A true saint is a divine landscape or picture, where all the rare beauties of Christ are lively portrayed and drawn forth.—He hath the same spirit, the same judgment, the same will with Christ.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive
Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Saintliness is also a temptation.
—Jean Anouilh (1910–87) French Dramatist
The elect are whosoever will, and the nonelect, whosoever won’t.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
It is well for his peace that the saint goes to his martyrdom. He is spared the sight of the horror of his harvest.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
We must have a real living determination to reach holiness. “I will be a saint” means I will despoil myself of all that is not God; I will strip my heart of all created things; I will live in poverty and detachment; I will renounce my will, my inclinations, my whims and fancies, and make myself a willing slave to the will of God.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
Saints are simply men and women who have fulfilled their natural obligation which is to approach God.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
People who are born even-tempered, placid and untroubled—secure from violent passions or temptations to evil—those who have never needed to struggle all night with the Angel to emerge lame but victorious at dawn, never become great saints.
—Eva Le Gallienne (1899–1991) British-born American Stage Actress
When we think of saints we are apt to think of very pale, still persons, who are all the while wishing they weren’t alive, and all that. My ideal of a saint is a brown woman, with red arms, who gets up early in the morning and goes to work for others—who stands the brunt of household work, and who bears with children that she did not bear. That is my saint. Rather a busy, bustling saint, but she is a saint. People say of her, “What a homely, good creature she is.” To my mind that is more complimentary than to have the pope put her in the calendar.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
A saint addicted to excessive self-abnegation is a dangerous associate; he may infect you with poverty, and a stiffening of those joints which are needed for advancement—in a word, with more renunciation than you care for—and so you flee the contagion.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
What makes saintliness in my view, as distinguished from ordinary goodness, is a certain quality of magnanimity and greatness of soul that brings life within the circle of the heroic.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
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