"In the Church, considered as a social organism, the mysteries inevitably degenerate into beliefs."

Weil, Simone on churches   

"If they had a social gospel in the days of the prodigal son, somebody would have given him a bed and a sandwich and he never would have gone home."

Havner, Vance on gospel   

"When I pastored a country church, a farmer didn't like the sermons I preached on hell. He said, Preach about the meek and lowly Jesus. I said, That's where I got my information about hell."

Havner, Vance on hell   

"Too many church services start at eleven sharp and end at twelve dull."

Havner, Vance on bores and boredom
5 fans of this quote   

"Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has."

Luther, Martin on reason   

"All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired."

Luther, Martin on prayer
3 fans of this quote   

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"Next to theology I give music the highest place of honor."

Luther, Martin on music
4 fans of this quote   

"Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die."

Luther, Martin on justice   

"The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life. In theological terms, one might say that all men, left to themselves, become gnostics. They may swagger like peacocks, but in their heart of hearts they all think sex an indignity and wish they could beget themselves on themselves. Hence the aggressive hostility toward women so manifest in most club-car stories."

Auden, W. H. on men   

"I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution."

Swift, Jonathan on churches   

"The problem is not that the churches are filled with empty pews, but that the pews are filled with empty people."

Shedd, Charlie on churches
7 fans of this quote   

"A church is a place in which gentlemen who have never been to heaven brag about it to persons who will never get there."

Mencken, H. L. on churches
4 fans of this quote   

"The difference between listening to a radio sermon and going to church...is almost like the difference between calling your girl on the phone and spending an evening with her."

Moody, Dwight L. on churches   

"Church attendance is as vital to a disciple as a transfusion of rich, healthy blood to a sick man."

Moody, Dwight L. on churches   

"The Christian church is a society of sinners. It is the only society in the world, membership in which is based upon the single qualification that the candidate shall be unworthy of membership."

Morrison, Charles C. on churches
3 fans of this quote   

"The greatest hindrances to the evangelization of the world are those within the church."

Mott, John R. on churches   

"A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints."

Nash, L. L. on churches
4 fans of this quote   

"Many are called but few are chosen. There are sayings of Christ which suggest that the Church he came to establish will always be a minority affair."

Norman, Edward on churches   

"Here, the churches seemed to shrink away into eroding corners. They seem to have ceased to be essential parts of American life. They no longer give life. It is the huge buildings of commerce and trade which now align the people to attention. These in their massive manner of steel and stone say, Come unto me all ye who labor, and we will give you work."

O'Casey, Sean on churches
3 fans of this quote   

"What is wrong with priests and popes is that instead of being apostles and saints, they are nothing but empirics who say I know instead of I am learning, and pray for credulity and inertia as wise men pray for skepticism and activity."

Shaw, George Bernard on churches   

"We sing in a church, why can we not dance there?"

Shaw, George Bernard on churches   

"A glorious Church is like a magnificent feast; there is all the variety that may be, but every one chooses out a dish or two that he likes, and lets the rest alone: how glorious soever the Church is, every one chooses out of it his own religion, by which he governs himself, and lets the rest alone."

Selden, John on churches   

"The root of almost every schism and heresy from which the Christian Church has suffered, has been because of the effort of men to earn, rather than receive their salvation; and the reason preaching is so commonly ineffective is, that it often calls on people to work for God rather than letting God work through them."

Ruskin, John on churches
3 fans of this quote   

"Nearly all the evils in the Church have arisen from bishops desiring power more than light. They want authority, not outlook."

Ruskin, John on churches   

"He who is near the Church is often far from God."

Proverb, French on churches
4 fans of this quote   

"Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested."

Chambers, Oswald on character   

"Holiness, not happiness, is the chief end of man."

Chambers, Oswald on happiness   

"In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for finding himself. If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence."

Merton, Thomas on responsibility
7 fans of this quote   

"I cannot make the universe obey me. I cannot make other people conform to my own whims and fancies. I cannot make even my own body obey me."

Merton, Thomas on control   

"It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as Gods will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food and medical care and a roof over your head and no worry about the rent. But if you want them to believe youtry to share some of their poverty and see if you can accept it as Gods will yourself!"

Merton, Thomas on uncategorised   

"Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the 'murderous din of our materialism'."

Merton, Thomas on solitude
3 fans of this quote   

"Take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me, never shall be free, nor ever chaste, except you ravish me."

Donne, John on infatuation
9 fans of this quote   

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."

Merton, Thomas on   

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."

Merton, Thomas on
3 fans of this quote   

"Truth never damages a cause that is just."

Gandhi, Mahatma on causes
15 fans of this quote   

"A young girl was asked: Whose preaching brought you to Christ? It wasn't anybody's preaching; it was Aunt Mary's practicing, he replied. The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

Mueller, George E. on example   

"You have to see the sex act comically, as a child."

Auden, W. H. on sex
3 fans of this quote   

"A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can't think of anything else to do."

Auden, W. H. on work   

"Drama is based on the Mistake. I think someone is my friend when he really is my enemy, that I am free to marry a woman when in fact she is my mother, that this person is a chambermaid when it is a young nobleman in disguise, that this well-dressed young man is rich when he is really a penniless adventurer, or that if I do this such and such a result will follow when in fact it results in something very different. All good drama has two movements, first the making of the mistake, then the discovery that it was a mistake."

Auden, W. H. on theater   

"A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep."

Auden, W. H. on teacher
4 fans of this quote