Christian, Encouragement, Order

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• Keeping our eyes on journey's end is what we need - the place where we see at last the world that is greater than the world, the new creation that cannot be contained in present thought or social order or piety.

  Rowan Williams

  Eye, Journey, Order

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• Let vice and immorality of every kind be discouraged as much as possible in your brigade; and, as a chaplain is allowed to each regiment, see that the men regularly attend during worship. Gaming of every kind is expressly forbidden, as being the foundation of evil, and the cause of many a brave and gallant officer's and soldier's ruin.

  George Washington

  Men, Evil, Brave

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1834). “The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts”, p.436

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• A good man regards the root; he fixes the root, and ail else flows out of it. The root is filial piety; the fruit brotherly love.

  Confucius

  Men, Roots, Good Man

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• Without virtue, and without integrity, the finest talents and the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect, and conciliate the esteem, of the truly valuable part of mankind.

  George Washington

  Integrity, Accomplishment, Gains

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.308

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• The words which express our faith and piety are not definite; yet they are significant and fragrant like frankincense to superior natures.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Faith, Nature, Significant

  Henry David Thoreau, Stephen Allen Fender (2008). “Walden”, p.289, Oxford University Press

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• The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
  Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
  Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
  Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

  Omar Khayyam

  Moving On, Writing, Science

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• Piety is the only proper and adequate relief of decaying man. He that grows old without religions hopes, as he declines into imbecility, and feels pains and sorrows incessantly crowding upon him, falls into a gulf of bottomless misery, in which every reflection must plunge him deeper and deeper.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pain, Fall, Men

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Rambler”, p.330

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• Men always try to make virtues of their weaknesses. Fear of death and fear of life both become piety.

  H. L. Mencken

  Fear, Men, Atheism

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.54, Knopf

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