100 Clergy Quotes

Following is our list of clergy quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about priest day.

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Famous Clergy Quotes

A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live. — Voltaire

The bishops will govern the Church, the priests will do all the work and the deacons will have all the fun. — Richard Cushing

Clergymen almost necessarily fail in two ways as teachers of morals. They condemn acts which do no harm and they condone acts which do great harm. — Bertrand Russell

A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism. — Carl Sagan

There is not in the universe a more ridiculous, nor a more contemptible animal, than a proud clergyman. — Henry Fielding

Far, far from the clergy be the love of novelty! — Pope Pius X

If all Church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice; for all right of private judgment is then denied. — Charles Hodge

until the theologians and the ordained clergy begin to communicate with ordinary people in the vernacular, in a way that they can understand, I’m going to have to do this sort of thing. — C. S. Lewis

To take those fools in clerical garb seriously is to show them too much honor. — Sayings

The vow of celibacy is a matter of keeping one's word to Christ and the Church. a duty and a proof of the priest's inner maturity; it is the expression of his personal dignity. — Pope John Paul II

A priest is he who lives solely in the realm of the invisible, for whom all that is visible has only the truth of an allegory. — Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay their hands on everything they can get. — Napoleon Bonaparte

And a third thing is the understanding of the Church as a community, a communion which is just a hierarchy but the people of God, whose servants are the priests and bishops. — Hans Kung

The priest is in one place, and his robe in another — Greek Proverbs

An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men. — Vincent Van Gogh

Short Clergy Quotes

  • An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. — Proverbs
  • The Clergy is the greatest hindrance to faith. — Martin Luther
  • I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain. — Samuel Johnson
  • Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense. — Voltaire
  • Give the clergy your sympathy; don't give them anything else. — Benjamin Jowett
  • Matrimony is the only game of chance the clergy favor. — Emily Murphy
  • You know you're in a bad movie when the Catholic clergy is being played by Jews. — Cheech Marin
  • there comes a time in every rabbi's life when he thinks he's Moses. — Silvia Tennenbaum
  • My dear child, you must believe in God despite what the clergy tells you. — Benjamin Jowett
  • The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy. — George Washington

Some Quotes

Love, friendship, laughter... Some of the best things in life really are free. - Bob Marley

Love, friendship, laughter... Some of the best things in life really are free. — Bob Marley

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. — Albert Schweitzer

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet. - Bob Marley

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet. — Bob Marley

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. - Albert Camus

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. — Albert Camus

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. — Barack Obama

Now, some of the most dangerous places for women to be in the world are modern, Western, rich European countries. Why? One reason. Islamic immigration - it's got to stop. — Milo Yiannopoulos

Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage. — Winston Churchill

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. - Roberta Flack

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. — Roberta Flack

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. - Oscar Wilde

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. — Oscar Wilde

I never thought of it as God. I didn't know what to call it. I don't believe in devils, but demons I do because everyone at one time or another has some kind of a demon, even if you call it by another name, that drives them. — Gene Wilder

Priest Day Quotes

The Christians are always singing about the blood. Let us give them enough of it! Let us cut their throats and drag them over the altar! And let them drown in their own blood! I dream of the day when the last priest is strangled on the guts of the last preacher. — Gus Hall

A priest is sent to Alaska. A bishop goes up to visit one year later. The bishop asks, How do you like it up here? The priest says, If it wasn't for my Rosary, and 2 martinis a day, I'd be lost. Bishop, would you like a martini? Yes. Rosary, get the bishop a martini! — Henny Youngman

Every day He humbles Himself just as He did when from from His heavenly throne into the Virgin's womb; every day He comes to us and lets us see Him in lowliness, when He descends from the bosom of the Father into the hands of the priest at the altar. — Francis of Assisi

I remember coming back from training one day and Simon Poidevin was talking to a priest. I thought...this was going to be some rough encounter because there's Poido getting the last rites before the test's even started — Phil Kearns

I was having a mildly paranoid day, mostly due to the fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had taken to nailing weasels to my front door again. — Warren Ellis

When I confess a couple who have kids, a married couple, I ask, 'how many children do you have?' Some get worried and think the priest will ask why I don't have more. I would make a second question, 'Do you play with your children?' The majority say, 'but father, I have no time. I work all day.' — Pope Francis

Because the priest must have like every dog his day Or keep us all awake with baying at the moon, We and our dolls being but the world were best away. — William Butler Yeats

The old priest Peter Gilligan Was weary night and day; For half his flock were in their beds, Or under green sods lay. — William Butler Yeats

It is better the truth should come little by little. I have learned that, being a priest. Perhaps, in the old days, they ate knowledge too fast. — Stephen Vincent Benet

A priest in New York City was arrested on gun possession. These days, you better be happy that the bulge in his pocket is a .38. — David Letterman

Clergymen Quotes

Every time there are losses, there are choices to be made. You choose to live your losses as passages to anger, blame, hatred, depression and resentment, or you choose to let these losses be passages to something new, something wider, and deeper. — Henri Nouwen

Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergymen or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon Earth. — John Wesley

There is nothing to prove and nothing to protect. I am who I am and it's enough. — Richard Rohr

When we sin and mess up our lives, we find that God doesn't go off and leave us- he enters into our trouble and saves us. — Eugene H. Peterson

Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior. — John Newton

And as for the Pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine. — Thomas Cranmer

There was reference made to a book written in Greek by a former Rabbi who had been converted to Christianity. There was reference to a publication of a high clergyman of Milan. Not even did Jews raise objections to that book. — Julius Streicher

In these times I don't, in a manner of speaking, know what I want; perhaps I don't want what I know and want what I don't know. — Marsilio Ficino

No doctrine is more excellent, or necessary to be preached and studied, than Jesus Christ, and him crucified. — John Flavel

Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith. — Peter Canisius

People Writing About Clergy

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Read quotes by Voltaire

Voltaire
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Read quotes by Benjamin Jowett

Benjamin Jowett
quotes on life, education and revolution

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Read quotes by Bertrand Russell

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quotes on happiness, life and war

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Read quotes by Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan
quotes on love, death and education

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Read quotes by Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding
quotes on leadership, education and religion

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Read quotes by Pope Pius X

Pope Pius X
quotes on love, death and god

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More Clergy Quotes

I see and hear daily that you of the Clergy preach one against another, teach one contrary to another, inveigh one against another without charity or discretion. Some be too stiff in their old mumpsimus, others be too busy and curious in their new sumpsimus. Thus all men almost be in variety and discord. — Henry VIII of England

If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the clergy. — Marquis de Lafayette

The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. — C. S. Lewis

Body have to physically strong and sturdy. Spiritually balanced fi clean and purge me. Mentally advanced fi always urge me. Read a couple books and challenge the clergy. Read a couple psalms up in the morning early. — Damian Marley

He promoted the education of the parish clergy and wrote: He seems to me a very foolish man, and very wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall be made clear. — Alfred the Great

The clergy ... believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion. — Thomas Jefferson

I'm a man of some intelligence. I've had some education, passed the bar, practiced law. I've been a teacher and I deal with men of substance, statesman, business leaders, the clergy... So why do I spend my time arguing with Dizzy Dean? — Branch Rickey

I never liked the Hierarchy of the Church-an equality in the teacher of Religion, and a dependence on the people, are republican sentiments-but if the Clergy combine, they will have their influence on Government — Rufus King

Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state'... is absolutely essential in a free society. — Thomas Jefferson

The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny; flattery to treachery; standing armies to arbitrary government; and the glory of God to the temporal interest of the clergy. — David Hume

I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution. — Jonathan Swift

The clergy, no less than the capitalist class, lives on the backs of the people, profits from the degradation, the ignorance and the oppression of the people. — Rosa Luxemburg

In our calling, we have to choose; we must make our fortune either in this world or in the next, there is no middle way. — Stendhal

You see in the streets of London, great and little boys running about in long blue coats, which, like robes, reach quite down to the feet, and little white bands, such as the clergy wear. — Karl Philipp Moritz

There is in the clergy of all Christian denominations a time-serving, cringing, subservient morality, as wide from the spirit of the gospel as it is from the intrepid assertion and vindication of truth. — John Quincy Adams

Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror." "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world." "Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense." "If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities. — Voltaire

Throughout this protracted and disgraceful assault on American womanhood, the clergy baptized each new insult and act of injustice in the name of the Christian religion, and uniformly asked God's blessing on proceedings that would have put to shame an assembly of Hottentots. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Pray we for the Clergy; that they may rightly divide, that they may rightly walk; that while they teach others, themselves may learn. — Lancelot Andrewes

We are always making God our accomplice, that so we may legalize our own iniquities. Every successful massacre is consecrated by a Te Deum, and the clergy have never been wanting in benedictions for any victorious enormity. — Henri Frederic Amiel

The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ. — Thomas Jefferson

I do deeply deplore, of the sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be had, either by persuasion or by bribery. They will not need persuasion or bribery, if their hearts are with us; if they are not, we are better without them. It is idle to suppose that the kingdom of heaven cannot come on earth, without their cooperation. — Sarah Moore Grimke

The seminaries must face the fact that they are not turning out well-trained professional clergy. They must realize that preaching is creative work and that some element of creativity should be required as a condition for ordination. — Andrew Greeley

Iran is hard to understand. Although it is ruled in an authoritarian manner, it's not a state in which everything is controlled from one center. There are many forces that work in parallel: the military, the intelligence service, the Revolutionary Guard, the clergy and the government. They all share a fear of the nation's youth. — Shahin Najafi

Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not. — James Madison

The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and in-grafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man. — Thomas Jefferson

I have a work presently in the Press named 'Six Months in Hell' which you may one day read. I consider it will be worth perusing, bruising badly the morals of Britain and America, while Royalty, clergy, critics, society and bloodhounds of law must all incur its censure. — Amanda McKittrick Ros

It is impossible to approve in Catholic publications of a style inspired by unsound novelty which seems to deride the piety of the faithful and dwells on the introduction of a new order of Christian life, on new directions of the Church, on new aspirations of the modern soul, on a new vocation of the clergy, on a new Christian civilisation. — Pope Pius X

So too, in forming a constitution, or in enacting rules of procedure, or making canons, the people do not merely passively assent, but actively cooperate. They have, in all these matters, the same authority as the clergy. — Charles Hodge

An ordinary man will work every day for a year at shoveling dirt to support his body, or a family of bodies; but he is an extraordinary man who will work a whole day in a year for the support of his soul. Even the priests, men of God, so called, for the most part confess that they work for the support of the body. — Henry David Thoreau

The clergy is in the same business as actors, just a different department. — John Hurt

Priests and physicians should never look one another in the face. They have no common ground, nor is there any to mediate betweenthem. When the one comes, the other goes. They could not come together without laughter, or a significant silence, for the one's profession is a satire on the other's, and either's success would be the other's failure. — Henry David Thoreau

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