Reverence Quotes
More Reverence Quotes
Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life . That is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality , namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil .
— Albert Schweitzer, in Kulturphilosophie (1923), Vol. 2 : Civilization and Ethics
History shows that whenever an emergency arises, our national spirit is most emphatically manifested to advance the prestige and fortune of the nation. It is incumbent upon us to leave no stone unturned in order to promote loyalty and bravery on the home front as well, and to replenish and demonstrate our nation's powers, for which are required the inculcation of the spirit of reverence for deities and respect for ancestors, the renovation of national education and the of the people's physical strength.
mitsumasa yonai— alternate version: History shows that, whenever an emergency arises, our national spirit is manifested most emphatically to advance the prestige and bring about the prosperity of the nation. Nor must we be negligent in any way in promoting a loyal and heroic spirit among the home-front population so that national strength may be augmented and given full play. For this purpose, such measures as the fostering of the spirit of piety and of honouring ancestors, the renovation of national education and the improvement of the people's physical strength.
— Quoted in "Tokyo Gazette" - Page 343 - by Nihon Gaiji Kyokai. Also quoted in "Modern Japan and Shinto Nationalism" - Page 19 - by Daniel Clarence Holtom - 1963
Hatless, I take off My cycle-clips in awkward reverence.
— 1954 'Church Going'.
He could not sing for them a sweet song, or create a "thing of beauty" which should be "a joy for ever," or touch their hearts, or fire their spirits, or deepen their reverence or their fervour. He was not a Poet, a Priest, or a Prophet, but only a cold, clear, Intelligence, raying down pure white light, which brightened everything on which it fell, but warmed nothing—a Star of at least the second, if not of the first magnitude, in the Intellectual Firmament.
henry cavendish— George Wilson, The Life of the Honble Henry Cavendish (1851) p.186
Our rule is the works of mercy… It is the way of sacrifice, worship, a sense of reverence.
dorothy day— As quoted in The Encyclopedia of American Catholic History (1997)
— Variant: [Practicing] the works of mercy ... is our program, our rule of life.As quoted in The Catholic Worker after Dorothy : Practicing the Works of Mercy in a New Generation (2008) by Dan McKanan
That which concerns the mystery of the King's power is not lawful to be disputed; for that is to wade into the weakness of Princes, and to take away the mystical reverence that belongs unto them that sit in the throne of God.
james i of england— Speech in the Star Chamber (June 1616)
We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents.
— Mark Twain, "Concerning the Jews", Harper's Magazine (September 1899)
One dwells in suffering if one is without reverence and deference. Now what ascetic or brahmin can I honour and respect and dwell in dependence on?
angulimalo— Angulimalo, in Anussati: the Recollections. with Quotes from the Pali Canon and Forest p.55
Men reverence one another, not yet God.
Henry David Thoreau— 1849 AWeek on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,'Sunday'.
Let knowledge grow from more to more, But more of reverence in us dwell; That mind and soul, according well, May make one music as before.
Tennyson— 1850 In Memoriam A.H.H., prologue, l.25-8.
To reverence the King, as if he were Their conscience, and their conscience as their King, To break the heathen and uphold the Christ, To ride abroad redressing human wrongs, To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it, To honour his own words as if his God's.
Tennyson— 1859 Idylls of the King,'Guinevere', l.465-70.
....but I use the word (devotion) in a greater latitude so as to comprehend under it faith, hope, love, fear, trust, humility, submission, honour , reverence, adoration, thanksgiving in a word all that duty which we owe to God.
john norris— Reason and Religion; or, The Grounds and Measures of Devotion. Part I, Introduction, Section VIII.
Science is not about control. It is about cultivating a perpetual sense of wonder in the face of something that forever grows one step richer and subtle than our latest theory about it. It is about reverence, not mastery.
richard powers— The Goldbug Variations
Having still in my recollection so many excellent men, to whose grandfathers, upon the same spots, my grandfather had yielded cheerful obedience and reverence, it is not without sincere sorrow that I have beheld many of the sons of these men driven from their fathers' mansions, or holding them as little better than tenants or stewards, while the swarms of Placemen, Pensioners, Contractors, and Nabobs...have usurped a large part of the soil.
william cobbett— Political Register (21 December 1816), quoted in Karl W. Schweizer and John W. Osborne, Cobbett and His Times (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1990), p. 31.
A disciple, in his reverence for the Master, looked upon him as God incarnate. "Tell me, O Master," he said, "why you have come into this world." "To teach fools like you to stop wasting their time worshiping Masters."
anthony de mello— p. 127 (One Minute Nonsense (1992))
Knightly love is blent with reverence As heavenly air is blent with heavenly blue.
george eliot— Book 1 (The Spanish Gypsy (1868))
Instinct and study ; love and hate ; Audacity reverence. These must mate, And fuse with Jacob ’s mystic heart , To wrestle with the angel Art .
Herman Melville— Timoleon, Art (1891)
Oh Lord deliver us from the elements We at your mercy and your reverence Oh Lord deliver us from the elements We've no defence we are impotent
colin moulding— "Deliver Us From The Elements"
The prevailing conception is that education must be such as will enable one to acquire enough wealth to live on the plane of the bourgeoisie. That kind of education does not develop the aristocratic virtues. It neither encourages reflection nor inspires reverence for the good.
richard weaver— p. 49 (Ideas have Consequences (1948))
Clearly what holds the attention is the powerful spiritual substance of this kind of performance. The performers enter with reverence and go through some form of invocations before the show begins.
— On the rhetoric of the Kathakali ‘mystique’ in "Sun, London", quoted in p. 7
We want to dance, we love the Indian dance because it gives joy, but we must remember that there should be integrity and reverence.
— By Rukmini Devi Arundale quoted in Clive Barker; Simon Trussler (November 1998). New Theatre Quarterly 55. Cambridge University Press. pp. 249–. ISBN 978-0-521-64851-6. , p.257
Let the air strike our tune, Whilst we show reverence to yond peeping moon.
thomas middleton— Thomas Middleton, The Witch, act v, scene 2.
Commerce has set the mark of selfishness, The signet of its all-enslaving power Upon a shining ore, and called it gold; Before whose image bow the vulgar great, The vainly rich, the miserable proud, The mob of peasants, nobles, priests, and kings, And with blind feelings reverence the power That grinds them to the dust of misery. But in the temple of their hireling hearts Gold is a living god, and rules in scorn All earthly things but virtue.
Percy Bysshe Shelley— Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab (1813), Part V, Stanza 4.
In theory, piety is reverence and love for God; and in practice, it is the exercise of all our powers in obedience to the Divine will. Combining the theory and practice, we have the richest treasure known on earth love for God shown in obedience to God.
— D. W. Gates, p. 452. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
Although the Protestant Church is accused of much disastrous bigotry, one claim to immortal fame must be granted it: by permitting freedom of inquiry in the Christian faith and by liberating the minds of men from the yoke of authority, it enabled freedom of inquiry in general to take root in Germany, and made it possible for science to develop independently. German philosophy, though it now puts itself on an equal basis with the Protestant Church or even above it, is nonetheless only its daughter; as such it always owes the mother a forbearing reverence.
— Heinrich Heine, “The Romantic School,” The Romantic School and Other Essays, J. Hermand, ed. (1985), P. 24
No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.
— George Eliot, as quoted in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) edited by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 219
... devotion is love springing forth from God’s incomparable sweetness ( madhurya-pradhana-bhakti ) rather than reverence at His incomparable greatness ( aishvaraya- pradhana-bhakti )
— Nimbarka, quoted in "Hindu spirituality: Postclassical and modern", by K. R. Sundararajan in p. 51
What they do not see is that their reverence for economic activity and industry and what is called business is also fetish worship , and that in their devotion to that idol they torture themselves as needlessly and indulge in the same meaningless
— Englishmen, in Readings in Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy, Volume 1, p.96
...a knowledge not gained by words but by touch , sight , sound , victories , failures , sleeplessness, devotion, love the human experiences and emotions of this earth and of oneself and of other men; and perhaps, too.... reverence for things you can not see.
— Adlai Stevenson, in Princeton Alumni Weekly, Volume 85, Issues 1-20, p.29
