Pious Quotes - 3
More Pious Quotes
"Prayer is not a pious decoration of life but the breath of human existence."
henri nouwen— The Wounded Healer
As in poetry, so in prayer, the whole subject matter should be furnished by the heart, and the understanding should be allowed only to shape and arrange the effusions of the heart in the manner best adapted to answer the end designed. From the fullness of a heart overflowing with holy affections, as from a copious fountain, we should pour forth a torrent of pious, humble, and ardently affectionate feelings; while our understandings only shape the channel and teach the gushing streams of devotion where to flow, and when to stop.
edward payson— P. 464. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
The egoist … destroys the universal importance accorded to moral law by showing that life independent of it is possible. Secondly, and even more intolerably to the pious, he manages to do so with shameless enjoyment.
john carroll— p. 33 (Break-Out from the Crystal Palace (1974))
No solemn sanctimonious face I pull, Nor think I'm pious when I'm only bilious; Nor study in my sanctum supercilious, To frame a Sabbath Bill or forge a Bull.
thomas hood— Ode to Rae Wilson; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
In all ages of the world, priests have been enemies to liberty; and it is certain, that this steady conduct of theirs must have been founded on fixed reasons of interest and ambition. Liberty of thinking, and of expressing our thoughts, is always fatal to priestly power, and to those pious frauds, on which it is commonly founded; and, by an infallible connexion, which prevails among all kinds of liberty, this privilege can never be enjoyed, at least has never yet been enjoyed, but in a free government.
David Hume— Essay 9 : Of The Parties of Great Britain
He were n't no saint but at jedgment I'd run my chance with Jim. 'Longside of some pious gentlemen That wouldn't shook hands with him. He seen his duty, a dead-sure thing And went for it thar and then; And Christ ain't a-going to be too hard On a man that died for men.
john hay— John Hay, Jim Bludso.
The supreme need of the world today is for a true conception and a deeper knowledge of God. The Hindu mother tosses her baby to the crocodiles, the devout pilgrim mutilates his body, the pious monk retires to the wilderness, the martial Moslem massacres the unbelieving, the consecrated missionary lays down his life for his enemy all of these deeds are founded on varying conceptions of God.
— p.15 (Something More, A Consideration of the Vast, Undeveloped Resources of Life (1920))
During the occultation of the Wali al-'Asr (may God hasten his reappearance), the leadership of the Islamic world devolve upon the just and pious person, who is fully aware of the circumstances of his age, courageous, resourceful, and possessed of administrative ability.
— Article 5 [Office of Religious Leader] of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran
— Wali al-'Asr=Mahdi
— See Khomeini and Khamenei
We are oft to blame in this. 'Tis too much proved that with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself.'
— William Shakespeare, in Hamlet 3.1.46-49
We are oft to blame in this, 'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage, And pious action, we do sugar o'er The devil himself.
— Polonius, scene i
Some pious men may find this truth unorthodox and bitter: But Nature, Chance, and Time ensure survival of the fitter!
robert charles wilson— p. 389 (Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America (2009))
In pious times, ere priest-craft did begin, Before polygamy was made a sin; When man, on many, multipli'd his kind, Ere one to one was cursedly confin'd: When Nature prompted, and no Law deni'd Promiscuous use of concubine and bride; Then, Israel's monarch, after Heaven's own heart, His vigorous warmth did variously impart To wives and slaves: and, wide as his command, Scatter'd his Maker's image through the land.
john dryden— John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, 1681.
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler they consider god-fearing and pious.
Aristotle— Jews, Myth and History: A Critical Exploration of Contemporary Jewish Belief... (pg. 25)
