Pious Quotes - Page 4

Every good quality runs into a defect; economy borders on avarice, the generous are not far from the prodigal, the brave man is close to the bully; he who is very pious is slightly sanctimonious; there are just as many vices to virtue as there are holes in the mantle of Diogenes.

Victor Hugo

Running, Men, Bully

Victor Hugo (2000). “Les Mis??rables”, p.577, Modern Library

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Unlike Joseph her husband, Mary is neither upright nor pious, but she is not blame for this, the blame lies with the language she speaks if not with the men who invented it, because that language has no feminine form for the words upright and pious.

Jose Saramago

Husband, Lying, Men

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I distrust pious phrases, especially when they issue from my mouth. I try militantly never to be affected by the pious language of the faithful but it is always coming out when you least expect it. In contrast to the pious language of the faithful, the liturgy is beautifully flat.

Flannery O'Connor

Issues, Faithful, Trying

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One must search diligently to find laudatory comments on education (other than those pious platitudes which are fodder for commencement speeches). It appears that most persons who have achieved fame and success in the world of ideas are cynical about formal education. These people are a select few, who often achieved success in spite of their education, or even without it. As has been said, the clever largely educate themselves, those less able aren't sufficiently clever or imaginative to benefit much from education.

Edward Gibbon

Education, Clever, Ideas

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Loving Your Enemies... Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, this demand is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes it is love that will save our world and civilization; love even for our enemies.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace, Our World, Civilization

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Do not forget that even as "to work is to worship" so to be cheery is to worship also, and to be happy is the first step to being pious.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Firsts, Steps, Worship

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May is a pious fraud of the almanac.

James Russell Lowell

Spring, May, Fraud

'Under the Willows' (1869) l. 21

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God belongs to all free beings. He is the life of all, the salvation of all ~faithful and unfaithful, just and unjust, pious and impious, passionate and dispassionate, monks and laymen, wise and simple, healthy and sick, young and old just as the effusion of light, the sight of the sun, and the changes of the seasons are for all alike; 'for there is no respect of persons with God.'

John Climacus

Wise, Christian, Simple

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Earnestness is not by any means everything; it is very often a subtle form of pious pride because it is obsessed with the method and not with the Master.

Oswald Chambers

Determination, Mean, Pride

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I have come to believe, deeply and firmly, that we can create a poverty free world if we want to. I came to this conclusion not as a product of a pious dream, but as a concrete result of experience gained in the work of the Grameen Bank.

Muhammad Yunus

Dream, Business, Believe

Muhammad Yunus (2001). “Banker to the Poor: The Autobiography of Muhammad Yunus, Founder of the Grameen Bank”, Oxford University Press, USA

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The purpose of a Christian education would not be merely to make men and women pious Christians: a system which aimed too rigidly at this end alone would become only obscurantist. A Christian education must primarily teach people to be able to think in Christian categories.

T. S. Eliot

Graduation, Christian, Men

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It is a curious and painful fact that almost all the completely futile treatments that have been believed in during the long history of medical folly have been such as caused acute suffering to the patient. When anesthetics were discovered, pious people considered them an attempt to evade the will of God. It was pointed out, however, that when God extracted Adam's rib He put him into a deep sleep. This proved that anesthetics are all right for men; women, however, ought to suffer, because of the curse of Eve.

Bertrand Russell

Pain, Sleep, Science

Bertrand Russell (1972). “Atheism: collected essays, 1943-1949”, Arno Pr

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It is a fact of history and of current events that human beings exaggerate, misinterpret, or wrongly remember events. They have also fabricated pious fraud. Most believers in a religion understand this when examining the claims of other religions.

Dan Barker

Religion, Atheism, Current Events

Dan Barker (2009). “Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists”, p.248, Ulysses Press

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The most courageous, and pious act of a human is to be with another human, because we are like stars in the sky, born at one time and space, to be ourselves. Everybody is our neighbor. All we have to do is say, "I am with you." When you start being one with everybody, then you are actually with God, because if you cannot see God in all, you cannot see God at all.

Harbhajan Singh Yogi

Stars, Sky, Space

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Existence does not listen to your desires, and does not follow your desires, however beautiful and however pious. Existence goes on in its own way.

Rajneesh

Beautiful, Desire, Doe

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Knowledge is not to be taken from four types of people: a foolish person who openly acts foolish, even if he reports the most narrations; an adherent of bid'ah who calls to his desires; a person who lies, even if I don't accuse him of lying in hadith; and a righteous pious worshiper who does not accurately retain what he narrates.

Malik ibn Anas

Wisdom, Lying, Taken

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When you resolve to become pious, the devil in your nature cries out at you, "Tread not those paths, O confused one; distress and poverty will overcome you. You will be despised, let down by friends, you will regret it." Dread of the devil has bound their souls; the cries of the devil are the drover of the damned; the call of the Lord is a guardian of the saints.

Rumi

Wisdom, Regret, Confused

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Let them like the Tibetans, chew the cud of their "om mane padme hum" innumerable times, or, as in Benares, count the name of the God Ram-Ram-Ram (etc. with or without charm) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is that they are settled down for a time at this work and are tolerable to look at. This kind of prayer has been invented for the benefit of the pious who have thought and elevations of their own.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Prayer, Names, Ninety Nine

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A gentle sense of humor will be alert to detect anything that savors of a pious 'act' on the part of the penitent.

Thomas Merton

Sense Of Humor, Gentle, Theologian

Thomas Merton (1960). “Spiritual Direction and Meditation”, p.40, Liturgical Press

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Have you not often met poor old women who are most faithful to the pious recitation of the Rosary? You also must do all that you can to recite it with fervour. Get right down, at the feet of Jesus: it is a good thing to make oneself small in the presence of so great a God.

Columba Marmion

Jesus, Feet, Catholic

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In certain pious people I have found a hatred of reason, and have been favourably disposed to them for it: their bad intellectual conscience was at least exposed by that!

Friedrich Nietzsche

People, Hatred, Intellectual

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If it's bad art, it's bad religion, no matter how pious the subject.

Madeleine L'Engle

Art, Religion, Matter

Twitter post from Jul 14, 2011

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The soul will never become pious and purified except through undergoing afflictions. It is the same as gold that can never be pure except after removing all the base metals in it.

Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya

Soul, Gold, Affliction

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Most corporate mission statements are worthless. They consist largely of pious platitudes such as: "We will hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism and ethical behavior." They often formulate necessities as objectives; for example, "to achieve sufficient profit." This is like a person saying his mission is to breathe sufficiently.

Russell L. Ackoff

Risk, Example, Management

Russell L. Ackoff (1986). “Management in Small Doses”, Wiley

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...Seek counsel of very pious, disinterested persons, and follow the call of O[ur] L[ord] and the advice of those persons.

Vincent de Paul

Faith, Advice, Persons

Saint Vincent de Paul, Pierre Coste (1985). “Correspondence, Conferences, Documents”

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