quotations about piety
The forces of piety have always and everywhere been the sworn enemy of the open mind and the open book.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Letters to a Young Contrarian
A constant attention to the work which God entrusts us with is a mark of solid piety.
JOHN WESLEY
"A Plain Account of Christian Perfection", The Works of the Reverend John Wesley
I consider piety to be openness to the unmanipulated mystery of life.
TOMÁS HALÍK
Night of the Confessor: Christian Faith in an Age of Uncertainty
Piety does not mean that a man should make a sour face about things, and refuse to enjoy in moderation what his Maker has given.
THOMAS CARLYLE
Critical and Miscellaneous Essays
The pious man is alive to what is solemn in the simple, to what is sublime in the sensuous; but he is not aiming to penetrate into the sacred. Rather he is striving to be himself penetrated and actuated by the sacred, eager to yield to its force, to identify himself with every trend in the world which is toward the divine.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion
Where piety and policy go hand in hand, there war shall be just, and peace honorable.
FRANCIS QUARLES
Enchiridion Institutions
In theory, piety is reverence and love for God; and in practice, it is the exercise of all our powers in obedience to the Divine will. Combining the theory and practice, we have the richest treasure known on earth -- love for God shown in obedience to God.
D. W. GATES
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
Piety is a silver chain hanged up aloft, which ties heaven and earth, spiritual and temporal, God and man together.
N. CAUSSIN
attributed, Day's Collacon
As the absence of piety imperils all moralities, and tends to their utter undoing, so true piety protects them all, and tends to their ultimate perfection.
HUBBARD WINSLOW
Elements of Moral Philosophy
Earth has nothing more tender than a woman's heart when it is the abode of piety.
MARTIN LUTHER
attributed, History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century
True piety hath in it nothing weak, nothing sad, nothing constrained. It enlarges the heart; it is simple, free, and attractive.
FRANCOIS FENELON
attributed, The Christian Pioneer
Piety is not a thinking about coming but a real approach. It is not identical with the performance of rites and ceremonies, but is rather the care and affection put into their performance, the personal touch therein, the offering of life.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion
It is easier to profess piety than practice it.
MARSILIUS FICINUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
We are plated with piety, not alloyed with it.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Piety desires not merely to learn faith's truth, but to agree with it.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion
True piety is like the vestal fire, which was intended to burn day and night, and never to go out, and which never did go out so long as they remembered to replenish it day by day.
JAMES HAMILTON
The Mount of Olives and Other Lectures on Prayer
There is no piety in the world which is not the result of cultivation, and which cannot be increased by the degree of care and attention bestowed upon it.
ALBERT BARNES
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
Is it not thy piety itself which no longer letteth thee believe in a God?
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Thus Spake Zarathustra
In periods that are wanting in inspiration piety always assumes the character of caution. It degenerates from a free and joyful devotion to a melancholy and anxious slavery.
J. H. SEELYE
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
Piety cannot be an instinct craving for a mess of metaphysical and ethical crumbs.
FRIEDRICH SCHLEIERMACHER
On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers