Puritan Quotes - Page 7

• The Puritans nobly fled from a land of despotism to a land of freedim, where they could not only enjoy their own religion, but could prevent everybody else from enjoyin his.

  Artemas Ward

  Land, Despotism, Enjoy

  London Punch Letters, No. 5, 1866.

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• In our most Puritan of society, gambling-like other pleasures-is either taxed, restricted to certain hours, or forbidden altogether. Yet the impulse to gamble remains an eternal aspect of the irrationality of man. It finds outlets in business, war, politics, in the formal overtures of the gambling casinos, and in the less ceremonious exchanges among individuals of differing opinions.

  Richard Arnold Epstein

  War, Men, Gambling

  "The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic". Book by Richard Arnold Epstein, Preface To The First Edition, 1977.

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• It's not a performance to impress the Puritans

  Martin Tyler

  Impress, Performances

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• What was it that obliged Jerome to write his book, Concerning Illustrious Men? It was the common reproach of old cast upon Christians, 'That they were all poor, weak, unlearned men.' The sort of men sometime called 'Puritans' in the English nation have been reproached with the same character. . . But when truth shall have liberty to speak, it will be known that Christianity never was more expressed unto the life than in the lives of the persons that have been thus reproached.

  Cotton Mather

  Christian, Book, Writing

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• If you have beautiful knees, show your knees. I'm not a puritan. I love skin.

  Francisco Costa

  Beautiful, Skins, Knees

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• The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of Poland or the Manchester Fenians; and they relaxed their tension by voluptuous reading in Swinburne.

  Rebecca West

  Reading, Men, Independence

  Rebecca West (2010). “The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews”, p.140, Open Road Media

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• The Puritan sours his pleasures by disguising them as duties.

  Mason Cooley

  Pleasure, Duty

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• Nietzsche, to the end of his days, remained a Russian pastor's son, and hence two-thirds of a Puritan; he erected his war upon holiness, toward the end, into a sort of holy war.

  H. L. Mencken

  War, Philosophical, Son

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• The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable.

  H. L. Mencken

  Art, Ymca, World

  Prejudices, First Series ch. 16 (1919)

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• The society in 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a throwback to the early Puritans whom I studied extensively at Harvard under Perry Miller, to whom the book is dedicated.

  Margaret Atwood

  Book, Harvard, Tales

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• In the United States there's a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.

  Umberto Eco

  Country, Latin, Successful

  1988 In the International Herald Tribune, 14 Dec.

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• Historically the Puritans left England to escape religious persecution, and they promptly turned around and started persecuting the people they didn't agree with - the scarlet letter A, and the stocks and the dunking board came from that. That puritanism is still there.

  Hugh Hefner

  Religious, People, Boards

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• We must not become the new puritans and reject our society. We must address and master the future together. It can be done if we restore the belief that we share a sense of national community, that we share a common national endeavor. It can be done.

  Barbara Jordan

  Community, Together, Done

  1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address, delivered 12 July 1976, New York, NY

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• In the end, there's something of the puritan work ethic about me that roles really must sustain me on an intellectual level.

  Damian Lewis

  Work Ethic, Intellectual, Roles

  "Homeland: Damian Lewis adopts the patriot act". Interview with David Stubbs, www.theguardian.com. February 18, 2012.

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• Personally I'm not a feminist, as I can't stand puritans.

  Vivienne Westwood

  Feminist, I Can

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• And so it is that I carry with me from this State to that high and lonely office to which I now succeed more than fond memories and fast friendships. The enduring qualities of Massachusetts - the common threads woven by the Pilgrim and the Puritan, the fisherman and the farmer, the Yankee and the immigrant - will not be and could not be forgotten in the Nations Executive Mansion. They are an indelible part of my life, my convictions, my view of the past, my hopes for the future.

  John F. Kennedy

  Life, Lonely, Memories

  Address to the Massachusetts legislature on January 09, 1961. "Congressional Record", Volume 107, Appendix, p. A169, January 10, 1961.

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• And my father, being a good Swiss puritan, always really insisted that if I was going to be an actor, I shouldn't just be an actor, I should know about the whole process.

  Rene Auberjonois

  Father, Actors, Process

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• I'm always disappointed when I see the word 'Puritan' tossed around as shorthand for a bunch of generic, boring, stupid, judgmental killjoys. Because to me, they are very specific, fascinating, sometimes brilliant, judgmental killjoys who rarely agreed on anything except that Catholics are going to Hell.

  Sarah Vowell

  Stupid, Catholic, Brilliant

  Sarah Vowell (2008). “The Wordy Shipmates”, p.22, Penguin

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• If a man really believes that God once upheld slavery; that he commanded soldiers to kill women and babes; that he believed in polygamy; that he persecuted for opinion's sake; that he will punish forever, and that he hates an unbeliever, the effect in my judgment will be bad. It always has been bad. This belief built the dungeons of the Inquisition. This belief made the Puritan murder the Quaker.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Hate, Believe, Men

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1909). “Interviews”

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• The Drab Age is over. Color is coming into its own again. Until very recently people were literally scared out of their wits by color. Perhaps this was a hangover from our Puritan ancestors. But whatever the reason, brown, grays and neutrals were the only shades considered 'safe.' Now we know that lovely, clear colors have a vital effect on our mental happiness. Modern doctors and psychiatrists are convinced of this!

  Dorothy Draper

  Hangover, Doctors, Color

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• A cold and searching wind drives away all contagion, and nothing can withstand it but what has a virtue in it, and accordingly, whatever we meet with in cold and bleak places, as the tops of mountains, we respect for a sort of sturdy innocence, a Puritan toughness. All things beside seem to be called in for shelter, and what stays out must be part of the original frame of the universe, and of such valor as God himself.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Winter, Wind, Mountain

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1007, Delphi Classics

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• The Puritans were accustomed to explain faith by the word 'recumbency.' It meant leaning upon a thing. Lean with all your weight upon Christ. It would be a better illustration still if I said, fall at full length, and lie on the Rock of Ages.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Lying, Fall, Illustration

  Charles Spurgeon (2011). “All of Grace (Authentic Original Classic): An urgent Word with Those Who Are Seeking Salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ”, p.37, Destiny Image Publishers

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