A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things. — G. K. Chesterton
I believe that there is a great fear in our generation of being labeled as priggish. — Queen Elizabeth II
Christianity taught that men ought to be as chaste as pagans thought honest women ought to be; the contraceptive morality teaches that women need to be as little chaste as pagans thought men need be. — G. E. M. Anscombe
Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic. — Bertrand Russell
It seems to me a measure of the true perversity
of the human race, that one of its very few
reliably pleasurable activities should be the
subject of so much hysteria and repression. — Otto Gross
I was reared in the conservative atmosphere of a Methodist parsonage. — Countee Cullen
A cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to Hell than a prostitute. — C. S. Lewis
It was Christianity, with its heartfelt resentment against life, that first made something unclean of sexuality: it threw filth on the origin, on the essential fact of our life. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God. — Francis Bacon
Therein lies the incongruity between progressive self-flagellants and the rest of us. What they consider introspectively virtuous and pious, we view as weak and self-loathing. — Gad Saad
Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise. — Maya Angelou
Suppress prostitution, and capricious lusts will overthrow society. — Saint Augustine
This is evangelicalism today: sensual, carnal, unconverted people that have just enough deceptive religion to drive them straight into Hell! Are you that kind of person? Or do you have new affections? — Paul Washer
Prayer is my chief work, and it is by means of it that I carry on the rest. — Thomas Hooker
The world and you must part, or Christ and you will never meet. — Thomas Brooks
The law sends us to Christ to be justified, and Christ sends us to the law to be regulated. — John Flavel
The puritan through life's sweet garden goes to pluck the thorn and cast away the rose. — Kenneth Hare
Adoption gives us the privilege of sons, regeneration the nature of sons. — Stephen Charnock
The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. — H. L. Mencken
Till men have faith in Christ, their best services are but glorious sins. — Thomas Brooks
The more immoral we become in big ways, the more puritanical we become in little ways. — Florence King
What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action. — Wendell Phillips
In Puritan thinking, the Christian life was a heroic venture, requiring a full quota of energy. — Leland Ryken
Puritanism Quotes
The happiness promised us in Christ does not consist in outward advantages-such as leading a joyous and peaceful life, having rich possessions, being safe from all harm, and abounding with delights such as the flesh commonly longs after. No, our happiness belongs to the heavenly life! — John Calvin
No doctrine is more excellent, or necessary to be preached and studied, than Jesus Christ, and him crucified. — John Flavel
Did Christ finish His work for us? Then there can be no doubt but He will also finish His work in us. — John Flavel
What a mercy was it to us to have parents that prayed for us before they had us, as well as in our infancy when we could not pray for ourselves! — John Flavel
The knowledge of Christ is profound and large. All other sciences are but shadows; this is a boundless, bottomless ocean. Though something of Christ be unfolded in one age, and something in another, yet eternity itself cannot full unfold him. — John Flavel
When we believe that we should be satisfied rather than God glorified in our worship, then we put God below ourselves as though He had been made for us rather than that we had been made for Him. — Stephen Charnock
The Puritanical nonsense of excluding children and therefore to some extent women from pubs has turned these places into mere boozing shops instead of the family gathering places that they ought to be. — George Orwell
As God did not at first choose you because you were high, He will not now forsake you because you are low. — John Flavel
For a Jewish Puritan of the middle class, the novel is serious, the novel is work, the novel is conscientious application -- why, the novel is practically the retail business all over again. — Howard Nemerov
Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise. — Thomas Watson
Purist Quotes
It's completely reasonable, even if some Bitcoin currency purists wouldn't like it, to have credit and debit card payments denominated in Bitcoin rather than dollars, and net settled on Bitcoin instead of on Fedwire. — Nick Szabo
I have nothing but respect for the purist who won't work for the pharaoh. But I'm not that strong. — George Meyer
Purists behave as if there was a vintage year when language achieved a measure of excellence which we should all strive to maintain. In fact, there was never such a year. The language of Chaucer's or Shakespeare's time was no better and no worse than that of our own - just different. — Jean Aitchison
Evangelism, in its purist form, is an overflow of worship. — Bill Johnson
Osama bin Laden is going after us to get us out of the region, so he can deal with the regimes that he sees in the region, or replace them with purists. — Brent Scowcroft
A few guys will get up there with turntables as purists, to play vinyl or whatever. — A-Trak
What is slang in one age sometimes goes into the vocabulary of the purist in the next. — Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Daniel Johnston is the purist and most unpretentious artist of our generation — Mark Linkous
In the early '70s [the late] Ras Shorty and I took Indian dholak drumming [from chutney music, another Indo-Trinidadian creation], fused it with calypso's African rhythms, and soca was born against the wishes of the purists. — Machel Montano
I find that people in American are often much more purist. If you're into hip-hop, you're totally into hip-hop - you wear the uniform, that's all you listen to. If you're a goth, you're totally a goth - you've got, like, 4,000 piercings, black hair, you really go for it. — Kieran Hebden
Moral Purity Quotes
Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts. — Mahatma Gandhi
[T]he Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis, or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government. . . . and I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence. — Noah Webster
The Lord intends us to be powerful people-mighty in optimism and hopeful of spirit, powerful in evangelistic zeal, potent in influence, sturdy in moral fiber and purity. We can be powerhouses in prayer and preaching. — David Jeremiah
Women particularly can dress modestly and in the process contribute to their own self respect and to the moral purity of men. In the end, most women get the type of man they dress for. — Tad R. Callister
Someone said that patriotism is the last refuge of cowards; those without moral principles usually wrap a flag around themselves, and those bastards always talk about the purity of race. — Umberto Eco
The name of Jesus, like a secret charm, awakened similar emotions in the hearts of all the converts, and called immediately into action every feeling of moral loveliness, and every desire of dutiful obedience, which constitute Christian purity. — John Strachan
Purity in person and in morals is true godliness. — Hosea Ballou
Perfect taste is the faculty of receiving the greatest possible pleasure from those material sources which are attractive to oar moral nature in its purity and perfection. — John Ruskin
When you find me attempting to break into your house to take your plate, under any pretence whatsoever, but most of all under pretence of purity of religion and Christian charity shoot me for a robber and a hypocrite, as in that case I shall certainly be. — Edmund Burke
The Puritan ethic of marriage was first to look not for a partner whom you do love passionately at this moment but rather for one whom you can love steadily as your best friend for life, then to proceed with God’s help to do just that. — J. I. Packer
The heart is naturally hard, and grows harder by custom in sin, especially by long abuse of mercy, neglect of the means of grace, and resisteing the spirit of grace. — Richard Baxter
In the history of extra-biblical study and research tools there has never before been a resource as useful as the Puritan Hard Drive. — Paul Washer
The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. — Thomas Macaulay
The Puritans thought they could simply repress man's sexual nature, and they reaped a whirlwind as a result. Their code of sexual morality - which became America's - was nothing more than a set of rules laid down by people who believed that all pleasure was suspect. — Hugh Hefner
Did you never run for shelter in a storm, and find fruit which you expected not? Did you never go to God for safeguard, driven by outward storms, and there find unexpected fruit? — John Owen
The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. — Thomas B. Macaulay
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
After all the Puritans came to America to escape from persecution and then turned around and started persecuting other people. So I understand that conflict that we have related to play and pleasure and sexuality. And I think what has made my life worthwhile is trying to deal with some of those questions. — Hugh Hefner
The Puritans' sense of priorities in life was one of their greatest strengths. Putting God first and valuing everything else in relation to God was a recurrent Puritan theme. — Leland Ryken
Men of New England, I hold you to the doctrines of liberty which ye inherit from your Puritan forefathers. — Caleb Cushing
A man's greatest care should be for that place where he lives longest; therefore eternity should be his scope. — Thomas Watson
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
It's impossible for a creative artist to be either a Puritan or a Fascist, because both are a negation of the creative urge. The only things a creative artist can be opposed to are ugliness and injustice. — Liam O'Flaherty
When they talk about family values, it's in a repressive way, as if our American tradition were only the Puritan tradition or the 19th century oppressive tradition. The Christian tradition. — James Hillman
Puritanism carried the ethos of the rational organization of capital and labor. It took over from the Jewish ethic only what was adapted to this purpose. — Max Weber
Affliction may be lasting, but it is not everlasting. — Thomas Watson
We think the Puritans always dressed in black and white, which they didn't. They loved very bright colors. And there were other differences in perceptions that gave one a very different view of them. — Carlisle Floyd
To the Puritan all things are impure, as somebody says. — D. H. Lawrence
I wish to Christ I could make up a really great lie. Sometimes, after an interview, I say to myself, 'Man, you were so honest - can't you have some fun? Can't you do some really down and dirty lying?' But the puritan in me thinks that if I tell a lie, I'll be punished. — Willem Dafoe
The Puritan has passed; the Catholic remains. — William H. O'Connell
You know the puritan ethic that started out four centuries ago in this country, needless to say - at least for the moment - a thing of the past - from what I can tell. — James Young
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
Modern society is perverse, not in spite of its puritanism or as if from a backlash provoked by its hypocrisy; it is in actual fact, and directly, perverse. — Michel Foucault
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