c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Life is like the drama on a stage.What was once declared as a sin, perhaps much worse nowadays.
— Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut
A sheep without a shepherd, go astray.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Uncertain way of gain. But I am inSo far in blood that sin will pluck on sin.Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.
— William Shakespeare
I lay on my side with my head on the pillows and looked out of the window; the blue of the sky was so clear it almost hurt. I felt it come again. I didn't cry much, just a few tears rolling down, wetting my eyes. I wondered about the cause. My thoughts lay embedded in sinews and skin, beyond my reach. Those of you who believe yourselves to be clean, without sin, without guilt, may cast the first stone. I saw myself under a heap of stones.
— Hanne Ørstavik, Like sant som jeg er virkelig
Being different is not a sin, but intolerance is.
— Marty Rubin
Why does God ask traumatized people to look at the trauma they initiated through their sin and rebellion? For the same reason God asks us to: it is the truth, and we are free only when we lift up the truth.
— Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White
The unspiritual is a slave to sin.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Curiosity is also my worst vice, and once stirred one not to be denied.
— Anthony  Ryan, The Waking Fire
Jesus Christ. This is what sin feels like," he rasped. "Wrong and right, at the same time. Life and death. Blond, long-legged, and tight.
— Tessa Bailey, Too Hard to Forget
But the world doesn't run on logic, it runs on the seven deadly sins and the weather. - Alan Furst; Red Gold
— Alan Furst
On the way home from church, I felt like I was walking on clouds, as pure as an angel. I wished a car would run me down at that very instant, so I could die and go straight to heaven before I had a chance to sin again.
— Alice Bag, Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story
In our sin, we’d rather trust in ourselves than another, amass our own righteousness than receive another’s, speak our own mind rather than listen to someone else.
— David Mathis, Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines
HIPPOLYTUS: I can't sin against a God I don't believe in.
— Sarah Kane, Phaedra's Love
In a garden long ago, the two majestic beings God had created used their capacities for purposes other than reflecting the goodness of their Creator. Adam and Eve commandeered their design to worship themselves instead of God. Their children and grandchildren have been doing the same ever since.
— Jeremy Pierre, The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life: Connecting Christ to Human Experience
Idleness and solitude led to these dramatics: an ordinary turd indulging himself as the chief of sinners.
— Charles Portis, The Dog of the South
Freedom from sin is only granted to Christians. Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells believers that they have not been seized by any temptation that cannot be overcome. He is not talking to non-Christians, who Paul establishes elsewhere are controlled by the sinful flesh and cannot do anything spiritually pleasing to God (Rom. 8:7-8)...."...walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh..."(Gal 5:16-17). Again, this command is to Christians. Unbelievers cannot "walk by the Spirit." However, believers walking by the Spirit have the ability to "not gratify the desires of the flesh ." If this is true, that no temptation has ever come across a Christian that is not common to all, and that sin is nothing more than a Christian yielding to his fleshly desires, then how can addiction as commonly understood (i.e., uncontrollable urges and impulses) actually exist for believers?......Granted, sin can certainly feel irresistible, but perhaps it feels that way because we capitulate to it far too readily. We have not built up the essential perseverance to repel it. We have repeatedly said yes, and like muscles that have atrophied from disuse, our spirit has become weak because we have not exercised the fortitude to resist temptation as we ought.
— Victor Kuligin, The Language of Salvation: Discovering the Riches of What It Means to Be Saved
Sin is the only heritage of the natural man...
— James Baldwin
Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread. They may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end.
— Tyron Edwards
I gradually fell from grace; alas, you dove in headfirst!
— Ahmed Mostafa
...Because the sacred fire that lights all nature liveliest of all in its own image glows. All these prerogatives the human creature possesses, and if one of them should fail, he must diminish from his noble stature. Sin only can disenfranchise him, and veil his likeness to the Highest Good; whereby the light in him is lessened and grows pale. Ne'er can he win back dignities so high till the void made by guilt be all filled in with just amends paid for by illicit joy. Now, when your nature as a whole did sin in its first root, it lost these great awards, and lost the Eden of its origin; nor might they be recovered afterwards by any means, as if thou search thou'lt see, except by crossing one of these two fords; either must God, of his sole courtesy, remit, or man must pay with all that's his, the debt of sin in its entirety. Within the Eternal Counsel's deep abyss rivet thine eye, and with a heed as good as thou canst give me, do thou follow this. Man from his finite assets never could make satisfaction; ne'er could he abase him so low, obey thereafter all he would, as he'd by disobedience sought to raise him; and for this cause man might not pay his due himself, nor from the debtor's roll erase him. Needs then must God, by his own ways, renew man's proper life, and reinstate him so; his ways I say - by one, or both of two. And since the doer's actions ever show more gracious as the style of them makes plain the goodness of the heart from which they flow, that most high Goodness which is God was fain - even God, whose impress Heaven and earth display - by all His ways to lift you up again; nor, between final night and primal day, was e'er proceeding so majestical and high, nor shall not be, by either way; for God's self-giving, which made possible that man should raise himself, showed more largesse than if by naked power He'd cancelled all; and every other means would have been less than justice, if it had not pleased God's Son to be humiliate in fleshliness.
— Dante Alighieri, Paradiso
On Virtue – When people want to describe the hideousness of a person or object, they may use the phrase ‘ugly as sin’. But the phrase should be ‘ugly as virtue’. Sin isn’t ugly. It’s highly attractive! That’s why so many people flock to it.
— Marsha Hinds
If now we attend to ourselves on occasion of any transgression of duty, we shall find that we in fact do not will that our maxim should be universal law, for that is impossible for us; on the contrary, we will that the opposite should remain a universal law, only we assume the liberty of making an exception in our own favor or (just for this time only) in favor of our inclination. Consequently, if we considered all cases from one and the same point of view, namely, that of reason, we should find a contradiction in our own will, namely, that a certain principle should be objectively necessary as a universal law, and yet subjectively should not be universal, but admit of exceptions. As, however, we at one moment regard our action from the point of view of a will wholly conformed to reason, and then again look at the same action from the point of view of a will affected by inclination, there is not really any contradiction, but an antagonism of inclination to the precept of reason, whereby the universality of the principle is changed into mere generality, so that the practical principle of reason shall meet the maxim half way. Now, although this cannot be justified in our own impartial judgement, yet it proves that we do really recognize the validity of the categorical imperative and (with all respect for it) only allow ourselves a few exceptions which we think unimportant and forced from us.
— Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
Pride keeps you from dealing with truth. It distorts your vision. You never change when you think everything is fine. Pride hardens your heart and dims the eyes of your understanding. It keeps you from the change of heart--repentance--that will set you free.
— John Bevere, The Bait Of Satan: Living Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense
Sin as little as possible-that is the law of mankind. Not to sin at all is the dream of the angel. All earthly things are subject to sin. Sin is like gravity.
— Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
I shouldn’t complain about God’s mercy to others while thanking Him for His mercy to me. I shouldn’t commit the sin of pride by justifying my rebellion or my running from God compared to other people’s sin. Who am I to be angry at what the angels in Heaven rejoice in?
— Teresa Schultz, The Bible In Poetry,
...It is the one time Dante calls such explicit attention to the idea of contrapasso-a word for which we have no exact translation, no precise definition in English, because the word in itself is its definition... Well, my dear Longfellow, I would say countersuffering ... the notion that each sinner must be punished by continuing the damage of his own sin against him... just as these Schismatics are cut apart...
— Matthew Pearl, The Dante Club
It's like an addiction, one I battle every day. It appeared at first drink. I was becoming the very thing I feared---my father's son. I wanted to be as far away from that Threshold as possible. I swore I'd never take another sip, no matter how crazy it made me. No matter how much it called to me. Resisting became easier with time.
— Sara Ella, Unblemished
...[I]f at the time of its release the soul is tainted and impure, because it has always associated with the body and cared for it and loved it, and has been so beguiled by the body and its passions and pleasures that nothing seems real to it but those physical things which can be touched and seen and eaten and drunk and used for sexual enjoyment; and if it is accustomed to hate and fear and avoid what is invisible and hidden from our eyes, but intelligible and comprehensible by philosophy - if the soul is in this state, do you think that it will escape independent and uncontaminated?
— Socrates, Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.
Any darkness that comes out in my life is the fruit of my own appetites, and it's my choice either to feed or starve those appetites. I was purposely feeding on music and movies with dark, violent themes and plenty of sexual content. All of that takes root in our thought lives and affects everything we do. It clouds our communication with God and can limit how he uses us. If someone is in a dark place and needs help, we're probably not going to have suitable answers when we're gorging on trash.
— Mark Hall, Your Own Jesus: A God Insistent on Making It Personal
Be sure your sin will find you out...Be sure.
— Stephen King, Bag of Bones
Without confession, there is no remission of sins.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
It is better to seek purity than the pleasure of sin.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The desires of the flesh leads to sin.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The quest to sin always knocks at the door of the heart, but behold! You have the right and will to open your door or never to mind the knocks, no matter how intense it is!
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
Lucifer was engraving Nate’s name on a cage right now.
— Kelly Moran, Redemption
Where there’s no free will, there’s no sin.
— Claudia Gray, Defy the Stars
We sin not because we do not love Christ at all but because we don’t love him above all.
— Bryan Chapell, Unlimited Grace: The Heart Chemistry That Frees from Sin and Fuels the Christian Life
Some men drink the blood of other men, all I drink is wine.
— Mohsin Hamid, Moth Smoke
Bertha divined what an enormous wrong had been wrought against the world in that the longing for pleasure is placed in woman just as in man; and that with women that longing is a sin, demanding expiation, if the yearning for pleasure is not at the same time a yearning for motherhood.
— Arthur Schnitzler, Vienna 1900: Games With Love And Death
The sinner I was expecting was guilty of pride, lust and spiritual despair, not merely of sloth and ineptitude. This was the diary of a nobody. So I nearly censored January to June 1933 in the interests of Grandpa's glamour as a Gothic personage. But in truth this is what we should be exposed to - the awful knowledge that when they're not breaking the commandments, the anti-heroes are mending their tobacco pipes and listening to the wireless.
— Lorna Sage, Bad Blood
... there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.
— Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it.
— Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
One sin occurs, naturally; conversely, one happens unnaturally, having human permission, which poisons, and damages the moral values of the entire humanity, since it is the worst one.
— Ehsan Sehgal
Sin compels man to do those things that are not pleasing to God
— Sunday Adelaja
People are always ashamed of the misery that has befallen them, as though it were an act of divine retribution for a long-forgotten sin of theirs
— Pascal Garnier
Not much has changed in the past 6,000 years. We still hide from God because we know we're naked.
— Ron Brackin
Purpose, meaning, and hope are the edge of a coin; on one side is imprinted the image of God; and on the other is self … As complicated as life seems at times, the mystery of fulfillment and the paradox of contentment are as simple as that. What makes life complicated, I suspect, isn’t the choice between these two value systems and the paths they define, sin and holiness, so much as it is our unwillingness to make the choice between the two.
— James Castleton, MD, Mending of a Broken Heart
Sin gains power over us not by its indomitable force but by our divided heart.
— Bryan Chapell, Unlimited Grace: The Heart Chemistry That Frees from Sin and Fuels the Christian Life
It’s impossible to know what sin is if we don’t know what God says.
— Jacquelle Crowe
The telling of a lie is not only a sin or disgrace
—  it is the beginning of a disorder in the soul set in by the puncturing from a spear coated by guilt
The distance between your head and your heart is only twelve inches, but it's the difference between information and transformation. It's not enough to invite Jesus into your mind. You have to open the door to your heart of hearts. No door can remain locked. Even the door to your hidden room.Nothing entangles the emotions like sin. And if you sin long enough, it feels like a Gordian knot that seems impossible to untangle. But Jesus Christ went to the cross to undo what you have done. He broke the curse of sin so you can break the cycle of sin.
— Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life
My greatest gratitude
—  I thank God for saving me from my sins.
Sin is all wrong doing.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Sin in the world destroys people’s lives through lust, sickness and addiction.
— Sunday Adelaja
Sin in the world destroys people’s lives through lust, sickness and addiction
— Sunday Adelaja
We stumble in sin, when we fail to read the scriptures.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Sin causes the glory of God to be shut out
— Sunday Adelaja
To flee from sin is to retain heaven on earth
— Sunday Adelaja
It’s the fall of mankind that resulted in a sin filled atmosphere
— Sunday Adelaja
To be free from destruction mindset of sin is to permit the lordship of Christ
— Sunday Adelaja
What The Scriptures Refer To As Sin, In The Medical World It’s Responsible For Disease
— Sunday Adelaja
The Wages Of Sin Is Death
— Sunday Adelaja
Without someone speaking into your life and keeping you on track with the things you believe, you have a tendency to drift into habitual sin- and you recognize this about yourself.
— Craig Groeschel, Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working
God hardening Pharaoh’s heart causes the world to fear God and not think they can sin to the point at which they want to repent.
— Rabbi Hillel
God is so omnipotent yet man so impotent, the Divine masterpiece was not even in creating the universe, but in making sin boring to sinners.
— Criss Jami
Why do we act as though our sin disqualifies us from the grace of God? That is the only thing that qualifies us! Anything else is a self-righteous attempt to earn God's grace. You cannot trust God's grace 99 percent. It's all or nothing. The problem, as I pointed out earlier, is that we want partial credit for our salvation. We want to be 1 percent of the equation. But if we try to save ourselves, we forfeit the salvation that comes from Jesus Christ alone, by grace through faith.
— Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life
We live in a culture that celebrates talent more than integrity, but we've got it backward. Talent depreciates over time. So do intellect and appearance. You will eventually lose your strength and lose your looks. You may even lose your mind. But you don't have to lose your integrity. Integrity is the only thing that doesn't depreciate over time. Nothing takes longer to build than a godly reputation. And nothing is destroyed more quickly by one stroke of sin. That's why it must be celebrated and protected above all else.
— Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life
Sin always overpromises and underdelivers, while righteousness pays dividends for eternity...Nothing is more illogical than sin. It's the epitome of poor judgment. It's temporary insanity with eternal consequences. And we have no alibi, save the cross of Jesus Christ.
— Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life
The entire idea of sin, is based on books of the dead people. It is a sociological invention founded on textual fanaticism.
— Abhijit Naskar, In Search of Divinity: Journey to The Kingdom of Conscience
To become free from sinful life, there is only simple method: if you surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning of bhakti.
— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
You can't build a foundation of sin now for a life of purity later.
— Craig Groeschel, Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working
The more we connect with our Spiritual self, the uglier sin looks. From the book: Removing Your Shame Label.
— Eddie  Capparucci
Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It's not my purpose to punish it; it's my joy to cure it.
— William Paul Young, The Shack
No matter what sin you find yourself in, turn to God. Let Him forgive, heal, and restore.
— Craig Groeschel, Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working
Grin for the shin that's sin,You can't win herein, It's not a fault of mine, You drink wine
— Shalrique
...sin is often the attempt to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way.
— John Ortberg, The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People
Confession breaks the power of canceled sin. It also heals the broken heart.
— Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life
If you want to win a game of life, there is only one way — you must be unpredictable. Otherwise life will never forgive such a deadly sin.
— Elmar Hussein
You weren’t going to tell us about Orsay?”“I didn’t say I—”“You don’t get to decide that, Sam. You’re not the only one in charge anymore. Okay?”Astrid had an icy sort of anger. A cold fury that manifested itself in tight lips and blazing eyes and short, carefully enunciated sentences.“But it’s okay for all of us to lie to everyone in Perdido Beach?” Sam shot back.“We’re trying to keep kids from killing themselves,” Astrid said. “That’s a little different from you just deciding not to tell the council that there’s a crazy girl telling people to kill themselves.”“So not telling you something is a major sin, but lying to a couple of hundred people and trashing Orsay at the same time, that’s fine?
— Michael  Grant, Lies
If your deepest feelings are reserved for something other than Almighty God, then that something other is an emotional idol... if you get more excited about material things than the simple yet profound fact that your sin was nailed to the cross by the sinless Son of God, then you're bowing down to Tammuz.
— Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life
The appeal was so often the same: Make me comfortable so I can go on doing whatever I want to do. They wanted sin without consequences.
— Francine Rivers, An Echo in the Darkness
The sin we need to be concerned about is the sin in our own lives. It's the root of all human woe, the source of anguish.
— Francine Rivers, As Sure as the Dawn
Hate the sin, not the sinner, isn't that what good people say? Or are you asking yourself at what point does the sin overtake the sinner?
— Katie McGarry, Chasing Impossible
We all have to feed the greed of other people until we find people to feed our greed and life goes on.
— Neymat Khan
It's the small sins that save you. That's how you survive when all around you are getting their heads sawed off.
— Robert Ferrigno, Heart of the Assassin
AS for jerk-off... I just done it...... as for now it has happen something... Dexter will marry his sister... wtf... wtf... wtf- Secrets- Mysteries- Nonsense.... looking there and there and there and soona and kiss comes,..... wtf it's really fucked up.... oh it was a dream.... god safe me from that sin.- I am not a sinister!
— Deyth Banger
You cannot give up. We are Gargoyle, and we are strong.
— Faith Gibson
- Murder is a sin. It's a sin in Judaism, it's a sin in Christianity, it's a sin in Islam and every other…- I'll decide what's a sin.
— Robert Ferrigno, Sins of the Assassin
If all people were to be judged by 'right and wrong', nobody would be wholly right or wholly wrong - for have not all people 'sinned and fallen from the glory of God'? It seems more than a little unfair that some folks with at least as much 'sin' themselves as any gay or trans person, like to jump up and down and point fingers at other people.
— Christina Engela, Blachart
Ambition strives. At first for goals, until it reaches them. Then for more, because it's insatiable.
— Renzo Dante (Saligiare)
The very word, “sin,” which seems to have disappeared, was once a proud word. It was once a strong word, an ominous and serious word. … But the word went away. It has almost disappeared — the word, along with the notion. Why? Doesn’t anyone sin anymore? Doesn’t anyone believe in sin?
— Karl Menninger
For in that perfect garden when one day entered sin,An animal was murdered for garments made of skin.When figs of human effort produced religious strife,The Father tailored clothing for Adam and his wife.
— Joyce Rachelle, Sewing Figs
The real 'have' and 'have nots' are between the people who were caught sinning verses the ones who got away with committing sin.
— E. Leo Foster, The Exiles
No one could preach if he seriously looked at his own sins.
— Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity
I'm thirty-five and remember all that I've done wrong.
— Ada Limon, Bright Dead Things
The most dangerous mistake that our souls are capable of, is, to take the creature for God, and earth for heaven (374).
— Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest
O sirs, how many souls, then, have every one of us been guilty of damning! What a number of our neighbours and acquaintance are dead, in whom we discerned no signs of sanctification, and never did once plainly tell them of it, or how to be recovered! If you had been the cause but of burning a man's house through your negligence, or of undoing him in the world, or of destroying his body, how would it trouble you as long as you lived! If you had but killed a man unadvisedly, it would much disquiet you. We have known those that have been guilty of murder, that could never sleep quietly after, nor have one comfortable day, their own consciences did so vex and torment them. O, then, what a heart mayst thou have, that hast been builty of murdering such a multitude of precious souls! Remember this when thou lookest thy friend or carnal neighbour in the face, and think with thyself, Can I find in my heart, through my silence and negligence, to be guilty of his everlasting burning in hell? Methinks such a thought should even untie the tongue of the dumb. . . . [H]e that is guilty of a man's continuing unregenerate, is also guilty of the sins of his unregeneracy. . . . Eli did not commit the sin himself, and yet he speaketh so coldly against it that he also must bear the punishment . Guns and cannons spake against sin in England, because the inhabitants would not speak. God pleadeth with us with fire and sword, because we would not plead with sinners with our tongues (410-11).
— Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest
Sanity for anyone is pretty much out of the question, as both the saint and the sinner appear only equally insane: the saint appears it for actually believing in a place of eternal torment; the sinner, for deciding to risk going to that place of eternal torment.
— Criss Jami
There is a very interesting debate raging at the moment on the nature of sin, for example.""And what do they think? Against it, are they?""It is not as simple as that. It's not a black and white issue. There are so many shades of gray.""Nope.""Pardon?"There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.""It's a lot more complicated than that--""No it ain't. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they're getting worried that they won't like the truth. People as things, that's where it starts.""Oh, I'm sure there are worse crimes-""But they Starts with thinking about people as things…
— Terry Pratchett
Why did you tell me all this?""So if I die, you'd know not to come looking for me when you get to heaven.
— Lorraine Heath, Lord of Wicked Intentions
I know what that does to a man, to walk the earth with the burden of his sin on his back. It poisons all he touches.
— Lori Benton, A Flight of Arrows
We are not ordered by God to judge each other. We are not even ordered by him to consider another person's sin. We are ordered by God to let Him consider it, to let Him be judge.
— Philippa Gregory, The Virgin's Lover
Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. observed, "The Devil did not tempt Adam and Eve to steal, to lie, to kill, to commit adultery; he tempted them to live independently of God.
— Jim Berg, Changed Into His Image
Sages tell us that the Torah tells us that until the age of thirteen, all of boy's sins are ascribed to his father.
— Shalom Auslander, Foreskin's Lament
The sum is this, —As thou makest conscience of praying daily, so do thou of the acting of thy graces in meditation; and more especially in meditating on the joys of heaven, To this end, set apart one hour or half hour every day, wherein thou mayst lay aside all worldly thoughts, and with all possible seriousness and reverence, as if thou wert going to speak with God himself, or to have a sight of Christ, or of that blessed place so do thou withdraw thyself into some secret place, and set thyself wholly to the following work: if thou canst, take Isaac's time and place, who went forth into the field in the evening to meditate; but if thou be a servant, or poor man, that cannot have that leisure, take the fittest time and place that thou canst, though it be when thou are private about thy labours.Were there left one spark of wit or reason, they would never sell their rest for toil, or sell their glory for worldly vanities, nor venture heaven for the pleasure of a sin (627).
— Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest
She was his angel, he couldn’t let her know his sins.
— Mark  Benjamin, A Change Of Heart
[T]his is the strongest encouragement to them in sinning
—  and we have need to lay all our batteries against this bulwark of presumption (361).
Maybe because the Dark can only reach people at extremes; blinded by their own shining ideas, or locked up in the darkness of their own heads.
— Susan Cooper, Silver on the Tree
Greed, corruption, violence, sin, deception all come from a lack of understanding that we’re all connected.
— Brownell Landrum, A Chorus of Voices: DUET stories Volume III - Adult Version
One can repent of a sin and have done with it
—  but the wages of foolishness is the eternal recalling of it.
We do some of our best work in evangelism when we make sure people understand the wrath of God against them, that their plight is desperate because God is angry. The problem of unreached and unengaged peoples is not that they don't have the gospel - that's the solution. Their plight is that they face a God who is rightly angry with them because of their sin. ("Cross", p. 35)
— Thabiti M. Anyabwile
One is not necessarily made self-centered because he is foolish, but one is very often made foolish because he is self-centered.
— Criss Jami
Hope to sin only in the service of waking up.
— Alice Walker
May God deliver us from self-righteous judging and make us, instead, merciful carriers of Christ's salvation and freedom everywhere we go. Jesus 'came into the world to save sinners,' the apostle Paul wrote, even considering himself to be the 'worst' of the lot (1 Timothy 1:15). But rejoice in why he was so candid about his condition, for it applies to us also: 'For that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.' (v 16).
— Jim Cymbala, Fresh Faith: What Happens When Real Faith Ignites God's People
All sinners would be miserable in heaven.
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
As all our senses are the inlets of sin, so they are become the inlets of sorrow (99).
— Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest
[T]here is no greater strengthener of sin, and destroyer of the soul, than Scripture misapplied (317).
— Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest
To Roland's relief, Jean de Joinville came to his aid. "Sire, this good knight wants only to preserve your life. Let us all ride together against the Egyptians.""If I ride against them alone, God will protect me," said Louis.A new figure pushed into the circle. He wore the white surcoat and red cross of a Templar over his mail. With a leap of his heart, Roland recognized Guido Bruchesi. Guido looked at him but did not acknowledge him. He went directly to the King.He spoke quietly but firmly. "Sire, what you have just said is presumption.""I do not see how that could be, brother Templar." But Louis took his foot out of the stirrup as Roland watched with growing hope. You can always catch Louis's attention with a religious argument, Roland thought, even on the battlefield."Sire," said Guido, "Satan tempted our Seigneur Jesus, telling Him that if He cast Himself down from the mountaintop, angels would lift him up." Guido cast a sidelong look at Amalric. "You, Sire, are being tempted to ride alone against the whole Egyptian army, expecting God's protection. You are demanding a miracle. That is presumption."Louis was silent for a moment. "Perhaps you are right." Roland let out a long breath.
— Robert Shea, All Things Are Lights
Got a lot of sinful idears--but they seem kinda sensible.
— John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
But in these modern times it may be decidedly asserted as a fact, that vice, in accomplishing the vast majority of its seductions, uses no disguise at all; appears impudently in its naked deformity; and, instead of horrifying all beholders, in accordance with the prediction of the classical satirist, absolutely attracts a much more numerous congregation of worshippers than has ever yet been brought together by the divinest beauties that virtue can display for the allurement of mankind.
— Wilkie Collins, Hide and Seek
She was a blameless sinless woman, yet she understood who how it was with people who sinned. Inflexibly rigid in her own moral conduct, she condoned weaknesses in others. She revered God and loved Jesus, but she understood why people often turned away from these Two.
— Betty  Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Sin is not merely wrong doing; sin is essentially wrong adoring. Sin is the fastening of our hearts on any good, treasure, or security in life that replaces the good, treasure, and security of God.
— Tony Reinke, The Joy Project: A True Story of Inescapable Happiness
Humanizing war?! You may as well talk of humanizing Hell. Sir John Fisher
— Barbara W. Tuchman, The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914
The snake pulled back the curtain to the throne room and invited Eve to take a seat. Put on the crown. Pick up the scepter. Put on the cape. See how it feels to have power. See how feels to have a name. See how it feels to be in control! Eve swallowed the hook. The temptation to be like God eclipsed her view of God.
— Max Lucado
Grace has as much to say about endings as it does about beginnings.
— Jen Pollock Michel, Teach Us to Want: Longing, Ambition & the Life of Faith
Inevitably, Saul's faraway heart would turn to faraway actions.
— Beth Moore, To Live Is Christ
They loved scenes of righteous Godly vengeance on sinful mankind. They loved to show God’s chosen people safe from harm, watching with happy faces as they were proved right to the world. But they never showed the aftermath. They never showed weeping humans, crushed and dying in pools of their own fluids. Young men smashed into piles of red flesh. A young woman cut in half because she was passing through a hatchway when catastrophe hit. This was Armageddon. This is what it looked like. Blood and torn flesh and cries for help.
— James S.A. Corey, Abaddon's Gate
[H]er retaliation only made the sin the greater because she could not find words to confess.
— Thomm Quackenbush, Flies to Wanton Boys
I don’t much care for all this talk of God washing away all my dirt. I like a bit of grit around the edges. It gives me character and does a passable job of faking depth, from a distance.
— Thomm Quackenbush, Flies to Wanton Boys
To be sure, Judas Iscariot was not exactly the sort of character that Christian Mjomba - or anyone else at St. Augustine’s Seminary for that matter - would have wanted to be nicknamed after. But the fact was that Mjomba had never made a secret of his views on the world. Everyone in the seminary brotherhood knew his stand on apartheid and things like that; and they were considered very liberal. In the conservative environment that prevailed at St. Augustine’s Seminary, they were also tantamount to betrayal! It was about the most unsavory that anyone could have wished to be associated with. But that was the label he had got stuck with.Everybody knew, besides, that it wasn’t some uninformed gentile or misguided unbeliever who had betrayed the Deliverer and handed Him to His killers. And Judas Iscariot wasn’t just anybody either. Judas was one of the twelve who had been handpicked by the Deliverer to form the core of the convocation that would become the Sancta Ecclesia. In addition to being the Deliverer’s purse bearer, Judas Iscariot also drank wine from the same cup as his Master! The man who would betray the Deliverer with a kiss was a member of the inner circle of the burgeoning Christ Fellowship; and, before long, his name had become so repulsive even among Romans, it had replaced that of Brutus, the friend of Cæsar who had conspired with others and stabbed the emperor in the back, as a symbol of betrayal. A traitor par excellence!Whenever Mjomba thought about Judas’ betrayal of the Messiah of the world with a kiss, it was not the act of betrayal itself that came to mind. It was not even the chilling words “Would’st thou betray thy Master with a kiss, Judas?” that were addressed to the betrayer by the Deliverer in the moment when Judas, no doubt representing all humanity, embraced the Nazarene and kissed him on the cheek so the temple’s constabulary wouldn’t grab and take into custody the wrong person! It was the Deliverer’s address to Peter a little earlier on in the Upper House as the fisherman, who himself would swear that he did not know the Nazarene, not once but three times, in front of a shivering crowd not long afterward, balked at the notion of the miracle worker and Son of Man could stoop to wash his (the fisherman’s) dirty feet, namely “Not all are clean, Peter!” And that was, in all probability, after Judas’s feet had already been washed by the Nazarene.That, in any event, was the character after whom Christian Mjomba had been nicknamed by his buddies in what he initially regarded as something that was itself an act of betrayal. The traitors! He could not understand how people could be so insensitive about the feelings of others! And even though he had never said it, he had never liked it a bit - until he started work on his theological thesis."_Joseph M. Luguya, Humans: The Untold Story of Adam and Eve and their Descendants
— Joseph M. Luguya
To be sure, Judas Iscariot was not exactly the sort of character that Christian Mjomba - or anyone else at St. Augustine’s Seminary for that matter - would have wanted to be nicknamed after. But the fact was that Mjomba had never made a secret of his views on the world. Everyone in the seminary brotherhood knew his stand on apartheid and things like that; and they were considered very liberal. In the conservative environment that prevailed at St. Augustine’s Seminary, they were also tantamount to betrayal! It was about the most unsavory that anyone could have wished to be associated with. But that was the label he had got stuck with.	Everybody knew, besides, that it wasn’t some uninformed gentile or misguided unbeliever who had betrayed the Deliverer and handed Him to His killers. And Judas Iscariot wasn’t just anybody either. Judas was one of the twelve who had been handpicked by the Deliverer to form the core of the convocation that would become the Sancta Ecclesia. In addition to being the Deliverer’s purse bearer, Judas Iscariot also drank wine from the same cup as his Master! The man who would betray the Deliverer with a kiss was a member of the inner circle of the burgeoning Christ Fellowship; and, before long, his name had become so repulsive even among Romans, it had replaced that of Brutus, the friend of Cæsar who had conspired with others and stabbed the emperor in the back, as a symbol of betrayal. A traitor par excellence!Whenever Mjomba thought about Judas’ betrayal of the Messiah of the world with a kiss, it was not the act of betrayal itself that came to mind. It was not even the chilling words “Would’st thou betray thy Master with a kiss, Judas?” that were addressed to the betrayer by the Deliverer in the moment when Judas, no doubt representing all humanity, embraced the Nazarene and kissed him on the cheek so the temple’s constabulary wouldn’t grab and take into custody the wrong person! It was the Deliverer’s address to Peter a little earlier on in the Upper House as the fisherman, who himself would swear that he did not know the Nazarene, not once but three times, in front of a shivering crowd not long afterward, balked at the notion of the miracle worker and Son of Man could stoop to wash his (the fisherman’s) dirty feet, namely “Not all are clean, Peter!” And that was, in all probability, after Judas’s feet had already been washed by the Nazarene.That, in any event, was the character after whom Christian Mjomba had been nicknamed by his buddies in what he initially regarded as something that was itself an act of betrayal. The traitors! He could not understand how people could be so insensitive about the feelings of others! And even though he had never said it, he had never liked it a bit - until he started work on his theological thesis."- Joseph M. Luguya, Humans: The Untold Story of Adam and Eve and their Descendants
— Joseph M. Luguya
Describing his experience with the sting of an extremely toxic jellyfish, he did something you don't often see a scientist do: he shivered.
— Bill Bryson, In a Sunburned Country
I am a firm believer that when a person makes mistakes or fails to see the bigger picture, God will remove opportunities from before them.
— Lindsey Rietzsch, Successful Failures: Recognizing the Divine Role That Opposition Plays in Life's Quest for Success
He trusted the cosmos – but not necessarily the powers that held sway on earth.
— Philip Zaleski, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
The sinner is saved to be a saint by the Saviour.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
There are different kinds of fear. One of the most terrible is the sensation that you are likely to become, at any moment, the protagonist in a Graham Greene novel: the man who tries to be virtuous and who is, in a certain sense, holy, and yet who is overwhelmed by sin as if there were a kind of fatality about it.
— Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas
The souls that call on Saviour will be saved.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
It is mere human for man to sin. But it is divine to be saved.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
In the scriptures there is no such thing as righteous pride—it is always considered a sin. Therefore, no matter how the world uses the term, we must understand how God uses the term so we can understand the language of holy writ and profit thereby.
— Ezra Taft Benson
Hornig put the block of wood down on the desk, and placed the knife he’d just recently planted into his long time best friend and colleague’s throat beside it. “God hates sin, and sinners, but he made us in his image. So He must be a sinner, too, yes? That means He’s self loathing and nothing is as dangerous as a man who hates himself. Because if He hates Himself, how could He possibly give a shit about you?
— T.W. Grim, 99  Brief Scenes From The End Of The World
He has a wide gait and I struggle to appear casual as I attempt to match his stride. His shirt’s back on, which is a sin. He could definitely give Echo’s guy a run for his money in the abs department.
— Katie McGarry, Crossing the Line
We are equal by fault, but never equal in acceptance.
— Anthony Liccione
Could a vow be not all the way broken? Could a sin be not all the way committed?
— Sierra Simone, Priest
Satan’s inquisitiveness would eventually be inherited by the offspring of Adam and Eve. The inquisitiveness was the original sin.
— Tomichan Matheikal, The Nomad Learns Morality
Everything is a sin. It all depends on which person you happen to offend with your free will.
— Michelle Anderson Picarella, Dragons of Faith
Could it be that God is so intensely personal that He would burn down your world in hopes of building it back?
— Matt      Chandler
I'm more haunted by how what I've said and the things I've done have caused harm to myself and others than I am worried that God will punish me for being bad. Because in the end, we aren't punished for our sins as much as we are punished by our sins.
— Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People
What Saint has ever won his crown without first contending for it?
— Jerome
I remember you from the woods. Where's your sister?""She's busy. Sinning.
— Dia Reeves, Slice of Cherry
Take his name. Because I love him.Because when I look into his eyes, nothing else exists but him. Because even when I don’t look into his eyes, nothing else exists but him.--rachels thought
— Katy Evans, Ms. Manwhore
One very difficult aspect of sin is that my sin never feels like sin to me. My sin feels like life to me, plain and simple. My heart is an idol factory, and my mind is an excuse-making factory.
— Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
Timshel - thou mayest
— John Steinbeck, East of Eden
All your winning or losing of a good conscience, is in your first buying; for such is the deceitfulness of sin, and the cunning conveyance of that old serpent, that if his head be once entering in, his whole body will easily follow after; and if he make you handsomely to swallow gnats at first, he will make you swallow camels ere all be done. Oh, happy they who dash the little ones of Babylon against the stones (Ps. 137:9)!
— George Gillespie, A Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies Obtruded on the Church of Scotland: Wherein Not Only Our Own Arguments Against the Same Are Strongly Confirmed, But Likewise the Answers and Defences of Our Opposites, Such as Hooker, Morton, Burges, Spri...
What's wrong with the world?It's easy to probe the ills of the nation, the Church, and the planet and come up with a grave diagnosis... But it takes all the strength we can muster to stand at Mass and honestly say, 'I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do..."Sin is not out there; it's deep inside you and me... What's wrong with the world? I am, because I sin, and my sins well up from the darkness in my own heart.
— Scott Hahn
Sin is that God said something and i don't think so. Sin is to be conceived with my own ideas. Sin is that i see it my way and not God's way.Sin is my own Ideas. Sin is Unbelieve
— Mary Tornyenyor
As human beings we are plagued with inordinate affections. We love green pieces of paper more than God. We love balls made out of pigskin more than God. We've shown we even love apples more than God. We, like Esau, have traded our birthright- the dignity of our shameless, joy-filled, glory-beholding, glory-reflecting existence- for a bowl of beans.
— Matt Papa
Assassins: they got sass and live on sin.
— Natalya Vorobyova
We have been called to wrestle with sin through the cross of Jesus Christ
—  we are not here to wrestle with the sinner. Matthew 16:24
No sin is original, no matter what the bright young things may hope. We're all merely playing to a theme.
— Lauren Willig, The Other Daughter
On what grounds would God be told that He can bring death to millions of people at the end of a normal life span, but that He may not do it in any other way?
— Donald Grey Barnhouse
Remorse (I did it) is an easy, passive, human reaction, there is no value in it and it changes nothing. Repentance (I will not do it again) is the difficult call to action in a redeemed heart. It has an eternal impact and it can change everything.
— William Branks
My only sin in this world has been that I have been truthful and honest and God has blessed me for this earthly sin.
— Amit Abraham
Like a sneeze, sin feels good at first, but it leaves a huge mess.
— Craig Groeschel
The idea of sin being able to deceive us, suppressing truth so that we believe a lie, should send shivers down our spines. It is one thing to deceive other people. That is scary enough. It is even more frightening when we realize that each lie we tell leaves us more self-deceived. All practiced sin teaches us to believe lies. WE don't often consider the boomerang effect of our deception. In the end it will get us.
— Edward T. Welch
Do not use worldly methods or apply human force to prevent sin
— Sunday Adelaja
May we be enabled to say "No" to sin and "Yes" to the sinner.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Magic!' cried an old man. 'Tis sorcery, and we are undone!' 'Not so,' I told him, 'Sorcery cannot harm good Christians.' 'But I am a miserable sinner,' he wailed.
— Poul Anderson
Her heart was revealed in a slip, as our hearts always are.
— Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey Into Christian Faith
Love can’t cover over the sins we cover up…If you want God and others to cover over your sin, stop covering it up.
— Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe: Rediscovering the Wonder of a God You Can't Control
That is how sin works. Having nothing in itself by which to convince, on what other resources but good and truth can it draw to make itself attractive and plausible? We must use the natural law to recognize the abuse of the natural law; there is nothing else to use.
— J. Budziszewski, What We Can't Not Know: A Guide
It is not the importance of the thing, but the majesty of the Lawgiver, that is to be the standard of obedience.~Andrew Bonar~
— Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness
God does not require a perfect, sinless life to have fellowship with Him, but He does require that we be serious about holiness, that we grieve over sin in our lives instead of justifying it, and that we earnestly pursue holiness as a way of life.
— Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness