Contrition Quotes

• There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.

  Washington Irving

  Love, Marriage, Sympathy

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• Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Mean, Omission, Catholic

  Saint Thomas (Aquinas) (2000). “The Aquinas Catechism: A Simple Explanation of the Catholic Faith by the Church's Greatest Theologian”, p.86, Sophia Institute Press

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• Humility has such power. Apologies can disarm arguments. Contrition can defuse rage. Olive branches do more good than battle axes ever will.

  Max Lucado

  Humility, Apology, Axes

  Max Lucado (2008). “Cast of Characters: Lost and Found: Encounters with the Living God”, p.71, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• True repentance includes sorrow for sin and contrition of heart. It breaks the heart with sighs and sobs and groans.

  Thomas Brooks

  Heart, Sorrow, Sin

  Thomas Brooks (1824). “The select works of ... Thomas Brooks”, p.332

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• A Bayonet's contrition is nothing to the dead.

  Emily Dickinson

  War, Bayonets

  Emily Dickinson, Cristanne Miller (2016). “Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them”, p.503, Harvard University Press

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• To err is human; but contrition felt for the crime distinguishes the virtuous from the wicked.

  Vittorio Alfieri

  Wicked, Crime, Repentance

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, (p. 665), 1922.

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• We in the church have humility and contrition to offer the world, not a formula for success. Almost alone in our success-oriented society, we admit that we have failed, are failing, and always will fail.

  Philip Yancey

  Humility, Church, World

  Philip Yancey (2009). “Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find?”, p.20, Zondervan

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• The social disease of political correctness has entered daily life, inverting good to bad and attempting to rewrite proud histories as an imposition of white supremacy for which we all should make contrition.

  Robert Agostinelli

  White, Political, Disease

  "DECKER: 5 Questions with Robert Agostinelli". Interview with Brett M. Decker, www.washingtontimes.com. November 14, 2012.

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• A person repents when he comes to the place where he discovers that the will of God is the government of his life and the glory of God is the reason for his life. He only has repented who has changed his mind about his reason for being.

  Paris Reidhead

  Life, Change, God

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• True faith begins with true repentance for whatever we have been doing that is wrong.

  Rick Joyner

  Repentance, True Repentance, Has Beens

  FaceBook post by Rick Joyner from Aug 01, 2014

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• 'The want of proper examination, true contrition, and a firm purpose of amendment, is the cause of bad confessions, and of the ruin of souls.'

  Benedict Joseph Labre

  Soul, Purpose, Examination

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• I divested myself of despair and fear when I came here. Now there is no more catching one's own eye in the mirror, there are no bad books, no plastic, no insurance premiums, and of cours eno illness. Contrition does not exist, nor gnashing of teeth. No one howls as the first clod of earth hits the casket. The poor we no longer have with us. Our calm hearts strike only the hour, and God, as promised, proves to be mercy clothed in light.

  Jane Kenyon

  Book, Heart, Eye

  Jane Kenyon, “Notes From The Other Side”

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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.

  Martin Luther

  Healing, Mean, Law

  "The Freedom of a Christian" by Martin Luther, 1520.

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  There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.

  Washington Irving

  Strength, Sad, Sympathy

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• Men are born to sin…What does matter most, is not that we err, it is that we do benefit from our mistakes, that we are capable of sincere repentance, of genuine contrition.

  Sharon Kay Penman

  Mistake, Men, Matter

  Sharon Kay Penman (2008). “The Sunne In Splendour: A Novel of Richard III”, p.276, Macmillan

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• Only as we bow in contrition, confession, and repentance at the foot of the cross, can we find forgiveness. There is the grace of God.

  Billy Graham

  Feet, Grace, Bows

  Billy Graham (2010). “Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional”, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• A fitting room to me has always been like a confessional ... where my body and my contrition take up the entire room.

  Erma Bombeck

  Rooms, Body, Fitting

  Erma Bombeck (2013). “If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?”, p.101, Open Road Media

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• The color of his pallor, however, was a curiously basic white - unmixed, that is, with the greens and yellows of guilt or abject contrition. It was very like the standard bloodlessness in the face of a small boy who loves animals to distraction, all animals, and who has just seen his favourite, bunny-loving sister's expression as she opened the box containing his birthday present to her - a freshly caught young cobra, with a red ribbon tied in an awkward bow around its neck.

  J. D. Salinger

  Animal, Boys, Expression

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• Pardon me, O perfections of my God, for having preferred imperfect and evil inclinations to Thee! Pardon me, O justice of my God, for having outraged Thee by my sins. Pardon me, O holiness of my God, for having so long stained Thy sight's purity by my sins. Pardon me, O mercy of my God, for having despised so long Thy mercy's voice. In deep sorrow and contrition, I cast myself at Thy feet: Have mercy on me.

  Ignatius of Loyola

  Forgiveness, Voice, Feet

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• Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if-and mark well what I say-if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.

  Louis de Montfort

  Christian, Religious, Prayer

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• Evil is retributive: every trespass slips fetters on the will, holds the soul in durance till contrition and repentance restore it to liberty.

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Evil, Soul, Liberty

  Amos Bronson Alcott (1877). “Table-talk”

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• Borderlines create the vicious circles they fear most. They become angry and drive the relationship to the breaking point, then switch to a posture of helplessness and contrition, beg for reconciliation. If both parties are equally enmeshed, chaos and conflict become the soul of the relationship.

  Theodore Millon

  Party, Circles, Point Break

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• God freely forgives us on account of Christnot on account of our works, contrition, confession, or satisfactions.

  Martin Luther

  Forgiving, Satisfaction, Confession

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• Where I say that He abideth sorrowfully and moaning, it meaneth all the true feeling that we have in our self, in contrition and compassion, and all sorrowing and moaning that we are not oned with our Lord. And all such that is speedful, it is Christ in us. And though some of us feel it seldom, it passeth never from Christ till what time He hath brought us out of all our woe. For love suffereth never to be without pity.

  Julian of Norwich

  Life, Compassion, Self

  Julian of Norwich (2012). “Revelations of Divine Love”, p.162, Courier Corporation

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• I shall never send for a priest or recite an Act of Contrition in my last moments. I do not mind if I lose my soul for all eternity. If the kind of God exists Who would damn me for not working out a deal with Him, then that is unfortunate. I should not care to spend eternity in the company of such a person.

  Mary McCarthy

  Work Out, Soul, Mind

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