Quotes About Piety

It was better to avoid ostentatious piety and pray in the privacy of one's cell because 'if we pray when others are present, their approbation may rob our prayer of . . . its effect'.25 There would be no sudden illumination;

But be warned! The book is an inconceivably impressive sharpening of the commandment 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain'.

There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthusiasm.

The life of a solitary man will be certainly miserable, but not certainly devout.

Man's insulting God is not reversed by our insulting man.

Piety does not mean that a man should make a sour face about things, and refuse to enjoy in moderation what his Maker has given.

Even though a man may be unable to attain such a height of sanctity, he ought to desire it, so as to do at least in desire what he cannot carry out in effect.

One may take many liberties with God which one cannot take with men.

Let no man break the laws of the land, for he that keepeth the laws of God hath no need to break the laws of the land.

A man who piously shuts himself up to meditate upon the sin of wickedness and to keep it fresh in his mind joins a brotherhood of awful examples.

Piety's hard enough to take among the poor who have to practice it. A rich man's piety stinks. It's insufferable.

No man can in any measure resemble the scripture saints.

I am basically a religious man.

Men of simple understanding, little inquisitive and little instructed, make good Christians.

All men have need of the gods.

Who is a good man? He who keeps the decrees of the fathers, and both human and divine laws. [Lat., Vir bonus est quis? Qui consulta patrum, qui leges juraque servat.]

The ground that a good man treads is hallowed.

We have to make holiness our creed

The effort to reconcile science and religion is almost always made, not by theologians, but by scientists unable to shake off altogether the piety absorbed with their mother's milk.

The words which express our faith and piety are not definite; yet they are significant and fragrant like frankincense to superior natures.

The law of nature instructs most animals to cherish and educate their infant progeny. The law of reason inculcates to the human species the returns of filial piety.

Mrs. Bulstrode's naïve way of conciliating piety and worldliness, the nothingness of this life and desirability of cut glass, the consciousness at once of filthy rags and the best damask...

O man! Prepare yourself for the Hereafter, obey Allah to the extent of your need for Him and anger Him to the extent of your patience in Hell.

I am so tried by the things said about God. I understand God's patience with the wicked, but I do wonder how he can be so patient with the pious!