"But the four Evangelists agree in ascribing to Jesus evasive and equivocal answers to plain questions, not only those of the high priest and Pilate; and quite generally the Jesus of the New Testament avoids straightforward statements, preferring parables ."

"A parable is a form of communication, a dialogue between a narrator and listener"

"The soul speaks to itself in parables. Like those dreams that have pleased us."

"A man once said: Why such reluctance? If you only followed the parables you yourselves would become parables and with that rid of all your daily cares. Another said: I bet that is also a parable. The first said: You have won. The second said: But unfortunately only in parable. The first said: No, in reality: in parable you have lost."

"To paraphrase: Everything happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message."

"Jesus of Nazareth could have chosen simply to express Himself in moral precepts; but like a great poet He chose the form of the parable, wonderful short stories that entertained and clothed the moral precept in an eternal form. It is not sufficient to catch man's mind, you must also catch the imaginative faculties of his mind."

"So wide was Christ's view of truth, so extended His teaching, that every phase of nature was employed in illustrating truth. The scenes upon which the eye daily rests were all connected with some spiritual truth, so that nature is clothed with the parables of the Master."

"Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it."

"All that passes is raised to the dignity of expression; all that happens is raised to the dignity of meaning. Everything is either symbol or parable."

"Christ does not save us by acting a parable of divine love; he acts the parable of divine love by saving us. That is the Christian faith."

"The parables of Jesus in the Gospels are considered the single most important source for discovering how Jesus himself taught and proclaimed his message."

"The sages of antiquity employed parables to elucidate various subjects – sometimes philosophical principles – at others moral truths at others, maxims of economy –Jesus excelled in all."

"Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth 'not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside."

"The fact that religions through the ages have spoken in images, parables, and paradoxes means simply that there are no other ways of grasping the reality to which they refer. But that does not mean that it is not a genuine reality. And splitting this reality into an objective and a subjective side won't get us very far."

"He [Jesus] speaks in parables, and though we have approached these parables reverentially all these many years and have heard them expounded as grave and reverent vehicles of holy truth, I suspect that many if not all of them were originally not grave at all but were antic, comic, often more than just a little shocking."

"If the story-tellers could ha' got decency and good morals from true stories, who'd have troubled to invent parables?"

"The Parables of our Lord, while they were addressed to all ranks, and adapted to all circumstances, always held in view the elucidation of the doctrines of Christianity and the enforcement of its precepts: They spake the same language to the prince and the peasant, they guarded the rights of God, and developed the scheme of salvation: they shewed that the present is nothing, but as it is subordinated to the interests of eternity."

"Bohr's sort of humor, use of parables and stories, tolerance, dependence on family, feelings of indebtedness, obligation, and guilt, and his sense of responsibility for science, community, and, ultimately, humankind in general, are common traits of the Jewish intellectual. So too is a well-fortified atheism. Bohr ended with no religious belief and a dislike of all religions that claimed to base their teachings on revelations."

"One of the greatest of poets, Coleridge was one of the wisest of men, and it was not for nothing that he read us this parable. Let us have a little less of "hands across the sea", and a little more of that elemental distrust that is the security of nations. War loves to come like a thief in the night; professions of eternal amity provide the night."

"Each parable makes one point per main character."

"Bible, in Novum Testamentum Graece. (The New Testament, etc.) Gr. & Eng (Google eBook), p. 30"

"The final authority for evaluating a parable is the parable itself."

"The rhetorical power of the narratives is obviously lost by means of propositional paraphrase, as is a portion of their meaning."

"But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples."

"And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand."

"And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, Happiness:rejoicing."

"Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."

"Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. And when his disciples asked him what the parable meant, he said “to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables so that ‘seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear'."

"Refusing to monumentalize, disdaining the final word, precise "summing up", acknowledging their "poor power to add or detract", his words signal deference to the uncapturability of the life it mourns."

"Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For Amalek he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; the first and the most powerful of the neighbouring nations - but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever."

"In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our fields."

"Your friends praise your abilities to the skies, submit to you in argument, and seem to have the greatest deference for you; but, though they may ask it, you never find them following your advice upon their own affairs; nor allowing you to manage your own, without thinking that you should follow theirs. Thus, in fact, they all think themselves wiser than you, whatever they may say."

"You all very well know what deference I always pay, and ever will, to that part of the office of a jury which properly belongs to them. I never did, nor ever will, while I have the honour of executing the office of a judge attempt to control or influence the minds of a jury."

"But he instinctively expects his wage-earners to render him, not only obedience, but also personal deference. If the wage contract is a bargain of purchase and sale like any other, why is the workman expected to touch his hat to his employer..."

"Defence, not defiance."

"One performed public duties, for which one was paid in full by deference; one was chaste, refusing to run away from one's husband with other men who for the most part did not ask one to do so, and who in any case had nothing to offer better than one’s own home."

"These are salient facts...in Muhammad’s career. He too, founded a great religion, there are those who write of this evidently lustful and rather shifty leader as though he were a man to put beside Jesus of Nazareth or Gautama or Mani. But it surely manifests he was a being of a commoner clay; he was vain egotistical, tyrannous, and self deceiver; and it would throw all our history out of proportion if, out of an insincere deference to the possible Moslem reader, we were to present him in any other light."

"If your civilization is to survive, we must break with the habit of deference to great men. Great men make mistakes."

"The lover's proposals are, upon the same principle, made in writing direct to the parents themselves, and without the least deference to great men. Great men may make mistakes; and [as the book tries show], some of the greatest leaders of the past supported the perennial attack on freedom and reason."

"A traveller has a right to relate and embellish his adventures as he pleases, and it is very impolite to refuse that deference and applause they deserve."

"Islam in its origins is just as shady and approximate as those from which it took its borrowings. It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or 'surrender' as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and respect from non-believers into the bargain."

"And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own slaves that summer is now nigh at hand."

"And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken? And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it."

"And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way."

"Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: / So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors."

"And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth."

"Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing."

"And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this."

"And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear."

"Moreover Job continued his parable, and said, As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; … All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;… My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit."