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Quotations about piety
Note that not all quotations have been tagged, so the Search function may find additional quotations on this topic.
In self-examination, take no account of yourself by your thoughts and resolutions in the days of religion and solemnity; examine how it is with you in the days of ordinary conversation and in the circumstances of secular employment.
Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) English cleric and author
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted in The Friends' Intelligencer (24 Jun 1882).
[Dr. John] Campbell is a good man, a pious man. I am afraid he has not been in the inside of a church for many years; but he never passes a church without
pulling off his hat. This shews that he has good principles.Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (1 Jul 1763)
In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).
The man of business goes on Sunday to the church with the regularity of the village blacksmith, there to renounce and abjure before his God the line of conduct which he intends to pursue with all his might during the following week.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Fabian Essays in Socialism, “The Basis of Socialism: Economic” (1889)
(Source)
To most Christians, the Bible is like a software license. Nobody actually reads it. They just scroll to the bottom and click, “I agree.”
William "Bill" Maher (b. 1956) American comedian, political commentator, critic, television host.
(Attributed)
Prayer is not a pious decoration of life but the breath of human existence.
Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) Dutch Catholic priest and writer
The Wounded Healer (1972)
It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to talk about it. We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does. Light-houses don’t ring bells and fire cannon to call attention to their shining — they just shine.
Dwight Lyman "D. L." Moody (1837-1899) American evangelist and publisher
(Attributed)
Sometimes quoted, "they just shine on."
Piety practised in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desert, may give its fragrance to the winds of heaven, and delight those unbodied spirits that survey the works of God and the actions of men; but it bestows no assistance upon earthly beings, and however free from taints of impurity, yet wants the sacred splendour of beneficence.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Adventurer, #126 “Praises of Solitude”
(Source)
Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Speech (18 Feb 1788)
Quoted in E. A. Bond (ed.), Speeches ... in the Trial of Warren Hastings, vol. 1 (1859)
