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Penitence Quotes

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Penitence Quotes

“Oppenheimer was lamenting the subservience of science to innate human cruelty in an address to the American Philosophical Society: “We have made a thing, a most terrible weapon, that has altered abruptly and profoundly the nature of the world ... a thing that by all the standards of the world we grew up in is an evil thing. And by so doing ... we have raised again the question of whether science is good for man.” This public admission of personal despair at the moral collapse of the modern world’s leading intellectual enterprise could not be more nakedly penitent.”

ScienceEvilHuman NatureRegretMoralityDestructionCrueltyPenitenceConcession To EvilMoral Collapse
Author:Algis Valiunas
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“Now they came, spectres in mourning, humbling themselves, ghosts, their eyes the only points of brightness. It was harrowing: a long cortege of shadows. This time silence had come flooding in. Not a sound, not a cry. A silence all the more sinister for being black. There is the white silence of the Beguines' workrooms; it is sweet. Here was a black silence that strikes terror to the heart, slipping past like water, as full of pitfalls as the night. At first all that could be made out was a tangle of crosses, all the raised arms of the crosses of a graveyard. All with their dead.”

SilencePenitence
Book:The Bells of Bruges
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“Tess's feminine hope - shall we confess it - had been so obstinately recuperative as to revive in her surreptitious visions of a domiciliary intimacy continued long enough to break down his coldness even against his judgement. Though unsophisticated in the usual sense, she was not incomplete; and it would have denoted deficiency of womanhood if she had not instinctively known what an argument lies in propinquity. Nothing else would save her, she knew, if this failed. It was wrong to hope in what was of the nature of strategy, she said to herself; yet that sort of hope she could not extinguish. His last representation had now been made, and it was, as she said, a new view. She had truly never though so far as that, and his lucid picture of possible offspring who would scorn her was one that brought deadly conviction to an honest heart which was humanitarian to its centre. Sheer experience had already taught her that, in some circumstances, there was one thing better than to lead a good life, and that was to be saved from leading any life whatever. Like all who have been previsioned by suffering, she could, in the words of M. Sully-Prudhomme, hear a penal sentence in the fiat, 'You shall be born,' particularly if addressed to potential issue or hers.”

HumanismPenitence
Book:Tess of the D’Urbervilles
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“While I was under these influences of sorrow for him, came notice to me that the next sessions there would be a bill preferred to the grand jury against me, and that I should be tried for my life. My temper was touched before, the wretched boldness of spirit which I had acquired abated, and conscious guilt began to flow in my mind. In short, I began to think, and to think indeed is one real advance from hell to heaven. All that hardened state and temper of soul, which I said so much of before, is but a deprivation of thought; he that is restored to his thinking, is restored to himself.”

SorrowEnlightenmentMercyAwakeningPunishmentPenitence
Book:Moll Flanders
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“O, sir,' murmured Sheila, still on her knees, 'please forgive me.' 'Forgive you! 0, la, la, la!' cunningly cried the droll, and strutting like an actor. 'Forgiveness is easy, is it not? O, yes, it is nothing. You are a young woman full of pride. O. yes! - but that is nothing. And full of penitence, and that is nothing, too. Pride is nothing, penitence nothing, forgiveness nothing, but even a bargain in farthings must be paid to be made, and I am a plain business man. What costs nothing brings no balm, and you would not like that, you would not like that, now would you?' (“The Bogey Man”)”

PrideForgivenessFairyBargainLeprechaunPenitenceImpFay
Book:Dusky Ruth and Other Stories
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“People will say,"there's heaven and hell", and they take it so serious that they look so sorrowful with penitence. I would rather ask them to show me the route that leads to heaven or hell.”

PeopleThinkingWayInspirationalDreamHumorHeavenImaginationKnowledgeHellDoubtAtheismArgumentExperienceCuriosityAtheistCuriousJudgementJokeDreamingRumorSkepticalQuestionSkepticRaptureMichael Bassey JohnsonMetamorphosisExpressThomasPenitenceDoubting MindRouteUnbelieverDisbelieveTalksDoubting ThomasEmpyreanHeresayI Want To KnowThe Way The Truth And The Light
Author:Michael Bassey Johnson
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“The new year on which we are about to enter is unopened, and we know not what shall befall us; but if we follow Christ we need have no fear. So let us leave the old year with gratitude to God for its mercies, and with penitence for its failures and sins; and let us enter the new year with earnest resolve in Christ's name to make it the holiest and most beautiful year we have ever lived.”

IfsKnowsNeedsYearsBeautifulNamesChristSinGratitudeMercyResolveNew YearEarnestNo FearHave No FearOld YearPenitenceGratitude To God
Author:J.R. Miller
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“Our preaching does not stop with the law. That would lead to wounding without binding up, striking down and not healing, killing and not making alive, driving down to hell and not bringing back up, humbling and not exalting. Therefore, we must also preach grace and the promise of forgiveness - this is the means by which faith is awakened and properly taught. Without this word of grace, the law, contrition, penitence, and everything else are done and taught in vain.”

MeanDoeDoneLawHealingHellGraceAliveTaughtPromiseDown AndKillingDrivingVainPreachingAwakenedBindingHumblingPenitenceContrition
Author:Martin Luther
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“Prayer is the converse of the soul with God. Therein we manifest or express to Him our reverence, and love for His divine perfection, our gratitude for all His mercies, our penitence for our sins, our hope in His forgiving love, our submission to His authority, our confidence in His care, our desires for His favour, and for the providential and spiritual blessings needed for ourselves and others.”

SoulCareSpiritualDesirePrayerSinDivineNeededGratitudeBlessingAuthorityPerfectionMercyAnd LoveForgivingManifestReverenceFavourSubmissionConversesPenitenceSpiritual BlessingsForgiving Love
Book:Soteriology, eschatology
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“Here is the interesting twist:[McLeod] Campbell came to his views through reading Jonathan Edwards who suggested at one point in his ruminations on the atonement that Christ could have offered up a perfect act of penitence instead of punishment, and that this would have been an acceptable offering suitable to remit our sinfulness.”

Has BeensReadingChristPerfectInterestingViewsPunishmentAcceptableOfferingTwistsSuitableAtonementSinfulnessPenitenceRumination
Author:Oliver D. Crisp
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“I had learned to dwell with pleasure as a beloved daydream on the thought of the separation of these elements. If each I told myself could be housed in separate identities life would be relieved of all that was unbearable the unjust might go his way delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path doing the good things in which he found his pleasure and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil.”

IfsWayHandsMightWould BeEvilFoundWalksPleasurePathIdentityElementsGood ThingsSeparationBelovedAspirationExposedTwinsUnjustRemorseUnbearableDisgraceDaydreamingRelievedPenitence
Book:The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, second edition
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“How was it that he haunted her imagination so persistently? What could it be? Why did she care for what he thought, in spite of all her pride in spite of herself? She believed that she could have borne the sense of Almighty displeasure, because He knew all, and could read her penitence, and hear her cries for help in time to come. But Mr.Thornton-why did she tremble, and hide her face in the pillow? What strong feeling had overtaking her at last?”

HelpingFeelingsCareLastsFacesStrongImaginationCryPrideSpiteAlmightyPillowStrong FeelingDispleasurePenitenceOvertakingMr Thornton
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Elizabeth Gaskell (Illustrated)
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“And could I look upon her without compassion, seeing her punishment in the ruin she was, in her profound unfitness for this earth on which she was placed, in the vanity of sorrow which had become a master mania, like the vanity of penitence, the vanity of remorse, the vanity of unworthiness, and other monstrous vanities that have been curses in this world?”

WorldLooksHas BeensEarthCompassionSeeingThis WorldMastersSorrowExpectationsProfoundPunishmentRuinsVanityCurseLook UpRemorseMonstrousManiaGreat ExpectationsPenitenceGreat Expectations Important
Book:Dickens Ultimate Christmas Collection: The Greatest Stories & Novels for Christmas Time: A Christmas Carol, Doctor Marigold, Oliver Twist, Tom Tiddler's Ground, The Holly-Tree and more (Illustrated): The Best Loved Christmas Classics in One Volume
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“Hail, high Excess especially in wine, To thee in worship do I bend the knee Who preach abstemiousness unto me My skull thy pulpit, as my paunch thy shrine. Precept on precept, aye, and line on line, Could ne'er persuade so sweetly to agree With reason as thy touch, exact and free, Upon my forehead and along my spine. At thy command eschewing pleasure's cup, With the hot grape I warm no more my wit; When on thy stool of penitence I sit I'm quite converted, for I can't get up. Ungrateful he who afterward would falter To make new sacrifices at thine altar!”

I CanReasonLinesPleasureSacrificeWorshipHotAgreeWineWarmWitCommandGet UpCupsTheeKneesExcessAltarsForeheadsGrapesSkullsSpineUngratefulHailPulpitShrinesStoolsPenitence
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)
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“Praise and Prayer PRAISE is devotion fit for mighty minds, The diff'ring world's agreeing sacrifice; Where Heaven divided faiths united finds: But Prayer in various discord upward flies. For Prayer the ocean is where diversely Men steer their course, each to a sev'ral coast; Where all our interests so discordant be That half beg winds by which the rest are lost. By Penitence when we ourselves forsake, 'Tis but in wise design on piteous Heaven; In Praise we nobly give what God may take, And are, without a beggar's blush, forgiven.”

MenWorldGivingMindMayCoursesLostHeavenInterestPrayerUnitedHalfWiseSacrificeDesignWindFitOceanLosingPraiseVariousRingsDevotionDividedForgivenCoastBeggarSteersForsakeDiscordPenitence
Author:William Davenant
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“If an American is concerned only about his nation, he will not be concerned about the peoples of Asia, Africa, or South America. Is this not why nations engage in the madness of war without the slightest sense of penitence? Is this not why the murder of a citizen of your own nation is a crime, but the murder of citizens of another nation in war is an act of heroic virtue?”

IfsWarAmericaNationsVirtueCrimeCitizensConcernedMadnessMurderSouthHeroicAsiaSouth AmericaPenitence
Book:Strength to Love
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“He who is accustomed to give account of his life at confession here will not fear to give an answer at the terrible judgment-seat of Christ. It is for this purpose that the mild tribunal of penitence was here initiated, in order that we, being cleansed and amended through penitence here below, may give an answer without shame at the terrible judgment-seat of Christ.”

GivingMayChristianPurposeOrderChristAnswersTerribleJudgmentAccountsShameSeatsOrthodoxConfessionAccustomedOrthodox ChristianTribunalsPenitence
Author:John of Kronstadt
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