Monsieur Renaissance : la page des citations

Miscellaneous:

“Life is all a matter of perspective . . . almost.”

—Eric Knickerbocker (1973– )

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“When you look through plain glass, you see people, but if you cover it with silver, you stop seeing others and see only yourself.”

—Ancient Proverb

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“The greatest enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived, and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.”

—John F. Kennedy (1917–1963)

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“A woman’s charm is her strength, a man’s strength is his charm.”

—Havelock Ellis

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“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent reading; in order to write, a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”

—Samuel Johnson, 18th-century English writer and lexicographer (1709–1784)

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“Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough.”

—Theodore Roosevelt, after both his wife and mother died on the same day (1858–1919)

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“If your lips would keep from slips,

Five things observe with care;

To whom you speak, of whom you speak,

And how, and when, and where.”

—N. E. Norris

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“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

—Playwright Ted Perry, from the 1972 movie Home about the Suquamish Indian tribal leader Chief Seattle. (Because it was part of his character’s script, it is often fallaciously attributed directly to Seattle himself. Nowhere, however, in Seattle’s famous 1854 address concerning treaty negotiations do these words appear.)

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“So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will arise to make them miserable.”

—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), British novelist and essayist. Ends and Means.

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“When a man is enjoying the satisfaction of his greed or vanity, he ought to feel the poison and be reminded of original sin. But when he is enjoying the creative act which reveals truth or creates beauty or radiates love upon a fellow creature, he recalls paradise.”

—Nikolai Berdyaev, Christian Russian philosopher (1874–1948)

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“Preach the Gospel always. If necessary use words.”

—St. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226)

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“It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.”

—Gilbert K. Chesterton, British author (1874–1936)

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“Just as there is at least one unseen motive behind every action, so every motive rests on an underlying foundation of belief or misbelief.”

—Mart de Haan, “The Path to Peace”

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“A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.”

—Francis Bacon (1561–1626), English philosopher, statesman, and lawyer. Essays “Of Atheism.”

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“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”

—Titus 1:14 (The King James Version)

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“Nature contains the elements, in color and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music.”

—James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), U.S. painter and etcher. The Gentle Art of Making Enemies.

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“Would you see true beauty? Look at the pious man or woman in whom spirit dominates matter; watch him when he prays, when a ray of the divine beauty glows upon him when his prayer is ended; you will see the beauty of God shining in his face.”

—Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498), Italian preacher and reformer. 28th sermon on Ezekiel.

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“Beauty is merely the Spiritual making itself known sensuously.”

—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), German philosopher

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“We make ourselves a ladder out of our vices if we trample the vices themselves underfoot.”

—Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430), Numidian Christian theologian and Doctor of the Church. Sermons “De Ascensione.”

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“It has been said that the highest praise of God consists in the denial of Him by the atheist, who finds creation so perfect that he can dispense with a creator.”

—Marcel Proust (1871–1922), French novelist, 1921. À la recherche du temps perdu Le Côté de Guermantes.

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“Let us say, ‘Either God is or He is not’ . . . Let us weigh up the gain and loss involved in calling heads that God exists . . . Let us assess the two cases: if you win you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing. Do not hesitate then: wager that He does exist.”

—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist. Pensées.

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“Now ‘conation’ is almost wholly the business of will, but of will stimulated by emotion: for willful action of every kind, however intellectual it may seem, is always the result of interest, and interest involves feeling.”

—Evelyn Underhill (Mysticism and Psychology.)

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“Whenever a man talks loudly against religion,—always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions which have got the better of his creed.”

—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768), Irish-born British writer and clergyman. Tristram Shandy.

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“The words of Scripture are for children, but the thoughts are for men.”

—From Arthur C. Custance’s “Biography” page from The Doorway Papers.

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“Since the temporal order is framed within the eternal, only by a measure of comprehension of the eternal can a man hope to interpret the temporal correctly.”

—From Arthur C. Custance’s “Biography” page from The Doorway Papers.

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“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

—2 Corinthians 4:18 (The New International Version)

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“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

—Hebrews 11:1 (The King James Version)

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“We do not simply decide to believe, having been convinced by factual evidence. We first grasp the truth, being enabled by the Holy Spirit, and then the external evidence for the truth suddenly takes on new significance. Thus we ‘understand’ by faith. Anselm said, ‘I believe in order that I may understand’ whereas Abelard said, ‘I seek to understand in order that I may believe.’”

—From Arthur C. Custance’s Biography Page.

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“What we learn today must often be torn down tomorrow—the mountain height that looms before us today, tomorrow becomes the path trodden under our feet.”

—Eric Knickerbocker (1973– )

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“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

—Buddhist Proverb

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Beelzebub:

“The devil’s most devilish when respectable.”

—Elizabeth Barrett Browning, British poet (1806–1861)

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Good intentions can be evil,

Both hands can be full of grease.

You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.

—Bob Dylan, from Man of Peace (1941– )

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“The devil is not so black as he is painted.”

—Anonymous Proverb

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“Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil.”

—Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and essayist (1795–1881) Sartor Resartus

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“An atheist is one point beyond the devil.”

—Anonymous Proverb.

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“It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil when he is the only explanation of it.”

—Ronald Knox, British priest and writer (1888–1957)

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Humerous:

“Only users lose drugs.”

—Bumper sticker

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“Life’s a witch and then you fly.”

—Tee-shirt

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“Stop plate tectonics.”

—Tee-shirt

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“Kept a hearth-girl in his house who kindled his fire but extinguished his virtue.”

—Gerald of Wales (1146?–1223?), Welsh topographer, archdeacon, and writer. (Referring to the parish priest.) Gemma Ecclesiastica.

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“Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night.”

—Response from a child in Sunday School class as to the fate of Lot’s wife in the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

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“The Devil, having nothing else to do,

Went off to tempt My Lady Poltagrue.

My Lady, tempted by a private whim,

To his extreme annoyance, tempted him.”

—Hilaire Belloc, French-born British writer (1870–1953), Sonnets and Verse On Lady Poltagrue, A Public Peril.

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