Quotes by Clerics - Page 3

And he gave it for his opinion that whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before would deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together.
Jonathan Swift
Jesus has now many lovers of the heavenly kingdom but few bearers of His cross.
Thomas à Kempis
Not every affection which seems good is to be immediately followed. Neither is every opposite affection to be immediately avoided. Sometimes it is expedient to use restraint even in good desires and wishes, lest through importunity you fall into distraction of mind, lest through want of discipline you become a stumbling block to others.
Thomas à Kempis
See the conquering hero comes! Sound the trumpets beat the drums!
Thomas Morell
At the Day of Judgement we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done.
Thomas à Kempis
I have no objection to instruments of music in our worship, provided they are neither seen nor heard.
John Wesley
Rock of Ages cleft for me Let me hide myself in thee.
Augustus Toplady
The difference between the reason of man and the instinct of the beast is this that the beast does but know but the man knows that he knows.
John Donne
The argument that personal moral views should not be imposed on others when it comes to lawmaking is incoherent and misleading. It is incoherent because a great deal of law implicitly "imposes" a particular moral view on the wider society. It would be disingenuous to pretend that the legalization of abortion on demand or euthanasia does not impose a certain moral view on the rest of society. This is especially true when arguments for abortion and euthanasia are based on rights. The appeal to rights is a moral argument, and it is this appeal to moral authority that gives force to laws enshrining rights.
George Cardinal Pell
They here shall be redeemed from sin,Shall here put on their glorious dress,Fine linen, pure, and white, and cleanThe saints' inherent righteousness.Love, perfect love, expels all doubt,Love makes them to the end endure;Their names thou never wilt blot out;Their life is hid, their heart is pure.Their names thou wilt vouchsafe to ownBefore thy Father's majesty,Pronounce them good, and say, 'Well done,Enter, and ever reign with me!
Charles Wesley
To understand our faith -- to theologize in the Catholic tradition -- we need philosophy. We must use the philosophical language of God, person, creation, relationship, identity, natural law, virtues, conscience, moral norms if we are to think about religion and defend it. Theology has some terms and methods of its own, but its fundamental tools are borrowed from philosophy.The growth of religious fundamentalism and the collapse of religious education mean theology is more urgently needed in universities -- especially Catholic ones -- than ever before.
George Cardinal Pell
Twice or thrice had I lov'd thee, Before I knew thy face or name
John Donne
I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him meerly seise me, and only declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me. When I must shipwrack, I would do it in a Sea, where mine impotencie might have some excuse; not in a sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming.
John Donne
If we be empty and poor it is not because God's hand is straitened but ours is not opened.
Thomas Manton
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
Jonathan Swift
It is much safer to obey than to rule.
Thomas à Kempis
It is not really a small thing when in small things we resist self.
Thomas à Kempis
Hark the herald angels sing "Glory to the new-born king." Peace on earth and mercy mild God and sinners reconciled!
Charles Wesley
Judges... are picked out from the most dextrous lawyers, who are grown old or lazy, and having been biased all their lives against truth or equity, are under such a fatal necessity of favoring fraud, perjury and oppression, that I have known several of them to refuse a large bribe from the side where justice lay, rather than injure the faculty by doing any thing unbecoming their nature in office.
Jonathan Swift
Complaint is the largest tribute Heaven receives.
Jonathan Swift
The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
Jonathan Swift
It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.
Jonathan Swift
Not, how much of my money will I give to God, but, how much of God’s money will I keep for myself?
John Wesley
He that asks me what heaven is, means not to hear me, but to silence me; He knows I cannot tell him; when I meet him there, I shall be able to tell him, and then he will be as able to tell me; yet then we shall be but able to tell one another, this, this that we enjoy is heaven, but the tongues of angels, the tongues of glorified saints, shall not be able to express what that heaven is; for, even in heaven our faculties shall be finite.
John Donne
If you are able to talk about your life and the joys and sorrows you have experienced, if you know your story, you are much more likely to be a skillful parent.
Desmond Tutu
Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn.
John Wesley
If ever any beauty I did see,Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.
John Donne
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
Jonathan Swift
I always love to begin a journey on Sundays because I shall have the prayers of the church to preserve all that travel by land or by water.
Jonathan Swift
A man who truly knows himself realizes his own worthlessness, and takes no pleasure in the praises of men.
Thomas à Kempis
Up then, fair phoenix bride, frustrate the sun;Thyself from thine affectionTakest warmth enough, and from thine eyeAll lesser birds will take their jollity.Up, up, fair bride, and callThy stars from out their several boxes, takeThy rubies, pearls, and diamonds forth, and makeThyself a constellation of them all;And by their blazing signifyThat a great princess falls, but doth not die.Be thou a new star, that to us portendsEnds of much wonder; and be thou those ends.
John Donne
Between cowardice and despair valour is gendered.
John Donne
Dear love, for nothing less than theeWould I have broke this happy dream;It was a themeFor reason, much too strong for fantasy,Therefore thou wak'd'st me wisely; yetMy dream thou brok'st not, but continued'st it.Thou art so true that thoughts of thee sufficeTo make dreams truths, and fables histories;Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best,Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest.
John Donne
Learned arguments do not make a man holy and righteous, whereas a good life makes him dear to God.
Thomas à Kempis
Man proposes God disposes.
Thomas à Kempis
If all were perfect, what should we have to suffer from others for God's sake? But God has so ordained, that we may learn to bear with one another's burdens, for there is no man without fault, no man without burden, no man sufficient to himself nor wise enough. Hence we must support one another, console one another, mutually help, counsel, and advise, for the measure of every man's virtue is best revealed in time of adversity -- adversity that does not weaken a man but rather shows what he is.
Thomas à Kempis
In man - in the history of mankind, this has happened many times, and occupation leaders cling on to the land that they're occupying. People fight to liberate their land. But in the end, the people's will is what achieves victory.
Hassan Nasrallah
By salvation I mean not barely according to the vulgar notion deliverance from hell or going to heaven but a present deliverance from sin a restoration of the soul to its primitive health its original purity a recovery of the divine nature the renewal of our souls after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness in justice mercy and truth.
John Wesley
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
Thomas à Kempis
It is a remarkable feat to be able to see past the inhumanity of the behavior and recognize the humanity of the person committing the atrocious acts. This is not weakness. This is heroic strength, the noblest strength of the human spirit.
Desmond Tutu
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.
John Donne
Here lies a she sun, and a he moon there;She gives the best light to his sphere;Or each is both, and all, and soThey unto one another nothing owe;And yet they do, but areSo just and rich in that coin which they pay,That neither would, nor needs forbear, nor stay;Neither desires to be spared nor to spare.They quickly pay their debt, and thenTake no acquittances, but pay again;They pay, they give, they lend, and so let fallNo such occasion to be liberal.More truth, more courage in these two do shine,Than all thy turtles have and sparrows, Valentine.
John Donne
The rich of this world will vanish like smoke, and no memory of their past pleasures will remain. But even in their lifetime they do not enjoy them without bitterness, weariness and fear, for the very things whence they derive their pleasures often carry with them the seeds of sorrow.
Thomas à Kempis
The fact is, rape is utterly commonplace in all our cultures. It is part of the fabric of everyday life, yet we all act as if it’s something shocking and extraordinary whenever it hits the headlines. We remain silent, and so we condone it…Until rape, and the structures – sexism, inequality, tradition – that make it possible, are part of our dinner-table conversation with the next generation, it will continue. Is it polite and comfortable to talk about it? No. Must we anyway? Yes.”‘To protect our children, we must talk to them about rape
Desmond Tutu
Bread is the staff of life.
Jonathan Swift
Let time that makes you homely make you sage.
Thomas Parnell
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.
John Donne
He put this engine [a silver pocket watch] into our ears, which made an incessant noise, like that of a water-mill: and we conjecture it is either some unknown animal, or the god that he worships; but we are more inclined to the latter opinion, because he assured us, (if we understood him right, for he expressed himself very imperfectly) that he seldom did any thing without consulting it. He called it his oracle, and said, it pointed out the time for every action of his life.
Jonathan Swift
If there is anything that can be called genius it consists chiefly in the ability to give that attention to a subject which keeps it steadily in the mind till we have surveyed it accurately on all sides.
Thomas Reid
It may be a procession of faithful failures that enriches the soil of godly success. Faithful actions are not religious acts. They are not even necessary actions undertaken by people of faith. Faithful actions, whether they are marked by success or they end in failure, are actions that are compelled by goodness.
Desmond Tutu
Gulliver describes a royal personage inspiring awe among the tiny Lilliputians because he was taller than his brethren by the breadth of a human fingernail.
Jonathan Swift
Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone,All just supply, and all relation;Prince, subject, father, son, are things forgot,For every man alone thinks he hath gotTo be a phoenix, and that then can beNone of that kind, of which he is, but he.
John Donne
God hath thus ordered it, that we may learn to bear one another’s burdens; for no man is without fault, no man without his burden, no man sufficient of himself, no man wise enough of himself; but we ought to bear with one another, comfort one another, help, instruct, and admonish one another.
Thomas à Kempis
Though wrong gratifies in the moment, good yields its gifts over a lifetime.
Desmond Tutu
A sure way of retaining the grace of heaven is to disregard outward appearances, and diligently to cultivate such things as foster amendment of life and fervour of soul, rather than to cultivate those qualities that seem most popular.
Thomas à Kempis
It is thy duty oftentimes to do what thou wouldst not thy duty too to leave undone that thou wouldst do.
Thomas à Kempis
In Him we have peace, in Him we have power; Preserved by His grace, throughout the dark hour; In all our temptation He keeps us to proveHis utmost salvation, His fulness of love.Pronounce the glad word, and bid us be free! Ah, hast Thou not, Lord, a blessing for me? The peace Thou hast given, this moment impart, And open Thy heaven, O Love, in my heart.
Charles Wesley
No great thing comes to any man unless he has courage.
Cardinal James Gibbons
God is not a scientific hypothesis that might rival evolution. To think he is reduces the Creator to a creature, a highly creative force within the universe. God is not an occupant of the universe at all, but an answer to the question "why is there a universe?" God and many concepts of evolution can exist quite happily.
George Cardinal Pell
For the multitude of worldly friends profiteth not nor may strong helpers anything avail nor wise counselors give profitable counsel nor the cunning of doctors give consolation nor riches deliver in time of need nor a secret place to defend if Thou Lord do not assist help comfort counsel inform and defend.
Thomas à Kempis