A church is in a bad way when it banishes laughter from the sanctuary and leaves it to the cabaret, the nightclub and the toastmasters. — Helmut Thielicke
A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live. — Voltaire
He was a solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg who looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity. — Mark Twain
Too many church services start at eleven sharp and end at twelve dull. — Vance Havner
It is better to think of church in the ale-house than to think of the ale-house in church. — Martin Luther
I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. — Pope Francis
Old-fashioned, Spirit-filled, Christ-honoring, sin-hating, soul-winning, Bible-preaching. It is the hope of the church. It is the hope of the nation. It is the hope of the world. — Jack Hyles
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
He who is near the Church is often far from God. — Proverbs
The Church is a perpetual construction site. — Henri de Lubac
The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising. — Leonard Ravenhill
The Church in the colonies is the white people's Church, the foreigner's Church. She does not call the native to God's ways but to the ways of the white man, of the master, of the oppressor. — Frantz Fanon
An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches with spire steeples which point as with a silent finger to the sky and stars. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge
When the church finds its members falling into gross and scandalous sins, then it is time for the church to awake and cry to God for a Revival of Religion. — Charles Grandison Finney
Short Ecclesiastic Quotes
No Ideas original - there is nothing new under the sun. — Nas
Wisdom is better than weapons of war. 9:18b, Ecclesiastes — Bible
There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance. — Solomon
But how can one be warm alone? — Joseph Heller
Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. — Solomon
What has been will be again. What has been done will be done again... Ecclesiastes 1:9 — Bible
Sorrow is better than laughter; for, by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. — Solomon
In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. — Solomon
Archbishop -- A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Christ. — H. L. Mencken
And of all plagues with which mankind are cursed, ecclesiastic tyranny's the worst. — Daniel Defoe
Ecclesiastes Quotes
Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history. — James Madison
The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but ... to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government. — Joseph Story
Godly fear, faith, and humility is the true threefold cord that can’t easily be broken (see Ecclesiastes 4:12). — John Bevere
The intelligentsia ...was kept busy embroidering white stitches on the philosophical and ecclesiastical vestments of the bourgeoisie - that old and filthy fabric besmeared with the blood of toiling masses. — Maxim Gorky
If naturalists go to heaven (about which there is considerable ecclesiastical doubt), I hope that I will be furnished with a troop of kakapo to amuse me in the evening instead of television. — Gerald Durrell
If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed in the Convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it. — George Washington
In schoolbooks and in literature we can separate ecclesiastical and political history; in the life of mankind they are intertwined. — Leopold Von Ranke
I will not be influenced, governed, or controlled, in my temporal interests by any ecclesiastical authority or pretended revelation whatever, contrary to my own judgment. — Oliver Cowdery
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. — Solomon
It was under a solemn consciousness of the dangers from ecclesiastical ambition, the bigotry of spiritual pride, and the intolerance of sects... that is was deemed advisable to exclude from the national government all power to act upon the subject. — Joseph Story
Ecclesiastical Quotes
The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism. — Angelina Grimke
Any church program, no matter how impressive, if it is not supported by an adequate prayer program, is little more than an ecclesiastical treadmill. It is doing little or no damage to Satan's kingdom. — Paul Billheimer
My legal wife is to me dead; the only ecclesiastical authority I recognise pronounces me free; the attacks and threats of men do not disturb me. I am acting according to a clear conscience, and am doing hurt to no man. For my conduct, I will answer to my maker. — William the Silent
God has appointed two kinds of government in the world, which are distinct in their nature, and ought never to be confounded together; one of which is called civil, the other ecclesiastical government. — Isaac Backus
Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance. — James Madison
I believe in an America ... where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source. — John F. Kennedy
The ideal of progress, freedom of thought, and the decline of ecclesiastical power go together. — J. B. Bury
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun — Solomon
It’s interesting that in the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes, the only practical advice given about living a meaningful life is to find a job you like, enjoy your marriage, and obey God. It’s as though God is saying, Write a good story, take somebody with you, and let me help. — Donald Miller
A good name is better than precious ointment. Ecclesiastes 7:1 — Bible
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
Liturgical Quotes
But how is one to make a scientist understand that there is something unalterably deranged about differential calculus, quantum theory, or the obscene and so inanely liturgical ordeals of the precession of the equinoxes. — Antonin Artaud
Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he has for each one of us. — Pope Benedict XVI
All of us kids ended up 'doing Mom.' There are four of us who've tried show business. Five if you insist on counting my sister the nun, who does liturgical dance. — Bill Murray
Adoration outside Holy Mass prolongs and intensifies what has taken place in the liturgical celebration and makes a true and profound reception of Christ possible. I . . . warmly recommend, to Pastors and to all the faithful, the practice of Eucharistic adoration — Pope Benedict XVI
I've practiced centering prayer. I've contemplatively prayed. I've prayed liturgically... I've benefited from each, and I still do. In ways you'll see, elements of each style are still with me. — Larry Crabb
The first forms of writing emerged not for art, literature, or love, not for spiritual or liturgical purposes, but for business--all literature could be said to originate from sales receipts (sorry). — Daniel Levitin
Courses in prosody, rhetoric and comparative philology would be required of all students, and every student would have to select three courses out of courses in mathematics, natural history, geology, meteorology, archaeology, mythology, liturgics, cooking. — W. H. Auden
Catholic liturgical music, it would seem, is everywhere but in the Catholic Church itself. — Richard Morris
My interest in gospel music and liturgical art and Biblically-inspired literature has nothing to do with organised religion and everything to do with human beings trying to figure out their place on this planet. — Moby
For me the best kind of film music is liturgical music. Liturgical music is essentially a million scores for the same film. — Nico Muhly
A revival almost always begins among the laity. The ecclesiastical leaders seldom welcome reformation. History repeats itself. The present leaders are too comfortably situated as a rule to desire innovation that might require sacrifice on their part. And God's fire only falls on sacrifice. An empty altar receives no fire! — Frank Bartleman
An alliance or coalition between Government and religion cannot be too carefully guarded against......Every new and successful example therefore of a PERFECT SEPARATION between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance........religion and government will exist in greater purity, without (rather) than with the aid of government. — James Madison
Papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy are the two ecclesiastical versions of this human idolatry. Both papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy require widespread and unchallenged ignorance to sustain their claims to power. Both are doomed as viable alternatives for the long- range future of anyone. — John Shelby Spong
The ecclesiastical description of Hell is that of a horrible place of fire and torment; in Dante's Inferno, and in northern climes, it was thought to be an icy cold region, a giant refrigerator. — Anton Szandor LaVey
The philosopher, who with calm suspicion examines the dreams and omens, the miracles and prodigies, of profane or even of ecclesiastical history, will probably conclude that, if the eyes of the spectators have sometimes been deceived by fraud, the understanding of the readers has much more frequently been insulted by fiction. — Edward Gibbon
Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption — James Madison
There is nothing new under the sun, not even Manet. — Jules Breton
Scripture would not only solve the individual and family divisions, but it would also solve the ecclesiastical confusion. — Tony Evans
The ecclesiastical system of Rome, and particularly its leaders, for a thousand years and more thought that the earth is fixed and that everything else revolves about it. — Joseph Franklin Rutherford
Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence, and ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption; all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects. — James Madison
Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Ecclesiastes 7:9 — Bible
There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. Ecclesiastes 2:24 — Bible
Without fear of contradiction, I can safely say that every step in progress that woman has made she has been assailed by ecclesiastics, that her most vigilant unwearied opponents have always been the clergy. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber, for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. — Doris Lessing
The Athanasian Creed is the most splendid ecclesiastical lyric ever poured forth by the genius of man. — Benjamin Disraeli
In Conclusion
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