Quotes About Self-righteousness

quoting Kipling, I never got over the wonder of a people who, having extirpated the aboriginals of their continent more completely than any modern race had ever done, honestly believed they were a godly little New England community, setting examples to mankind.

Condemning others as bad or sinful is a way to feel righteous. Such a feeling is a powerful mood alteration and can become highly addictive.

Presenting ourselves to death outside of Christ, even when disguised as a justifiably self-imposed penance or fasting, is an exercise in self-righteous futility. Self has no problem with a self-supervised execution it can be proud of.

Now, I was, as they said, become godly; now I was become a right honest man. But, oh! when I understood that these were their words and opinions of me, it pleased me mighty well. For though, as yet, I was nothing but a poor painted Hypocrite, yet I loved to be talked of as one that was truly godly. I was proud of my Godliness, and, indeed, I did all I did, ether to be seen of, or to be well spoken of, by Man.

I've noticed that there is danger in spending all this time writing about those "publicans and sinners" over there in the great and spacious building. If our spot near the tree of life becomes a Rameumptom where we congratulate each other on our chosen-ness and look down on everyone else, then we're occupying nothing more than a branch office of the great and spacious.

So long as we do not look beyond the earth, we are quite pleased with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue; we address ourselves in the most flattering terms, and seem only less than demigods.

Social engaged intellectuals must accept reality as they found it and shape it toward positive social goals, not stand aside in self-righteous isolation.

Progressives have finally convinced everyone to think alike, but without joy, satisfaction, or social harmony in return — just self-righteousness and misery.

Exploiters and manipulators have always used religion self-righteously to further their own selfish ends.

Self-righteousness, when you think about it, is a contra-indicator of self-esteem. It's what sets in when genuine righteousness eludes us.

Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings, who think themselves good because they have crippled paws!

You are not the worst girl in the city of New York; the worst girl in the city of New York says that she is the best girl in the city of New York." She did not understand the paradox.

But of course he was also human, which is to say he was limited, and among his limitations was a blindness of a kind that is perhaps not all that unusual among extraordinary men of a certain type. Often right about important things, he was inclined to think himself always right about everything.

A fool is wise in his eyes.

I perceive two things in Scotland of the most fearful omen: ignorance of theological truth, and a readiness to pride themselves in and boast of it.

The saved man seeks to conform himself to the Word and will of God; the self-righteous man seeks to conform God and the world to his word and will. The

Forget letting go and letting God. It was time for brooding, stewing, victimized self-righteousness, and thoughts of revenge. Now you're talking.

The one truth that would help us begin to solve our ethical and political problems [is] that we are all more or less wrong, that we are all at fault, all limited and obstructed by our mixed motives, our self-deception, our greed, our self-righteousness and our tendency to aggression and hypocrisy.

Have you noticed how one condemns most self-righteously that which one has never had the opportunity to do?

It seems ridiculous, but when people are self-righteous, they really tend to prefer punishment to prevention.

The spirit that caused Cain to murder Abel was pride. The spirit that caused Israel to follow other gods was pride. And the spirit that sent Jesus to the cross … that lurked in the heart of every Pharisee … was the spirit of self-righteous pride. That same demonic spirit is destroying America; it deceives us in believing that we know how to run our lives and lead our nation better than God can.

The people I knew who thought brutal thoughts and acted in brutal ways—the racists, the sexists, the bigots—never seemed to doubt themselves. They were always so sure that they were right.

For a man who professed to love God, he was filled with the vinegar of hatred and self-righteousness.

Their actions highlight the curious self-righteousness of the American Progressive mind, and the belief among Progressives that their views once arrived at were beyond criticism; as with Wilson, opposition itself became a sign of disloyalty, even of evil.29