Piety Quotes - Page 12

• We are not to consider ourselves, while here, as at church or school, to listen to the harangues of speculative piety; we are here to talk of the political interests committed to our charge.

  Fisher Ames

  School, Political, Church

  Fisher Ames (1871). “Speeches of Fisher Ames in Congress, 1789-1796”, p.12

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• True piety admits no other rule than that whatsoever things have been faithfully received from our fathers the same are to be faithfully consigned to our children; and that it is our duty, not to lead religion whither we would, but rather to follow religion whither it leads; and that it is the part of Christian modesty and gravity not to hand down our own beliefs or observances to those who come after us, but to preserve and keep what we have received from those who went before us.

  Vincent of Lerins

  Christian, Children, Father

  Vincent of Lerins, Aeterna Press (2016). “The Commonitory of Vincent of Lerins”, p.11, Aeterna Press

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• The effort to reconcile science and religion is almost always made, not by theologians, but by scientists unable to shake off altogether the piety absorbed with their mother's milk.

  H. L. Mencken

  Mother, Science, Effort

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.248, Knopf

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• Censorship, I believe, is the most dangerous enemy to all human communication, and piety of intention is probably the most dangerous, the most virulent and the most self-satisfying.

  Chuck Jones

  Communication, Believe, Self

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• The decline in American pride, patriotism, and piety can be directly
  attributed to the extensive reading of so-called 'science fiction' by our
  young people. This poisonous rot about creatures not of God's making,
  societies of 'aliens' without a good Christian among them, and raw sex
  between unhuman beings with three heads and God alone knows what sort of
  reproductive apparatus keeps our young people from realizing the true will
  of God.

  Jerry Falwell

  Christian, Sex, Reading

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• What does this word holiness really mean? Is it a negative kind of piety from which so many people have shied away? No, of course not! Holiness in the Bible means moral wholeness-- a positive quality which actually includes kindness, mercy, purity, moral blamelessness and godliness. It is always to be thought of in a positive, white intensity of degree.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Positive, Bible, Christian

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• Christians often equate holiness with activism and spiritual disciplines. And while it's true that activism is often the outgrowth of holiness and spiritual disciplines are necessary for the cultivation of holiness, the pattern of piety in the Scripture is more explicitly about our character. We put off sin and put on righteousness. We put to death the deeds of the flesh and put on Christ. To use the older language, we pursue mortification of the old man and the vivification of the new.

  Kevin DeYoung

  Christian, Spiritual, Character

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• We may have the best of intentions in trying to discern God's will, but we should really stop putting ourselves through the misery of overspiritualizing every decision. Our misdirected piety makes following God more mysterious than it was meant to be

  Kevin DeYoung

  Decision, Trying, May

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• I think [audiences are] more aware now of the contradictions in mainstream culture, the phony piety that permeates society, the inhumane hypocrisy.

  Paul Krassner

  Thinking, Mainstream Culture, Hypocrisy

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• It is a fair adornment of a man and a great convenience both to himself and to all those with whom he converses and deals, to act uprightly, uniformly, and consistently. The practice of piety frees a man from interior distraction and from irresolution in his mind, from duplicity or inconstancy in his character, and from confusion in his proceedings, and consequently securing for others freedom from deception and disappointment in their transactions with him.

  Isaac Barrow

  Disappointment, Character, Duplicity

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• I beseech those whose piety will permit them reverently to petition, that they will pray for this union, and ask that He who buildeth up and pulleth down nations will, the mercy preserve and unite us. For a Nation divided against itself cannot stand. I wish, if this Union must be dissolved, that its ruins may be the monument of my grave, and the graves of my family. I wish no epitaph to be written to tell that I survive the ruin of this glorious Union.

  Sam Houston

  Wish, Ruins, Unions

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• Piety with some people, but especially with women, is either a passion, or an infirmity of age, or a fashion which must be followed.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Fashion, Passion, People

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• Piety is not an end, but a means: a means of attaining the highest culture by the purest tranquility of soul. Hence it may be observed that those who set up piety as an end and object are mostly hypocrites.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Hypocrite, Mean, Soul

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.3516, Delphi Classics

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• There are who mistake the spirit of pugnacity for the spirit of piety, and thus harbor a devil instead of an angel.

  John Lancaster Spalding

  Mistake, Angel, Devil

  John Lancaster Spalding (1901). “Aphorisms and Reflections: Conduct, Culture and Religion”

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• The great Christian art did not die because all possible forms had been used up; it died because faith was being transformed into piety. Now, the same conquest of the outside world that brought in our modern individualism, so different from that of the Renaissance, is by way of relativizing the individual. It is plain to see that man's faculty of transformation, which began by a remaking of the natural world, has ended by calling man himself into question.

  Andre Malraux

  Christian, Art, Men

  "The Voices of Silence". Book by Andre Malraux, Doubleday, Part IV, Chapter VI, 1953.

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• The intellectual's ... playfulness, in its various manifestations, is likely to seem to most men a perverse luxury; in the United States the play of the mind is perhaps the only form of play that is not looked upon with the most tender indulgence. His piety is likely to seem nettlesome, if not actually dangerous. And neither quality is considered to contribute very much to the practical business of life.

  Richard Hofstadter

  Men, Play, Luxury

  "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life". Book by Richard Hofstadter (p. 33), 1974.

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• The whole life of Christians ought to be an exercise of piety, since they are called to sanctification. It is the office of the law to remind them of their duty and thereby to excite them to the pursuit of holiness and integrity. But when their consciences are solicitous how God may be propitiated, what answer they shall make, and on what they shall rest their confidence, if called to his tribunal, there must then be no consideration of the requisitions of the law, but Christ alone must be proposed for righteousness, who exceeds all the perfection of the law.

  John Calvin

  Christian, Integrity, Exercise

  John Calvin (1985). “On God and Political Duty: Calvin”, Prentice Hall

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• Every object in nature is impressed with God's footsteps, and every day repeats the wonders of creation. There is not an object, be it pebble or pearl, weed or rose, the flower-spangled sward beneath, or the star-spangled sky above, not a worm or an angel, a drop of water or a boundless ocean, in which intelligence may not discern, and piety adore, the providence of Him who took our nature that He might save our souls.

  Thomas Guthrie

  Weed, Nature, Stars

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 427, 1895.

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• Young men, you who have any piety at all, what sort is it? Is it a hot-house plant, which must be framed and glassed, lest March, that bold young fellow, should shake the life out.of it in his rough play among the flowers? or is it a hardy shrub, which rejoices when the wild winds course along the heather or howl above the crest of Lebanon ' We need, believe me, the bravery of godliness to bear true witness for our Master now.

  William Morley Punshon

  Flower, Believe, Men

  William Morley Punshon (1873). “Lectures and Sermons”, p.9, Adam, Stevenson

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• Piety's hard enough to take among the poor who have to practice it. A rich man's piety stinks. It's insufferable.

  Archibald MacLeish

  Men, Practice, Atheism

  Archibald MacLeish (1958). “J. B.”

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• Yes, yes, children must early be made to practise piety, godliness, and propriety; a person of good breeding is one into whom good maxims have been instilled and impressed, poured in through a funnel, thrashed in and preached in.

  Max Stirner

  Children, Breeding, Made

  Max Stirner (1995). “Stirner: The Ego and its Own”, p.75, Cambridge University Press

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• If there is anything I've learned, is that piety is smarter than hate, that mercy is preferable even to justice itself, that if you go around the world with friendly look, one does good friends.

  Philip Gibbs

  Hate, Good Friend, Justice

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• The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly flawed, no institution can be trusted, certainty is a mirage, security a delusion, and the tyranny of the dull mind forever threatens -- but our lives are not as limited as we think they are, all things are possible, laughter is holier than piety, freedom is sweeter than fame, and in the end it's love and love alone that really matters.

  Tom Robbins

  Laughter, Reality, Thinking

  "Gracie goes to schooner school" by Tom Robbins, www.seattlepi.com. May 24, 2007.

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• Ibn Ata' Allah said: "God may open up for you the gates of obedience, but without opening up for you the gates of acceptance. On the other hand, He may Allow you to fall into disobedience which happens to lead you to the right path. DISOBEDIENCE that teaches you HUMILITY is better than PIETY that fills you with VANITY and ARROGANCE.

  Yusuf al-Qaradawi

  Fall, Humility, Acceptance

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• I looked at all friends, and did not find a better friend than safeguarding the tongue. I thought about all dresses, but did not find a better dress than piety. I thought about all types of wealth, but did not find a better wealth than contentment in little. I thought of all types of good deeds, but did not find a better deed than offering good advice. I looked at all types of sustenance, but did not find a better sustenance than patience.

  Umar

  Wisdom, Islamic, Offering

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