Quotessence
Home / Topics / Piety Quotes

Piety Quotes

Browse 357 quotes about Piety.

Related topics

MenVirtueIfsPeopleWorldReligiousChristianMayAtheismHeartWayMindChristianityEndsMeanPiousReligionSpiritHas BeensHumansPrayerShouldAgeChildrenJusticeKindMadeWellsCharacterCharityChurchCultureDoeEvilHeavenJesusLittlesMoralActionArtBelieveDevotionDivineFatherFilialFilial PietyGraceLongSelfThinkingWould Be

Piety Quotes

“I am not perfect, but if I looked perfect to everyone I must have been rocking imperfect perfectly to a few imperfect souls that seek imperfection vs. perfection, in an imperfect world where God asks us to seek perfection for our imperfect souls.”

HumorPerfectLaughingJokesPerfectionCriticsStupidityJudgementImperfectionImperfectInsecurePietyStupid PeopleHatersOscar WildeEthnic CleansingSelf RighteousnessBrainwashedGibberishConundrumChristian HypocrisyJudgersJudegmentGroup CyberbullingPhilosophical Redundance
Author:Shannon L. Alder
Create image

“Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. Therefore atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further: and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus Cæsar) were civil times. But superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the people; and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reversed order.”

PhilosophyGovernmentReligionPracticeVirtueWiseAtheismMoralityArgumentConfusionReputationMonarchyPietySuperstitionSenseMasterLawsCivilCaesarAugustus CaesarNatural Piety
Author:Francis Bacon
Create image

“There may be some truth (atheists) do not need to believe in a god to be good, but then if they do not believe in a god, who do they believe gives the Universal Law of following good and shunning evil? Obviously, mankind. But then that is a dangerous thing, for if a man does not believe in a god capable of giving perfect laws, he is in the position of declaring all laws come from man, and as man is imperfect, he can declare that as fallible men make imperfect laws, he can pick and choose what he wishes to follow, that which, in his own mind seems good. He does not believe in divine retribution, therefore he can also declare his own morality contrary to what the divine may decree simply because he believes there is no divine decree. He may follow his every whim and passion, declaring it to be good when it may be very evil, for he like all men is imperfect, so how can he tell what is verily good? The atheist is in danger of mistaking vice for good and consequently follow another slave master and tyrant, his own physical and mental weakness. Evil would be wittingly or unwittingly perpetrated, therefore, to recognise the existence of a perfect divine being that gives perfect Universal Laws is much better than not to believe in a god, for if there is a perfect god, they will not allow their laws to be broken with impunity as in the case with many corrupt judges on earth, but will punish accordingly in due time. Therefore, to be pious and reverent is the surest path to true freedom as a perfect god will give perfect laws to prevent all manner of slavery, tyranny and moral wantonness, even if we do not understand why they are good laws at times.”

PhilosophyGodWisdomLawReligionEvilFreedomAtheismMoralityPhilosophicalSlaveryAtheistGoodTyrannyGood And EvilFree WillReverencePietyTheologicalPiousLaw And OrderPhilosophy Of ReligionAtheistsGadfly
Book:Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
Create image

“To be humble is to be teachable. Meek, not weak. The most humble people are the most aggressive leaders. Aggressive because to be truly taught, is to sincerely do. To lead. To start. To achieve. Willingly and urgently doing the work to make change.”

ChangeTeachAchieveHumilityTaughtWeakHumbleHumanitarianEntrepreneurshipAggressivePietyMeekStartupGandhiHumblenessAggressivenessHumble YourselfAggressive BehaviorWillinglyAggressivelyUrgentlyHumble Power
Author:Richie Norton
Create image

“The modern woman will note with pleasant surprise that Mary of Nazareth, while being completely devoted to the will of God, was far from being a timidly submissive woman or one whose piety was repellent to others. On the contrary, she was a woman who did not hesitate to proclaim that God vindicates the humble and the oppressed and removes the powerful people of this world from their privileged positions. (Marialis Cultus)”

WomenJusticePrivilegePietyVirgin MaryPaul Vi
Author:Pope Paul VI
Create image

“Very well. He'd lighten up. As a matter of fact, he felt as light as the bubbly froth that flew from the lips of the waves. Whatever else his long, unprecedented life might have been, it had been fun. Fun! If others should find that appraisal shallow, frivolous, so be it. To him, it seemed now to largely have been some form of play. And he vowed that in the future he would strive to keep that sense of play more in mind, for he'd grown convinced that play--more than piety, more than charity or vigilance--was what allowed human beings to transcend evil.”

LifePlayEvilFunCharityTranscendencePietyVigilance
Book:Jitterbug Perfume
Create image

“Possession is not only when the devil plays hide and seek in your brain or poison your medula oblongata with negativity, but it is also when you are under the influence of the same specie as you!”

MindFearPowerInfluenceRespectDevilPossessionSurrenderObsessionCommandCowardReverenceCowardiceRetreatDominationSubmissionTrailsPietyMind ControlMichael Bassey JohnsonSinisterRuleAttackLukewarmMagnetismCagePossessAuraRulershipIntoxicatingBewitchingDemonic AttackBewitchObseqiousMental PoisoningMental ProblemNegative Power
Author:Michael Bassey Johnson
Create image

“There is certainly something to the thought that certain classic papers of Putnam and Quine offer perhaps the closest thing to be found in twentieth-century philosophy to an attempt to rehabilitate Descartes's claim that it would be hubris for us to assert of an omnipotent God that He would be inexorably bound by the laws of logic - those laws which happen to bind our finite minds. In a move which is characteristic of much of contemporary naturalistic thought (both in and out of the academy), science is substituted for God. Cartesianism in the philosophy of logic, freed of its theological trappings, becomes the view that it would be hubris for us to assert of the ongoing activity of scientific inquiry that it will be forever bound by the laws of classical logic - those principles which happen to be most fundamental to our present conceptual scheme. The contrast is now no longer, as in Descartes, between the infinite powers of man and the infinite powers of God, but rather between the limits of present scientific thought and the infinite possibilities latent in the future of science as such ... If Descartes is led by a sense of theological piety to insist that God can do anything - no matter how inconceivably it may be to us - the contemporary ultra-empiricist is led by an equally fervent sense of naturalistic piety to insist that the science of the future might require a revision of any of our present axioms of thought - no matter how unacceptable such a revision might seem by our present lights. The exploration of the contours of possibility belongs to the business of the physicists. In this regard, we philosophers must issue them a blank check - it would compromise our standing as underlaborers to put a ceiling on how much they can spend. To paraphrase Descartes on God: we must not conclude that there is a positive limit to the power of science on the basis of the limits of our own (present) powers of conception. All of its hostility to theology notwithstanding, this contemporary form of piety is, in a sense, no less religious (in its unconditional deference to a higher authority) than Descartes's - it has simply exchanged one Godhead for another. But, unlike Descartes, precisely because it is overly hostile to theology, it is able easily to blind itself to the fact that it is a form of piety.”

ScienceReligionLogicTheologyPietyLawsDescartes
Book:The Logical Alien: Conant and His Critics
Create image

“My parents spoke of piety, of love, and of humility. I have really tried hard. But as long as there was a God in my world, I couldn't even get close to my goals. My humility was not humble enough. My love remained nonetheless far less than the love of Christ or of the saints or even my own mother's love. And my piety was forever poisoned by grave doubts. Now that God is gone, I feel that all this is mine; piety toward life, humility before my meaningless fate, and love for the other children who are afraid, who are ill, who are cruel.”

LoveGodHumilityHumanismPietySecular HumanismFaith Doubt
Book:Images: my life in film
Create image

“Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods. For these men know that, once ignorance is put aside, that wonderment would be taken away, which is the only means by which their authority is preserved.”

ThinkingTruthUnderstandingNatureWonderKnowledgeIgnoranceAuthorityPhilosopherFoolishPreservationGodsMiraclesAdorationHeresyPietyAstonishmentCauseFoolsMobCausationStareInterpretThe GodsHereticalImpious
Book:Ethics
Create image

“The source to low self-esteem is the lack of control you feel you have in your life. If you spend your life competing with others, trying to make right the wrongs done to you, or waste your time trying to look right, you will never achieve contentment and emotional balance. People you encounter in life can’t be controlled by you. You only have control of yourself. Build your life around a relationship with a higher power and achieving what you’re passionate about. When you let go of what you can’t control, true peace can then enter your life. This is the path to achieving emotional balance.”

MenLife LessonsWomenRelationshipsFreedomChristianityCareersWorrySelf EsteemPerspectiveBuddhismConfidenceSelf LoveBalanceLetting GoAnxietyDignityAdversityCompetitionSelf WorthMoving OnSelf RespectPietySpiritual AwakeningEmotional PainAuthentic SelfWrong ReasonsWorldlinessTrue PeaceInsecuritiesSeeing YourselfHidden AgendasEmotional BalanceRole Model For KidsRole Model For TeenagersNeed For ControlNeed To Be RightFalse ConfidenceSeeing OthersFalse RighteousnessSatan S TrickNeed To Compete
Author:Shannon L. Alder
Create image

“Here was my mother, one of the Top Five pious women of the district, coming out with the unbelievable "God's great and all but". This was scandalous, also exciting, even rather refreshing - that a person of the sanctities was showing herself to be not one hundred percent of the sanctities, or else there was nothing for it but that the sanctities would have to adjust in meaning to include the lower half of the body now as well.”

GodRomanceSexPietySanctity
Book:Milkman
Create image

“The religious man is the only successful man. Nothing fails with him. Every shaft reaches the mark, if the mark be God. He has wasted no energies. Every hope has been fulfilled beyond expectations. Every effort has been even disproportionately rewarded. Every means has turned out marvelously to be an end, because it had God in it, who is our single end. In piety, every battle is a victory, simply because it is a battle. The completest defeats have somewhat of triumph in them; for it is a positive triumph to have stood up and fought for God at all. In short, no life is a failure which is lived for God; and all lives are failures which are lived for any other end.”

LifeGodSuccessFailurePietySpiritual Battles
Book:The Precious Blood: The Price of Our Salvation
Create image

“Thou didst not come down from the cross when they shouted to Thee, mocking and reviling Thee, "Come down from the cross and we will believe that Thou art He." Thou didst not come down, for again Thou wouldst not enslave man by a miracle. Thou didst crave faith given freely, not based on a miracle. Thou didst crave for free love and not the base raptures of the slave before the might that has overawed him for ever.”

LoveGodFaithCatholicismPiety
Book:The Grand Inquisitor
Create image

“While you were busy trying to prove God stands behind you, God was before me lighting the trail, so he could lead us both.”

GodReligionRelationshipsConflictCommunicateRidiculousSillyMental IllnessPrivacyBe KindProblemsReach OutDogmaPreachingCommandmentsInsecureWorthlessRulesRelentlessPietyForgiveGospelNovelsLow Self EsteemPiousTalkMove OnFacebookSelf RighteousnessOver The TopReligionsLove EveryoneNeighborsSlightedPractice What You PreachHidden AgendasObviousnessJiltedBuilding People UpOut ThereMaking A PointEnd It With TalkingTearing People DownUpfront
Author:Shannon L. Alder
Create image

“Solemn three-day fasts, which were instituted by Adhemar of Le Puy, were decreed after an earthquake which took place on 30 December 1097, before the battle of Antioch on 28 June 1098, before an ordeal undergone by Peter Bartholomew on 8 April 1099 and before the procession round Jerusalem on 8 July 1099. These fasts certainly made an impression on the crusaders; they could hardly have failed to have done so, since they can only have made their hunger worse. It was reported that during their fast at Antioch Turks came up to walls with loaves of white bread, with which they tempted and mocked the starving men within. The achievement of the crusaders becomes even more remarkable — in fact it is quite incredible - when one considers that soldiers already weakened by starvation, who certainly appreciated die importance of taking food before battle since they took care to give their horses extra rations, deliberately fasted before their more important engagements. One wonders how they managed to fight at all.”

WarBattleHungerPietyFastingCrusadesFastWarriorshipCrusadersFirst Crusade
Book:The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading
Create image

“It is often said that Islam is an egalitarian religion. There is much truth in this assertion. If we compare Islam at the time of its advent with the societies that surrounded it—the stratified feudalism of Iran and the caste system of India to the east, the privileged aristocracies of both Byzantine and Latin Europe to the west—the Islamic dispensation does indeed bring a message of equality. Not only does Islam not endorse such systems of social differentiation; it explicitly and resolutely rejects them. The actions and utterances of the Prophet, the honored precedents of the early rulers of Islam as preserved by tradition, are overwhelmingly against privilege by descent, by birth, by status, by wealth, or even by race, and insist that rank and honor are determined only by piety and merit in Islam.”

ReligionHistoryRacismIslamMeritMuslimPietyEgalitarian
Author:Bernard Lewis
Create image

“To describe heaven it is not necessary to transport the materials of earth there. One must leave earth & its materials where they are, so as to beautify life with its ideal. To address Elohim familiarly is an unseemly buffoonery. The best way of showing him gratitude is not by yelling in his ears that he is mighty, that he created the world, that we are wormlets compared to his greatness. He knows it better than we. Men may excuse themselves of informing him of that. The best way of showing him gratitude is to console humanity, to restore all to it, take it by the hand & treat it like a brother. This is more genuine.”

PietyRelationship With GodHumanisticSpritualism
Book:Maldoror and the Complete Works
Create image

“Who here can never say they have committed murder, whether in the name of the God or otherwise?” I meet the High Saint’s eye by accident. It’s burning with holy reverence as he nods. Nothing wakes a High Saint up like reminding them that we are all sinners in the hands of the Merciful God. It’s like wine to them and they’ll drink it to the dregs. “So it is and always is,” he intones gravely. Sir Kodelai shoots him a quelling look and it’s hard not to laugh at how the piety of the one has ruined the performance of the other’s piety.”

PietyHolier Than ThouPaladinPerformative Piety
Book:Of Deeds Most Valiant
Create image

“Piety /pi•e•ty/ (modern definition) 1. When you use Christ’s teachings to put someone in their place out of anger and self-righteousness. It is the number two reason people leave the faith. The first is pride.”

WisdomWinningLostPrideAngerObviousCleverCunningArrowsPietyPiousVengefulEvilnessLosing FaithBlindsightedRelgionRightnessFake KindnessNeed To Be RightFalse RighteousnessInactive MembersEvil DoingLoss Of Holy GhostLost MembersLost TestimonyPossessed By SatanSacraligeSatan S ToolsSilver ToungedTwisted ScripturesVery LostWorst Thing You Can Do
Author:Shannon L. Alder
Create image

“We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen, all for the glory of God and the good of souls. The slave auctioneer's bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave trade go hand in hand.”

SlaverySlaveOppressionPietySuperstitionSlave OwnersRevivals
Book:Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Create image

“I, for example, recently finished writing an article about the latest wave of “home-grown” Islamic suicide-murderers. It was impossible not to notice one thing that their profiles and Web sites had in common. All of them complained about the impossibility of finding a woman, or sometimes a woman of sufficient piety. Meanwhile their public propaganda was hot with disgust and indignation at the phenomenon of female inchastity. The connection between repression and orgasmically violent action appeared woefully evident.”

FanaticismRepressionPietyVirginityFreudTerrorists2010Sigmund FreudSexual Frustration
Book:Civilization and Its Discontents
Create image

“When Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning-rod, the clergy, both in England and America, with the enthusiastic support of George III, condemned it as an impious attempt to defeat the will of God. For, as all right-thinking people were aware, lightning is sent by God to punish impiety or some other grave sin—the virtuous are never struck by lightning. Therefore if God wants to strike any one, Benjamin Franklin [and his lightning-rod] ought not to defeat His design; indeed, to do so is helping criminals to escape. But God was equal to the occasion, if we are to believe the eminent Dr. Price, one of the leading divines of Boston. Lightning having been rendered ineffectual by the 'iron points invented by the sagacious Dr. Franklin,' Massachusetts was shaken by earthquakes, which Dr. Price perceived to be due to God's wrath at the 'iron points.' In a sermon on the subject he said, 'In Boston are more erected than elsewhere in New England, and Boston seems to be more dreadfully shaken. Oh! there is no getting out of the mighty hand of God.' Apparently, however, Providence gave up all hope of curing Boston of its wickedness, for, though lightning-rods became more and more common, earthquakes in Massachusetts have remained rare.”

GodAmericaReligionChristianityDesignDivineEnglandProvidenceLightningWickednessBostonPietySuperstitionFranklinClergyNew EnglandMassachusettsIdiocyHand Of GodBenjamin FranklinGeorge IiiImpiousLightning Rod
Book:An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish: A Hilarious Catalogue of Organized and Individual Stupidity
Create image

“There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are guilty on behalf of all and for all. Whereas by shifting your own laziness and powerlessness onto others, you will end by sharing in Satan's pride and murmuring against God. The Brothers Karamazov Book VI - The Russian Monk, Chapter 3 - Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zosima.”

GodReligionCommunityRussiaHolinessOrthodoxPietyThe Brothers KaramazovEastern Orthodox
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
Create image

“The stakes in this game are not low. Our enterprise is no less than the introduction of an alternative language, and with the language an altered perspective, for a group of phenomena that tradition tended to refer to with such words as 'spirituality', 'piety', 'morality', 'ethics' and 'asceticism'. If the manoeuvre succeeds, the conventional concept of religion, that ill-fated bugbear from the prop studios of modern Europe, will emerge from these investigations as the great loser. Certainly intellectual history has always resembled a refuge for malformed concepts - and after the following journey through the various stations, one will not only see through the concept of 'religion' in its failed design, a concept whose crookedness is second only to the hyper-bugbear that is 'culture'.”

ReligionCultureSpiritualityMoralityEthicsPietyAsceticismPractising
Book:Du mußt dein Leben ändern
Create image

“gratitude noun \ˈgra-tə-ˌtüd, -ˌtyüd\ 1. The word thrown in your face by people who covet what you want and believe that your lack of contentment is a sin. Often, these people believe success is what you have already and obtaining anything else is optional, but not required.”

DreamHumorSuccessAchieveGratitudeSettlingRighteousnessGet RealPietyMove OnDefinition Of SuccessSeriouslySurpassReach For The StarsLove DeeplyBelieve In FateWanting What You HaveBelieve In SignsChallenge The MassesSome Truth To It
Author:Shannon L. Alder
Create image

“Take heed, you bear in mind the piety you owe unto your country and unto your fellow countrymen, whose slaughter by the treachery of the Payneham shall be unto your disgrace everlasting. Unless you press hardily forward to defend them. Fight therefore for your country, and if it be that death overtake you, suffer it willingly for your country’s sake. For death itself is victory, and a healing unto the soul.”

HistoryPietyCountrymenKing ArthurMerlinGeoffreyKings Of Britain
Book:The History of the Kings of Britain
Create image

“Popular piety is one of our strengths because it consists of prayers deeply rooted in people's hearts. These prayers even move the hearts of people who are somewhat cut off from the life of the Church and who have no special understanding of faith. All that is required is to 'illuminate' these actions and 'purify' this tradition so that it may become part of the life of the Church today.”

PeopleHeartMayTodayActionMovingUnderstandingChurchPrayerCuttingSpecialTraditionRootedPietyChurch Today
Book:Questions and Answers
Create image

“The world exists, not for what it means but for what it is. The purpose of mushrooms is to be mushrooms, wine is in order to be wine: things are precious before they are contributory. It is a false piety that walks through creation looking only for lessons which can be applied somewhere else. To be sure, God remains the greatest good; but, for all that, the world is still good in itself. Indeed, since He does not need it, its whole reason for being must lie in its own natural goodness; He has no use for it, only delight.”

WorldNeedsMeanDoeStillsReasonWholeUseLyingPurposeOrderNaturalWalksCreationLessonsGoodnessRemainsWineEnvironmentalDelightSomewhere ElsePietyMushrooms
Author:Robert Farrar Capon
Create image