Clergy Quotes - Page 8

• The clergy would have us believe them against our own reason, as the woman would have her husband against his own eyes.

  John Selden

  Husband, Believe, Eye

  John Selden (1847). “The Table-talk of John Selden Esq: With a Biographical Preface and Notes”, p.42

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain.

  Samuel Johnson

  Father, Able, Clergymen

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.212

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• No sovereign, no court, no personal loyalty, no aristocracy, no church, no clergy, no army, no diplomatic service, no country gentlemen, no palaces, no castles, nor manors, nor old country-houses, nor parsonages, nor thatched cottages nor ivied ruins no cathedrals, nor abbeys, nor little Norman churches no great Universities nor public schools -- no Oxford, nor Eton, nor Harrow no literature, no novels, no museums, no pictures, no political society, no sporting class -- no Epsom nor Ascot Some such list as that might be drawn up of the absent things in American life.

  Henry James

  Loyalty, Country, School

  'Hawthorne' (1879)

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• They all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not
  meet a single individual, of the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, America, Peaceful

  Alexis de Tocqueville, Henry Reeve, Francis Bowen, Patrick Renshaw (1998). “Democracy in America”, p.121, Wordsworth Editions

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression.

  Rudolph Rummel

  Government, Political, Having Fun

  "Rudolph Rummel Talks About the Miracle of Liberty and Peace". The Freeman Interview, fee.org. July 1, 1997.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Christian creeds and doctrines, the clergy's own fatal inventions, through all the ages has made of Christendom a slaughterhouse, and divided it into sects of inextinguishable hatred for one another.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Christian, Hatred, Religion

  5 Copy quote

• Laypeople are a kind of nuclear energy in the Church on a spiritual level. A layperson caught up with the gospel and living next to other people can "contaminate" two others, and these two, four others, etc. Since lay Christians number not only tens of thousands like the clergy but hundreds of millions, they can truly play a decisive role in spreading the beneficial light of the gospel in the world.

  Raniero Cantalamessa

  Christian, Spiritual, Play

  20 Copy quote

• What do our clergy lose by reading their sermons? They lose preaching, the preaching of the voice in many cases, the preaching of the eye almost always.

  Augustus William Hare

  Reading, Eye, Voice

  Julius Charles Hare, Augustus William Hare (1848). “Guesses at Truth: Second Series”, p.214

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• You mean am I for it or against it? You think this is a key question I'm going to be asked on Vega, and you want to make sure I give the right answer? Okay. Overpopulation is why I'm in favor of homosexuality and a celibate clergy. A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

  Carl Sagan

  Mean, Thinking, Vegas

  Carl Sagan (1997). “Contact”, p.243, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• During a frustrating argument with a Roman Catholic cardinal, Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly burst out: “Your eminence, are you not aware that I have the power to destroy the Catholic Church?” The cardinal, the anecdote goes, responded ruefully: “Your majesty, we, the Catholic clergy, have done our best to destroy the church for the last 1,800 years. We have not succeeded, and neither will you.”

  Ross Douthat

  Years, Catholic, Church

  "A Time for Contrition". www.nytimes.com. March 28, 2010.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the business of a virtuous clergyman to censure vice in every appearance of it.

  Patrick Henry

  Vices, Appearance, Virtuous

  "Patrick Henry in his speeches and writings and in the words of his contemporaries".

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• But the most dangerous Hypocrite in a Common-Wealth, is one who leaves the Gospel for the sake of the Law: A Man compounded of Law and Gospel, is able to cheat a whole Country with his Religion, and then destroy them under Colour of Law: And here the Clergy are in great Danger of being deceiv'd, and the People of being deceiv'd by the Clergy, until the Monster arrives to such Power and Wealth, that he is out of the reach of both, and can oppress the People without their own blind Assistance.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Hypocrite, Men

  Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Louis Ketcham (2003). “The Political Thought of Benjamin Franklin”, p.5, Hackett Publishing

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.

  Pope Francis

  Government, People, Acting

  "A Big Heart Open to God: An interview with Pope Francis". Interview with Antonio Spadaro, S.J., www.americamagazine.org. September 30, 2013.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The system of fathers of the world church, the clergy system of the state church, and the pastoral system of the independent churches are all the same in nature. They are all Nicolaitans. In the Bible there are only brothers. There is the gift of a pastor, but no system of pastors. The pastoral system is man's tradition. If the children of God are not willing to return to the position of that in the beginning, no matter what they do, it will not be right.

  Watchman Nee

  Brother, Children, Father

  Watchman Nee (1996). “The Orthodoxy of the Church”, p.38, Living Stream Ministry

  206 Copy quote

  Show source

• until the theologians and the ordained clergy begin to communicate with ordinary people in the vernacular, in a way that they can understand, I’m going to have to do this sort of thing.

  C. S. Lewis

  People, Ordinary, Way

  26 Copy quote