laity quotes

As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls, to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say, The breath goes now, and some say, no: 280 So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; 'Twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity of our love.

-John Donne
c.1595^1605  'A  Valediction: Forbidding Mourning', collected in Songs and Sonnets (1633).

All professions are conspiracies against the laity.

- George Bernard Shaw
  Sir Patrick Cullen.The Doctor's Dilemma, act1.