quotations about sin
To make it evident that Sin is a great evil, we need but reflect a little on the nature and effects of it. If we inquire into the nature of Sin, we shall find that it is founded in the subversion of the dignity, and defacing the beauty of human nature: And that it consists in the darkness of our understanding, the depravity of our affections, and the feebleness and impotence of the will.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Adam was but human--this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.
MARK TWAIN
Pudd'nhead Wilson
Sin first is pleasing, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed; then the man is impenitent, then he is obstinate, then he is resolved never to repent, and then he is ruined.
ROBERT LEIGHTON
attributed, Day's Collacon
Sin is the failure of a fallible creature; and reversible by repentance.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
For consequences of past sin,
Effect doth ever follow cause;
If we sow tares, we reap not grain,
For such are Nature's laws.
ARDELIA COTTON BARTON
"Sin Will Leave Its Scars"
If you are going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won't.
HYMAN G. RICKOVER
The New York Times, November 3, 1986
See sin in state, majestically drunk;
Proud as a peeress, prouder as a punk.
ALEXANDER POPE
Moral Essays
Christian, that sin which first came between you and God is bad, but that is not the last step in the progress of sin. The most guilty part in this quadruple sin is to hide it, deny it, ignore it, refuse to confess it, refuse to repent of it!
JOHN R. RICE
The Ruin of a Christian
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
Whosoever obeyeth the devil, casteth himself down: for the devil may suggest, compel he cannot.
FRANCIS QUARLES
Emblems
If one could wallow amid filth for half a life and then wash himself clean in a day, then sin would be no worse than dirt on the hands which water can cleanse in a minute. Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation often requires a sphere of years.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
He that wrongs any creature, sins against God, the creator.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Some sins, like asps, always carry their sting with them.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
There was no point in waiting until the next world. You had to do everything now, every kind of sin.
ANNE RICE
Memnoch the Devil
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
Old sin makes new shame.
HAVELOCK THE DANE
The Lay of Havelock the Dane: Composed in the Reign of Edward I about AD 1280
Sin is sweet in the mouth and bitter in digestion. It lies hard on the stomach.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
The foulest sinner of all is the hypocrite who makes a racket of religion.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Stranger in a Strange Land
Sin is a raven croaking her own fall.
THOMAS DEKKER
The Noble Spanish Soldier
You know some religious scholars believe that when faced with overwhelming temptation you should commit a small sin just to relieve the pressure a bit.
BREE DESPAIN
The Dark Divine