Clergy Quotes · Page 3

The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy.

— George Washington

“Never was there a more injurous mistake than to say it was the business only of the clergy to care for souls.”

— George MacDonald

“Perhaps you could not find such godless, such ruthless and such materialist people as clergy.”

— Irving Stone

The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.

— Pope Francis

“It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not, what they ought to be, so are…

— Jane Austen

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

— Anonymous

God looked upon His work and saw that it was good. That is where the clergy take issue with him.

— Elbert Hubbard

Whenever the clergy were at the elbow of the civil arm, no matter whether they were Catholic or Protestant, persecution was the…

— William Edward Hartpole Lecky

“We are like the moon. The moon shines anyway, but it does not produce its own light. It reflects the light illuminated…

— Israelmore Ayivor

The Orthodox hierarchy doesn't have the kind of power that high-ranking clergy do in other churches. There isn't even a worldwide governing…

— Frederica Mathewes-Green

Individualism. Narcissism. Value-free choices. These are all key elements in the decline of the practice of mutual accountability in Western churches, among…

— David Augsburger

During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in…

— James Madison

It is time the clergy are told that thinking men, after a close examination of that doctrine, pronounce it to be subversive…

— George Eliot

There is in the clergy of all Christian denominations a time-serving, cringing, subservient morality, as wide from the spirit of the gospel…

— John Quincy Adams

World travel and getting to know clergy of all denominations has helped mold me into an ecumenical being. We're separated by theology…

— Billy Graham

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…

— Branch Rickey

The first life insurance societies where formed in England in the years between 1692 and 1720. In America, life insurance became available…

— Andrew Tobias

Once in a while you get people that maybe because of economic reasons, or have a social network, they get attracted. But…

— Michael Emerson

The clergy ... believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes.…

— Thomas Jefferson

…the interesting thing was that the Roman Catholic monks and the Buddhist monks had no trouble understanding each other. Each of them…

— Joseph Campbell

I do deeply deplore, of the sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be had, either by persuasion…

— Anonymous

Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no…

— Thomas Jefferson

Priests and physicians should never look one another in the face. They have no common ground, nor is there any to mediate…

— Henry David Thoreau

This was a very progressive group of clergy who foresaw the race riots that were going to take place when Dr. King…

— Sara Paretsky

I think the issue of clergy sexual abuse sparked people to look at their faith in a different way.

— William P. Leahy

Many militants of the secular cause look astonishingly like clergy. Worse: like caricatures of clergy.

— Michel Onfray

Never was there a more injurous mistake than to say it was thebusiness only of the clergy to care for souls.

— George MacDonald

The old priest Peter Gilligan Was weary night and day; For half his flock were in their beds, Or under green sods…

— William Butler Yeats

The advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from [the clergy].

— Thomas Jefferson

Denial of our pattern of failure seems to be a kind of practical atheism or chosen ignorance among many believers and clergy.

— Richard Rohr

In our calling, we have to choose; we must make our fortune either in this world or in the next, there is…

— Stendhal

To a philosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous than their virtues.

— Edward Gibbon

Surely our clergy need not be surprised at the daily increasing distrust in the public mind of the efficacy of prayer.

— John Ruskin

I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain.

— Samuel Johnson

Have we arrived at our own faith and our own path or simply internalized the beliefs of parents, clergy, spouse, or friends?

— Joan Z. Borysenko

By dividing the people of God as clergy and laymen, we have made the latter a majority of lame men.

— Richard P. Stanley

Let us pray for all good and faithful priests who dedicate themselves to their people with generosity and unknown sacrifices.

— Pope Francis

Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression.

— Rudolph Rummel

A man wastes his time going to hear some of our eloquent modern preachers; they may change his opinions, but never his…

— Honore de Balzac

Pray we for the Clergy; that they may rightly divide, that they may rightly walk; that while they teach others, themselves may…

— Lancelot Andrewes