quotations about sin
There are worse things than a lie ... I have found ... that it may be well to choose one sin in order that another may be shunned.
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
Doctor Wortle's School
For men are separated from God only by sins, from which we are in this life cleansed not by our own virtue, but by the divine compassion.
ST. AUGUSTINE
The City of God
The forgiveness of sins is, in my thinking of it, no longer an exceptional, episodical manifestation of a supernatural grace; it is the revelation and effect of the habit of mind of the Eternal Father toward all his children. The laws of forgiveness are a part of the laws of the Almighty and the All-gracious. It is said that the violation of natural law is never forgiven. It is said that if you put your finger in the candle, it will burn, pray as you will, and if you fall from your horse, you will break a bone, however pious you may be; whether the bone breaks or not depends, not upon your piety, but upon your age. Is it indeed true that there is no forgiveness in natural law? What a strange-looking audience this would be if there were none. The boy cuts his finger and nature begins to heal it; he breaks his arm -- nature begins to knit the bone; he burns his finger -- nature provides a new skin. Nature, that is, God, implants in man himself the help-giving powers that remove disease; and, in addition, stores the world full of remedies also, so that specifics may be found for almost every disease to which flesh is heir. The laws of healing are wrought into the physical realm; they are a part of the divine economy; and shall we think that He who helps the man to a new skin and to a new bone cares nothing for his moral nature, and will not help him when he has fallen into sin?
LYMAN ABBOTT
Seeking After God
Sin is a raven croaking her own fall.
THOMAS DEKKER
The Noble Spanish Soldier
He that does not repent, sins again.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats; then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure.
FRED ALLEN
attributed, The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners
Now, men think, with regard to their conduct, that, if they were to lift themselves up gigantically and commit some crashing sin, they should never be able to hold up their heads; but they will harbor in their souls little sins, which are piercing and eating them away to inevitable ruin.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
A sin is nothing but a deordination of reason, but that is enough.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Sin we have explain'd away;
Unluckily, the sinners stay.
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM
"Blackberries"
Forgive me, Lord. I know I ain't living right; got to feed the block.
JAY WAYNE JENKINS
"Soul Survivor"
We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and He saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love.
PETER KREEFT
Jesus-Shock
It comes down to this.
Your kiss.
Your fist.
And your strain.
It get's under my skin.
Within.
Take in the extent of my sin
NINE INCH NAILS
"Sin", Pretty Hate Machine
It is sinful to have enmity against aught but sin.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Everything I've ever done
Everything I ever do
Every place I've ever been
Everywhere I'm going to
It's a sin
PET SHOP BOYS
"It's a Sin", Actually
God save us everyone
Will we burn
Inside the fires of a thousand suns
For the sins of hand
The sins of our tongue
The sins of our father
The sins of our young
LINKIN PARK
"The Requiem"
Sin is of a contagious and spreading nature, and the human heart is but too susceptible of the infection. This may be ascribed to several causes, and to one in particular which is applicable to the present case, that the seeing of sin frequently committed, must gradually abate that horror which we ought to have of it upon our minds, and which serves to keep us from yielding to its solicitations.
JOHN WITHERSPOON
A Serious Inquiry Into the Nature and Effects of the Stage
And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things.
TERRY PRATCHETT
Carpe Jugulum
Having once sinned, we must sin no more, and having to suffer in consequence of sin, we must bear it patiently.
MARY HOWITT
"The Author's Daughter", The Edinburgh Tales
We all know that sin is attractive, some kinds to some people, other kinds to other people. Its attractiveness explains why we are so afraid of it and why we so often take toward it what seems to me a false attitude. This attitude we hear expressed in many ways. One of the commonest is the betrayal among good people of a certain envy of sinners. It suggests that the good people think the sinners have acquired something they would themselves like to have, or something they are obliged to deny themselves by their refusal to sin. The sinners know better. They know that sin is not worth the return it brings. They know that in itself it is a penalty without reference to the penalties it carries in its train.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Perquisites of Sin", Intimations
Compound for sins they are inclin'd to,
By damning those they have no mind to.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Hudibras