WIST Quotations

Faulkner, William -- “Mistral,” These 13 (1931)

Dave — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 15:50:33 +0000

For the holy are susceptible too to evil, even as you and I, signori; they too are helpless before sin without God’s aid. … And the holy can be fooled by sin as quickly as you or I, signori. Quicker, because they are holy.

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American novelist
“Mistral,” These 13 (1931)
(Source)

Luther, Martin -- Table Talk [Colloquia Mensalia], ch. 2 (1566) [tr. Bell]

Dave — Mon, 01 May 2017 22:33:56 +0000

For, where God built a church, there the devil would also build a chapel.

Martin Luther (1483–1546) German priest, theologian, writer, religious reformer
Table Talk [Colloquia Mensalia], ch. 2 (1566) [tr. Bell]
(Source)

See Herbert, who identifies it as a common phrase.

Lewis, C.S. -- “The Weight of Glory,” sermon, Oxford University Church of St Mary the Virgin (8 Jun 1941)

Dave — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 20:18:22 +0000

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn: We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously — no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner — no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat — the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Weight of Glory,” sermon, Oxford University Church of St Mary the Virgin (8 Jun 1941)

Lewis, Sinclair -- (Spurious)

Dave — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 16:53:21 +0000

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American novelist, playwright
(Spurious)

Not found in Lewis' writing. Variants:

James Waterman Wise, Jr., Christian Century (5 Feb 1936): "In a recent address here before the liberal John Reed club said that Hearst and Coughlin are the two chief exponents of fascism in America. If fascism comes, he added, it will not be identified with any 'shirt' movement, nor with an 'insignia,' but it will probably be 'wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the constitution.'"
Halford E. Luccock, Keeping Life Out of Confusion (1938): "When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled 'made in Germany'; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, 'Americanism.'"
Harrison Evans Salisbury, The Many Americas Shall Be One (1971): "Sinclair Lewis aptly predicted in It Can't Happen Here that if fascism came to America it would come wrapped in the flag and whistling 'The Star Spangled Banner.'" [The quotation is not found in that book.]

Herbert, George -- Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 674 (1640 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:47:51 +0000

No sooner is a Temple built to God but the Devill builds a Chappell hard by.

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 674 (1640 ed.)
(Source)

See also Martin Luther.

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- “The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child” (1877)

Dave — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:24:29 +0000

No day can be so sacred but that the laugh of a little child will make it holier still.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
“The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child” (1877)
(Source)