PIETY QUOTES
quotations about piety
Piety stretched beyond a certain point is the parent of impiety. By attempting to keep up the fervour of devotion for so long a time, we have thinned our churches, and driven away those fluctuating, lukewarm Christians who will always outnumber the zealous and devout, and whom it should be our first object to animate, allure, and fix.
SYDNEY SMITH
A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Christian piety annihilates the egotism of the heart; worldly politeness veils and represses it.
BLAISE PASCAL
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
A mind full of piety and knowledge is always rich; it is a bank that never fails; it yields a perpetual dividend of happiness.
J. G. BROOKS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Piety--warm, soft, and passive as the ether round the throne of Grace--is made callous and inactive by kneeling too much.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
Imaginary Conversations
If you cultivate piety as an end and not a means, you will become a hypocrite.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
We must watch over pious impressions, and cultivate them, or they will never become vigorous and enduring.
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
"Life a Divine Gift", The Works of William E. Channing
Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety. It shows itself in acts rather than in words, and has more influence than homilies or protestations.
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Little Women
Piety is usually preceded by faith, and it is then faith's achievement, an effort to put faith's ideas into effect.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion
Ours must be a robust piety--which does not get sick soon in the tainted air. The forces of evil are marshalled in unwonted activity--and there are liers in wait to surprise and to betray. Ours must be a watchful piety, which is not frightened from its steadfastness by the "noise of the captains and the shouting." Through the heavy night, and beyond the embattled hosts, there glitters the victor's recompense. It must be ours to press towards it on our patient way, saying to all who differ from us, "Hinder me not, I mean to wear that crown."
WILLIAM MORLEY PUNSHON
Lectures and Sermons
All prejudice presents itself as piety, propriety.
HAL DUNCAN
Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions
A contemplative life has more the appearance of piety than any other; but the divine plan is to bring faith into activity and exercise.
RICHARD CECIL
attributed, A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors, Both Ancient and Modern
Without true piety the finest qualities of character and the highest position in society will utterly fail to make a true and noble man.
WILLIAM MACKERGO TAYLOR
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
We must labor unceasingly to render our piety reasonable, and our reason pious.
MADAME SWETCHINE
The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Piety gives to its possessor a twofold immortality.
J. G. HUGHES
attributed, Day's Collacon
Faith, and hope, and patience and all the strong, beautiful, vital forces of piety are withered and dead in a prayerless life.
E. M. BOUNDS
The Weapon of Prayer
Piety is not an end, but a means: a means of attaining the highest culture by the purest tranquility of soul. Hence it may be observed that those who set up piety as an end and object are mostly hypocrites.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
Whatever be the topic of conversation, the spirit of piety should be diffused through it--as the salt in our food should properly season it all, whatever the article of food may be.
ALBERT BARNES
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Epistles of Paul: To the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians
Young men, you who have any piety at all, what sort is it? Is it a hot-house plant, which must be framed and glassed, lest March, that bold young fellow, should shake the life out of it in his rough play among the flowers? or is it a hardy shrub, which rejoices when the wild winds course along the heather or howl above the crest of Lebanon? We need, believe me, the bravery of godliness to bear true witness for our Master now.
WILLIAM MORLEY PUNSHON
Lectures and Sermons
Piety dies not with man; live they or die they, it perishes not.
SOPHOCLES
attributed, Day's Collacon
He was very religious; he believed that he had a secret pact with God which exempted him from doing good in exchange for prayers and piety.
JORGE LUIS BORGES
The Aleph and Other Stories