Puritanism Quotes - Page 2

• But pure wit is akin to Puritanism; to the perfect and painful consciousness of the final fact in the universe. Very briefly, the man who sees the consistency in things is a wit - and a Calvinist. The man who sees the inconsistency in things is a humorist - and a Catholic.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Perfect, Catholic

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• Once one has realized, following the great English literary visionaries William Shakespeare and Thomas Nashe, that sexual puritanism, political disciplinarianism, and abuse of the poor are the result of the refusal of true Christianity ... one is led to articulate a more incarnate, more participatory, more aesthetic, more erotic, more socialized, even a more 'Platonic' Christianity.

  John Milbank

  Political, Erotic, Abuse

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• [Warren Beatty] definitely sees 'Rules' as a comedic consequence to the American sexual puritanism that is dramatically presented in 'Splendor.'

  Alden Ehrenreich

  Splendor, Comedic, Beatty

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• Historically the Puritans left England to escape religious persecution, and they promptly turned around and started persecuting the people they didn't agree with - the scarlet letter A, and the stocks and the dunking board came from that. That puritanism is still there.

  Hugh Hefner

  Religious, People, Boards

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• My brothers and sister and I were brought up in an atmosphere which I would describe as 'Puritan decadence'. Puritanism names the behaviour which is condemned; Puritan decadence regards the name itself as indecent, and pretends that the object behind that name does not exist until it is named.

  Stephen Spender

  Brother, Names, Atmosphere

  1951 World within World, p.314-15.

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• The seasick passenger on an ocean liner detests the good sailor who stalks past him 265 times a day grandly smoking a large, greasy cigar. In precisely the same way the democrat hates the man who is having a better time in the world. This is the origin of democracy. It is also the origin of Puritanism.

  H. L. Mencken

  Hate, Ocean, Past

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• I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind... At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.

  Robertson Davies

  Wise, Blue, Hands

  "The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks". Book by Robertson Davies, 1947.

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• Madonna is the true feminist. She exposes the puritanism and suffocating ideology of American feminism, which is stuck in an adolescent whining mode. Madonna has taught young women to be fully female and sexual while still exercising control over their lives.

  Camille Paglia

  Exercise, Feminist, Feminism

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• The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February.

  Joseph Wood Krutch

  Change, England, Serious

  The Twelve Seasons: A Perpetual Calendar for the Country "February: The OneWe Could DoWithout" (1949)

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• There is a hearty Puritanism in the view of human nature which pervades the instrument of 1787. It is the work of men who believed in original sin, and were resolved to leave open for transgressors no door which they could possibly shut.

  James Bryce

  Men, Doors, Views

  "The American Commonwealth: Vol. 1: The National Government".

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• When you think about Puritanism, you must begin by getting rid of the slang term 'Puritanism' as applied to Victorian religious hypocrisy. This does not apply to seventeenth-century Puritanism.

  Leland Ryken

  Religious, Thinking, Hypocrisy

  Leland Ryken (2010). “Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were”, p.20, Harper Collins

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• They successfully combined piracy and puritanism, which aren't so unlike when you come right down to it. Both had a strong dislike for opposition and both had a roving eye for other people's property.

  John Steinbeck

  Strong, Eye, People

  "The Winter of Our Discontent". Book by John Steinbeck. Part One, Chapter III, 1961.

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• For all of my patients sensuality is a giving in to 'the low side of their nature.' Puritanism is powerful and distorts their life with a total anesthesia of the senses. If you atrophy one sense, you also atrophy all the others, a sensuous and physical connection with nature, with art, with food, with other human beings.

  Anais Nin

  Art, Powerful, Giving

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• I wish the English still possessed a shred of the old sense of humour which Puritanism, and dyspepsia, and newspaper reading, and tea-drinking have nearly extinguished.

  Norman Douglas

  Drinking, Reading, Tea

  Norman Douglas (1982). “South Wind”, p.282, Courier Corporation

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• We won't dispassionately investigate or rationally debate which drugs do what damage and whether or how much of that damage is the result of criminalization. We'd rather work ourselves into a screaming fit of puritanism and then go home and take a pill.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Home, Drug, Pills

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.119, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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