Vices

"On the one hand, there is the type of sinner whom, in present-day language, we would call ‘oppressor.’ Their basic sin consists in oppressing, placing intolerable burdens on others, acting unjustly and so on. On the other hand, there are those who sin ‘from weakness’ or those ‘legally considered sinners’ according to the dominant religious view.Jesus takes a very different approach to each group. He offers salvation to all, and makes demands of all, but in a very different way. He directly demands a radical conversion of the first group, an active cessation from oppressing. For these, the coming of the Kingdom is above all a radical need to stop being oppressors."

"What is brighter than the sun? Yet it disappears. Man is no more than flesh and blood, yet he thinks of doing evil. While the sun surveys the stars in the lofty sky, human beings remain dust and ashes."

"In all your actions remember your last end and you will never sin."

"Do not say, “It was God who made me sin.” God does not cause what he hates. Do not say, “He made me do wrong,” for he has nothing to do with a sinner. The Lord hates all evil and those who fear him hate it as well...When he created man in the beginning, he left him free to make his own decisions. If you wish, you can keep the commandments and it is in your power to remain faithful. He has set fire and water before you; you stretch out your hand to whichever you prefer. Life and death are set before man: whichever a man prefers will be given him."

"When there is rust on the mirror, it is not possible that a man’s face be seen in the mirror; so also when there is sin in a man, such a man cannot behold God."

"Do not say, “I have sinned and nothing has happened!” For the Lord bides his time. Do not be so sure of pardon when you are heaping sin upon sin. Do not say, “His compassion is great! He will forgive the vast number of my sins!” For with him is mercy but also anger; his fury will be poured out on sinners."

"Few love to hear the sins they love to act."

"Though some of you with Pilate wash your hands Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross, And water cannot wash away your sin."

"O, what authority and show of truth Can cunning sin cover itself withal!"

"Sin is always egocentric, while love is altruism and kinship."

"I don't like the word sin. It implies that I am being judged and found guilty. I can understand that. Over the centuries, many erroneous views and interpretations have accumulated around words such as sin, due to ignorance, misunderstanding, or a desire to control, but they contain an essential core of truth. If you are unable to look beyond such interpretations and so cannot recognize the reality to which the word points, then don't use it. Don't get stuck on the level of words... you can talk or think about God continuously for the rest of your life, but does that mean you know or have even glimpsed the reality to which the word points?... if a word doesn't work for you anymore, then drop it and replace it with one that does work. If you don't like the word sin, then call it unconsciousness or insanity. That may get you closer to the truth, the reality behind the word, than a long-misused word like sin, and leaves little room for guilt."

"Though sin may be in the Christian, yet it hath no more dominion over him; he hath an unfeigned respect to all God's commandments, making conscience even of little sins and little duties."

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

"Commit The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?"

"It is great sin to swear unto a sin, But greater sin to keep a sinful oath."

"Some sins do bear their privilege on earth."

"And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king."

"Indeed, by instilling into the minds of children the idea that the church, as a powerful intercessor, can for a tear of repentance and a fee give passage to the erring through the Gates of Paradise, the church commits the greatest sin. By removing from man the sense of responsibility, the church shuts him off from his Divine Origin. The church has discredited the great concept of Divine Justice. Losing the understanding of responsibility and justice, man will inevitably begin his involution, for those who fail to follow the cosmic laws are destined to deterioration."

"Just think! Only in the sixth century A.D. was the dogma of Reincarnation rejected by the Second Council of Constantinople! Thus the contrivances of greedy and petty minds were stratified and become dogma for the following generations which did not yet dare to think independently... And there are so many affirmations in the Gospel about Reincarnation, actually in the words of Christ himself. The Fathers of the Church committed great sin by eliminating this law of the Highest Justice from the consciousness of the flocks entrusted to them."

"I am a man More sinn'd against than sinning."

"Sin is geographical."

""And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist." (St. Matthew 17:10–13.) Furthermore: And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (St. John 9:1-2.) Did not these questions of the disciples reveal that they knew of the law of Karma and that Christ also did not reject it?"

"What lack of comprehension in the prayer "I, undeserving priest, by the power given to me by God, now forgive thy sins"! Yes, the forgiveness granted to the repentant sinner in exchange for his money is the greatest crime. The bribery of Divinity with gold—is it not worse than the worst forms of fetishism? This dreadful question must be discussed from every angle. Verily, this hideous ulcer is spread all over the world, in all religions. Thus, in Tibet, there is a gang of robbers called gollocks, who believe in lamaism, a religion just as distant from the Covenants of Buddha as our church is from the Teaching of Christ. These gollocks go to Lhassa annually on pilgrimage to pray for the forgiveness of their crimes. On this particular journey they abstain from robbing the helpless population because they hope to be received by the high priests of their sect. But after receiving full forgiveness for their crimes upon payment of money, they give full freedom to debauchery and return to their practices of robbery, with even more violence, whenever they can. Has not their guilt been taken from them, and may they not purify themselves again the following year? It is only a question of a fee!"

"Recently, the Catholic Church renewed the ancient practice of granting indulgences. And now Catholics need not even bother to make pilgrimage to Rome or elsewhere to do penance for their sins! All that is necessary is to send a certain sum for an indulgence, and thus the remittance of a fee will permit entrance into Heaven. Undoubtedly there must be a scale of prices for these indulgences, as sins vary so much. Verily, through correct estimating, a fortune might be made! Alas, can nothing put a stop to this? Are we not returning speedily to the darkness of medievalism?"

"And now, what is the greatest sin of the church? The fact that during the centuries the church has inculcated into its adherents a sense of irresponsibility. From childhood people have been taught that a person can commit the worst crimes and yet (if he goes to confession and the priest grants forgiveness) be relieved of all burden. This process of shedding sins for a fee can go on and on, save that progressively perhaps the sinner is charged higher and higher fees. Why not sin, when forgiveness can be bought with coin? How many churches have been built and founded on the tears of orphans! Precisely for the erection of the great cathedrals, from what sources has the money most often come? How many candles, lit in front of the Sacred Images, were placed there by the hands of traitors? Verily, as it is said, "Great would be the venality of Christ if He were ready to conceal treachery for a candle! Such candles are abominations."

"But the trail of the serpent is over them all."

"It is essential to point out one of the chief evils of modern religious instruction, i.e., the instilling into the human consciousness a sense of irresponsibility. Precisely, a degenerating church, during the centuries, instilled into the consciousness of its flock an animal sense of irresponsibility. From childhood, people are allowed to believe that they may commit most terrible crimes because the priest, by the power given to him, can free the person of sin through confession and remission. Then, after this liberation, what is there to prevent the erring one from again committing the same sins and once more receiving remission, for perhaps a yet higher fee?"

"As long as you will have a feeling of shame, you will not lightly commit sins."

"Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it."

"Mary said: What is the sin of the world? The Savior said: there is no sin, but it is you who make sin when you do the things that are like the nature of adultery, which is called sin. That is why the Good came into your midst, to the essence of every nature in order to restore it to its root. Then He continued and said, That is why you become sick and die, for you are deprived of the one who can heal you."

"On the determinist hypothesis an omnipotent God could have prevented all sin by creating us with better natures and in more favourable surroundings. … Hence we should not be responsible for our sins to God."

"Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins."

"Her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she eat; Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe That all was lost."

"The sinner must feel far worse before he ever has a right to feel any better."

"In God’s eyes – listen – no one is a victim. We are all perpetrators of open rebellion, scandalous, blasphemous sin against God."

"Law can discover sin, but not remove, Save by those shadowy expiations weak."

"Thine angry threatening toward sinners is importable, but thy merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable; for thou art the most high Lord, of great compassion, longsuffering, very merciful, and repentest of the evils of men...Thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners, that they may be saved...Be not condemn me to the lower parts of the earth. Therefore I will praise thee for ever all the days of my life: for all the powers of the heavens do praise thee, and thine is the glory for ever and ever. Amen."

"Alas! alas! how plague-spot like will sin Spread over the wrung heart it enters in!"

"Intendo per innocente non uno incapace di peccare, ma di peccare senza rimorso"

"It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truths announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord."

"Most of the sins of the children of Adam are on their tongues."

"So many laws argues so many sins."

"Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall; Some run from breaks of ice, and answer none: And some condemned for a fault alone."

"O Mother, keep back the arm of justice of thy indignant Son, and conquer by thy mercy the hearts of sinners, since they are our brethren and thy children, redeemed through the blood of our sweet Jesus and through the wounds of thy most tender heart pierced with the sword. Show thyself to all in this day, as thou art, the Queen of peace and mercy."

"When a sinner has any just sense of his condition, as alienated from a holy God, he will not be apt to think of the unpardonable sin."

"Sin on more."

"Sin is to be overcome, not so much by maintaining a direct opposition to it, as by cultivating opposite principles. Would you kill the weeds in your garden, plant it with good seed; if the ground be well occupied, there will be less need of the labor of the hoe. If a man wished to quench fire, he might fight it with his hands till he was burnt to death; the only way is to apply an opposite element."

"The deliberate and habitual practice of any form of dishonesty or immorality is impossible to one who follows Christ."

"May it be known that, by night or by day the enemy's sins are forever grave."

"You cannot stay the shell in its flight; after it has left the mortar, it goes on to its mark, and there explodes, dealing destruction all around. Just as little can you stay the consequences of a sin after it has been committed. You may repent of it, you may even be forgiven for it, but still it goes on its deadly and desolating way. It has passed entirely beyond your reach; once done, it cannot be undone."