"You will remember that Christ said, "Judge not lest ye be judged." That principle I do not think you would find was popular in the law courts of Christian countries. I have known in my time quite a number of judges who were very earnest Christians, and none of them felt that they were acting contrary to Christian principles in what they did. Then Christ says, "Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." That is a very good principle. ... Then there is one other maxim of Christ which I think has a great deal in it, but I do not find that it is very popular among some of our Christian friends. He says, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor." That is a very excellent maxim, but, as I say, it is not much practised. All these, I think, are good maxims, although they are a little difficult to live up to. I do not profess to live up to them myself; but then, after all, it is not quite the same thing as for a Christian."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Bertrand Russell, Why I am not a Christian (1927), "The Character of Christ".
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Perfection
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Perfection
98 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Perfection →
Related Quotes
"One last thought: perhaps our universe is perfect."
"The whole scope of the essay is to recommend culture as the great help out of our present difficulties; culture being…"
"Culture is then properly described not as having its origin in curiosity, but as having its origin in the love of per…"
"That is the true perfection of man to find out his imperfections."
"Let us, as many as are running our course to perfection, be thus resolved, that, being not yet perfected, we pursue o…"
"Why should not such perfection be enjoined on man, although in this life nobody may attain to it? The course is a rig…"
"In general, just as painters in working from models constantly gaze at their exemplar and thus strive to transfer the…"
"Man is a being who must take his orientation by his possible perfection. To attempt to suppress this most natural of …"
"We should not insist on absolute perfection of the gospel in our fellow Christians, however we may strive for it ours…"
"Even in our poor old country, with its aristocratic class materialized, its middle class vulgarized, its lower class …"