Saint Quotes - Page 31

• But I replied that what made being alive almost worthwhile for me, besides music, was all the saints I met, who could be anywhere. By saints I meant people who behaved decently in a strikingly indecent society.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  People, Alive, Made

  Kurt Vonnegut (2011). “A Man Without a Country”, p.106, Seven Stories Press

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• There are stories that are true, in which each individual's tale is unique and tragic, and the worst of the tragedy is that we have heard it before, and we cannot allow ourselves to feel it to deeply. We build a shell around it like an oyster dealing with a painful particle of grit, coating it with smooth pearl layers in order to cope. This is how we walk and talk and function, day in, day out, immune to others' pain and loss. If it were to touch us it would cripple us or make saints of us; but, for the most part, it does not touch us. We cannot allow it to.

  Neil Gaiman

  Pain, Loss, Unique

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• My whole love and respect is for the person who accepts himself totally, as he is. He has courage. He has courage to face the whole pressure of the society which is bent upon splitting him into divisions — into good and bad, into saint and sinner. He is really a brave, courageous being who stands against the whole history of man, of morality, and declares to the skies his reality, whatever it is.

  Rajneesh

  Spiritual, Reality, Men

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• God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, "0 Lord, Thou knowest." Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Eye, Profound, May

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• As we seek the Lord ever more diligently, we will surely find Him. We will see clearly that the Lord does not abandon His Church or His faithful Saints. Our eyes will be opened, and we will see Him open the windows of heaven and shower us with more of His light. We will find the spiritual strength to survive even during the darkest night.

  Dieter F. Uchtdorf

  Spiritual, Eye, Night

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• Her hand fluttered over her heart. "Did you just say the word shopping without flinching?" "I did. So?" "So, that's gotta be a record. It's a worldwide fact men hate shopping." "How can I hate it when I've never done it?" Her lips curled into a slow, beautiful smile. "If you weren't already an angel, I'd dub you a saint. Poor guy. You have no idea what you're in for.

  Gena Showalter

  Beautiful, Hate, Heart

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• Between the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with orthodox scribes, but the prophets, where are they? The hard voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but the Church waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the Wonder that is God. And yet, thus to penetrate, to push in sensitive living experience into the holy Presence, is a privilege open to every child of God.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Children, Eye, Sea

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• Yet do not miss the moral, my good men. For Saint Paul says that all that’s written well Is written down some useful truth to tell. Then take the wheat and let the chaff lie still.

  Geoffrey Chaucer

  Lying, Men, Missing

  Geoffrey Chaucer, John Urban Nicolson (2015). “The Canterbury Tales”, p.242, Courier Corporation

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• Having spent time around "sinners" and also around purported saints, I have a hunch why Jesus spent so much time with the former group: I think he preferred their company. Because the sinners were honest about themselves and had no pretense, Jesus could deal with them. In contrast, the saints put on airs, judged him, and sought to catch him in a moral trap. In the end it was the saints, not the sinners, who arrested Jesus.

  Philip Yancey

  Jesus, Thinking, Air

  FaceBook post by Philip Yancey from Nov 12, 2013

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• You have the patience of a saint," I grumbled, slouching into a chair. "And besides, you don't hang out with him 24/7." "Neither will you. It's only 24/6." "Same difference. It might as well be 24/10." She frowned. "That doesn't make any sense.

  Richelle Mead

  Differences, Might, Chairs

  Richelle Mead (2013). “Vampire Academy”, p.493, Penguin UK

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• I admit that I ain't no angel, I admit that I ain't no saint - I'm selfish and I'm cruel and I'm blind. If I exorcise my devils, well my angels may leave too. When they leave they're so hard to find.

  Tom Waits

  Selfish, Angel, Devil

  Tom Waits (2007). “The Early Years: The Lyrics of Tom Waits 1971-1983”, Ecco

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• Picture this scene. A critic arrives at the gates of heaven. 'And what did you do?' asks Saint Peter. 'Well', says the dead soul. 'I criticised things'. 'I beg your pardon?' 'You know, other people wrote things, performed things, painted things and I said stuff like, "thin and unconvincing", "turgid and uninspired", "competent and serviceable,"...you know'.

  Stephen Fry

  People, Heaven, Soul

  "Paperweight". Book by Stephen Fry, 1992.

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• Then there are the addicts, the hunger addicts, the rage addicts, the poverty addicts, and power addicts, and the pure addicts who are addicted not to substances but to the oblivion and the tenderness the substances engender. An addict, if you don't mind me saying so, is like a saint. What is a saint but someone who has cut himself off, voluntarily, from the world's traffic and currency?

  Jeet Thayil

  Cutting, Mind, Substance

  "Narcopolis". Book by Jeet Thayil, 2012.

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• Sometimes I see myself reflected too closely in other men for comfort, and then I have an enormous wish to believe in the saints, in heroic virtue.

  Graham Greene

  Believe, Men, Wish

  Graham Greene (1974). “The end of the affair”, Vintage

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• As she walked, she breathed a quick benediction to the patron saint of sleuthing. "Nancy Drew," she whispered, "be with me now.

  Colin Meloy

  Nancy, Benediction, Patron

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• Well...you're a martyr and I'm a patron saint-I can't think of anyone better!

  Neal Shusterman

  Thinking, Martyr, Wells

  Neal Shusterman (2013). “UnWholly”, p.392, Simon and Schuster

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• Patti, did art get us?' I looked away, not really wanting to think about it. 'I don't know, Robert. I don't know.' Perhaps it did, but no one could regret that. Only a fool would regret being had by art; or a saint.

  Patti Smith

  Art, Regret, Thinking

  Patti Smith (2010). “Just Kids”, p.275, A&C Black

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• Those who are truly enlightened, those whose souls are illuminated by love, have been able to overcome all of the inhibitions and preconceptions of their era. They have been able to sing, to laugh, and to pray out loud; they have danced and shared what Saint Paul called 'the madness of saintliness'. They have been joyful - because those who love conquer the world and have no fear of loss. True love is an act of total surrender.

  Paulo Coelho

  Loss, Love Is, Conquer The World

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• And the reason I am writing this on the back of a manila envelope now that they have left the train together is to tell you that when she turned to lift the large, delicate cello onto the overhead rack, I saw him looking up at her and what she was doing the way the eyes of saints are painted when they are looking up at God when he is doing something remarkable, something that identifies him as God.

  Billy Collins

  Writing, Eye, Together

  Billy Collins (2012). “Nine Horses”, p.30, Pan Macmillan

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• Society has put before you the ideal of a 'perfect man'. No matter in which culture you were born, you have scriptural doctrines and traditions handed down to you to tell you how to behave. You are told that through due practice you can even eventually come into the state attained by the sages, saints and saviors of mankind. And so you try to control your behavior, to control your thoughts, to be something unnatural.

  U.G. Krishnamurti

  Men, Practice, Perfect

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• Love makes saints or sinners out of men.

  Nora Roberts

  Men, Sinner

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• People who walk across dark bridges, past saints, with dim, small lights. Clouds which move across gray skies past churches with towers darkened in the dusk. One who leans against granite railing gazing into the evening waters, His hands resting on old stones.

  Franz Kafka

  Moving, Dark, Past

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• The Rose does not preen herself to catch my eye. She blooms because she blooms. A saint is a saint until he knows he is one.

  Anthony de Mello

  Eye, Rose, Doe

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• Inside each of us is a monster; inside each of us is a saint. The real question is which one we nurture the most, which one will smite the other.

  Jodi Picoult

  Life, Real, Monsters

  Jodi Picoult (2013). “The Storyteller”, p.111, Simon and Schuster

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• Slowly but surly I want to strip her of every kind of happiness as to make a saint of her.

  Jean Genet

  Want, Kind, Surly

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