Piety Quotes

• Wherever the fear of God rules in the heart, it will appear both in works of charity and piety, and neither will excuse us from the other.

  Matthew Henry

  Heart, Charity, Christianity

  Matthew Henry, Thomas Scott (1839). “The Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible: Acts-Revelation”, p.54

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• Faith is never identical with piety even if it were the purest and finest.

  Karl Barth

  Identical

  "The Beginnings of Dialectic Theology". Book edited by James McConkey Robinson, Volume 1, 1968.

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• For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.

  Aristotle

  Love, Friendship, Truth

  Aristotle, Terence Irwin (1996). “Aristotle: Introductory Readings”, p.201, Hackett Publishing

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• Piety is not a goal but a means to attain through the purest peace of mind the highest culture.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mean, Goal, Mind

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• When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, "Who is destroying the world?" You are.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Men, Evil

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.1448, Penguin

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• [T]he importance of piety and religion; of industry and frugality; of prudence, economy, regularity and an even government; all . . . are essential to the well-being of a family.

  Samuel Adams

  Family, Government, Essentials

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• My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.

  George Santayana

  Atheist, Men, Insightful

  Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies "On My Friendly Critics" (1922)

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• There are pretenders to piety as well as to courage.

  Moliere

  Courage, Literature, Wells

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• I do not doubt but that genuine piety is the spring of peace of mind; it enables us to bear the sorrows of life, and lessens the pangs of death: the same cannot be said of hypocrisy.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Spring, Hypocrisy, Doubt

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• God is not interested in our public displays of piety. He's not interested in religion in terms of the outward show. He's interested in godliness.

  R. C. Sproul

  God, Christian, Not Interested

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• Indifferent acts are judged by their ends sins are judged by themselves.

  Saint Augustine

  Sin, Virtue, Ends

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• There are three degrees of filial piety. The highest is being a credit to our parents, the second is not disgracing them; the lowest is being able simply to support them.

  Confucius

  Thank You, Support, Parent

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• The person who prays more in public than in private reveals that he is less interested in God's approval than in human praise. Not piety but a reputation for piety is his concern.

  D. A. Carson

  Prayer, Approval, Reputation

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• Nothing can compare in beauty, and wonder, and admirableness, and divinity itself, to the silent work in obscure dwellings of faithful women bringing their children to honor and virtue and piety.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Beauty, Children, Dwelling

  Henry Ward Beecher (1873). “The Original Plymouth Pulpit: Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn”, p.151

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• Piety practiced in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desert, may give its fragrance to the winds of heaven, and delight those unbodied spirits that survey the works of God and the actions of men; but it bestows no assistance upon earthly beings, and however free from taints of impurity, yet wants the sacred splendor of beneficence.

  Samuel Johnson

  Flower, Men, Wind

  Samuel Johnson (1912). “The works of Samuel Johnson”

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• Christianity can be built around isolating ourselves from evildoers and sinners, creating a community of religious piety and moral purity. That’s the Christianity I grew up with. Christianity can also be built around joining with the broken sinners and evildoers of our world crying out to God, groaning for grace. That’s the Christianity I have fallen in love with.

  Shane Claiborne

  Religious, Creating, Our World

  Shane Claiborne (2010). “The Irresistible Revolution: Living As an Ordinary Radical”, p.196, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Heart, Godly

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• Earth has nothing more tender than a woman's heart when it is the abode of piety.

  Martin Luther

  Art, Women, Abode

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• The affectation of sanctity is a blotch on the face of piety.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Faces, Sanctity

  "Aphorisms on man. Translated from the original manuscript of the Rev. John Caspar Lavater, citizen of Zuric" by Johann Kaspar Lavater, New-York: re-printed by T. and J. Swords, for Berry and Rogers, Hanover-Square, 1790.

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• Without virtue, and without integrity, the finest talents and the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect, and conciliate the esteem, of the truly valuable part of mankind.

  George Washington

  Integrity, Accomplishment, Gains

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.308

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• Having been born into the house of a warrior, one's intentions should be to grasp the long and the short swords and to die.

  Kato Kiyomasa

  War, Long, House

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• In a society which is structured the wrong way, piety has no effect.

  Friedrich Durrenmatt

  Literature, Way, Effects

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• This, and this alone, is Christianity, a universal holiness in every part of life, a heavenly wisdom in all our actions, not conforming to the spirit and temper of the world but turning all worldly enjoyments into means of piety and devotion to God.

  William Law

  Christian, Religious, Mean

  William Law, P. G. Stanwood (1978). “A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life ; The Spirit of Love”, p.145, Paulist Press

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• The religion of Jesus Christ aims at nothing less than the utter overthrow of all other systems of religion in the world; denouncing them as inadequate to the wants of man, false in their foundations, and dangerous in their tendency.

  Simon Greenleaf

  Jesus, Men, World

  Simon Greenleaf (1995). “The Testimony of the Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence”, p.10, Kregel Publications

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• The moving finger writes; and having writ, moves on.

  Omar Khayyam

  Moving, Writing, Breaking Silence

  Omar Khayyam, Edward FitzGerald, Christopher Decker (1997). “Edward FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: A Critical Edition”, p.194, University of Virginia Press

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