The moral is that it is probably better not to sin at all, but if
some kind of sin you must be pursuing,Well, remember to do it by doing rather than by not doing.
Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
“Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man” (1959)
(Source)
Quotations about:
sin of omission
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
It is common knowledge to every schoolboy and even every Bachelor of Arts,
That all sin is divided into two parts.
One kind of sin is called a sin of commission, and that is very important
And it is what you are doing when you are doing something you ortant.
And the other kind of sin is just the opposite and is called a sin of omission and is equally bad in the eyes of all right-thinking people, from Billy Sunday to Buddha,
And it consists of not having done something you shudda.
A man does not sin by commission only, but often by omission.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations, Book 9, #5 [tr. Staniforth (1964)]
The biggest sin is sitting on your ass.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Florynce R. Kennedy, in Gloria Steinem, “the Verbal Karate of Florynce R. Kennedy, Esq.,” Ms. (Mar 1973)
To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author and poet.
“Protest,” Poems of Problems (1914)
Mistakenly attributed to Abraham Lincoln by Douglas MacArthur in a 1950 speech, and frequently since then.
