Top 100 Clergy's Quotes
#1. Christian creeds and doctrines, the clergy's own fatal inventions, through all the ages has made of Christendom a slaughterhouse, and divided it into sects of inextinguishable hatred for one another.
Thomas Jefferson
#2. Two studies from the year 2000, however, indicate that Catholics give lower ratings to their clergy's ministerial activities across the board than do Protestants.
Andrew Greeley
#3. Broadcast radio was entering its own golden age during the Depression, with live programming on stations all through the day. Local stations needed singers, musicians, announcers, and whipcord personalities, along with Christian clergy to give prayers and pundits to speak on world affairs.
Douglas Brinkley
#4. The clergy [in the 14th century] on the whole were probably no more lecherous or greedy or untrustworthy than other men, but because they were supposed to be better or nearer to God than other men, their failings attracted more attention.
Barbara Tuchman
#5. The clergy were to pray for all men, the knight to fight for them, and the commoner to work that all might eat.
Barbara W. Tuchman
#6. Never was there a more injurous mistake than to say it was the
business only of the clergy to care for souls.
George MacDonald
#7. Again, as I had often met it in my own church, I was confronted with the Impurity of Women doctrine that seemed to preoccupy all clergymen.
Harper Lee
#8. The law for religious freedom ... [has]put down the aristocracy of the clergy and restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind.
Thomas Jefferson
#9. You see in the streets of London, great and little boys running about in long blue coats, which, like robes, reach quite down to the feet, and little white bands, such as the clergy wear.
Karl Philipp Moritz
#10. Whenever the clergy were at the elbow of the civil arm, no matter whether they were Catholic or Protestant, persecution was the result.
William Edward Hartpole Lecky
#11. slept on the priest's floor last night. We got very drunk." "You and the padre got smashed? What was the occasion?" "Clergy Appreciation Day." "That's a thing?" "Apparently so. Got drunk with a priest last night. Broke a televangelist's wrist this morning. My new favorite holiday.
Tiffany Reisz
#13. I never liked the Hierarchy of the Church-an equality in the teacher of Religion, and a dependence on the people, are republican sentiments-but if the Clergy combine, they will have their influence on Government
Rufus King
#14. Without fear of contradiction, I can safely say that every step in progress that woman has made she has been assailed by ecclesiastics, that her most vigilant unwearied opponents have always been the clergy ...
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
#15. The most grievous wrong of that day ... was to be found in the establishment of the celibacy of the clergy ... This hideous doctrine of a celibate priesthood was maintained only by a constant struggle against the better and truer instincts of the heart.
Lillie Devereux Blake
#16. I have always thought it curious that, while most scientists claim to eschew religion, it actually dominates their thoughts more than it does the clergy.
Fred Hoyle
#17. Because sometimes the Church seems like those posed circus tableaus where the curtain lifts and men, white, zinc-oxide, talcum-powder statues, freeze to represent abstract Beauty. Very wonderful. But I hope there will always be room for me to dart about among the statues, don't you, Father Stone?
Ray Bradbury
#18. One of the duties of fortitude is to keep the weak from receiving injury; another, to check the wrong motions of our own souls; a third, both to disregard humiliations, and to do what is right with an even mind. All these clearly ought to be fulfilled by all Christians, and especially by the clergy.
Saint Ambrose
#19. When Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning-rod, the clergy, both in England and America, with enthusiastic support of George III, condemned it as an impious attempt to defeat the will of God.
Bertrand Russell
#20. Matrimony is the only game of chance the clergy favor.
Emily Murphy
#21. But I thought I might have to go to church on Sunday, and although the Archbishop has said one needn't, I still think that the more old-fashioned clergy expect one to wear a hat. But
Agatha Christie
#22. Benefit of clergy: Half-rate on the railroad.
Mark Twain
#23. What do our clergy lose by reading their sermons? They lose preaching, the preaching of the voice in many cases, the preaching of the eye almost always.
Augustus William Hare
#24. You know how the church has been hit so hard by the sexual misconduct by clergy, and what's that's done to Catholics, especially here in Boston but elsewhere as well.
William P. Leahy
#25. Some have suffered death to make it possible for us to have the scriptures today. Historically, the scriptures in the Bible were reserved for the clergy, with the reading of them by others being denounced. At times, laws even prohibited the public or private reading of them.
L. Lionel Kendrick
#26. The church is not to be judged by how useful we are as a "supportive institution" and our clergy as members of a "helping profession". The church has its own reason for being, hid within its own mandate and not found in the world. We are not chartered by the Emperor.
Stanley Hauerwas
#27. The profession of the ministry is like matrimony: if it is possible for you to keep out of it, it's a sign that you've no business to go into it!
Margaret Deland
#28. Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.
Baron D'Holbach
#29. The Roman clergy thus adopted the old aristocracy's ideal of libertas, which had little to do with freedom; rather, it referred to the maintenance of the privileged position of the ruling class, lest society lapse into barbarism.
Karen Armstrong
#30. It's common knowledge that the "church" is nothing more than an invention of the priesthood designed to swindle the ordinary people of the empire out of just about everything they own.
David Eddings
#31. Until the theologians and the ordained clergy begin to communicate with ordinary people in the vernacular, in a way that they can understand, I'm going to have to do this sort of thing.
C.S. Lewis
#32. Throughout this protracted and disgraceful assault on American womanhood, the clergy baptized each new insult and act of injustice in the name of the Christian religion, and uniformly asked God's blessing on proceedings that would have put to shame an assembly of Hottentots.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
#33. That's the trouble with you preachers," he said. "You've all got too good to believe in anything," and he drove off with a look of disgust and righteousness.
Flannery O'Connor
#34. When I was a young priest in the 1960s and 1970s, there was much experimentation and confusion in the Church. Teachers and clergy were encouraged to communicate an experience of God's love, but to do it without reference to the Creed, the sacraments, or the tradition.
Donald Wuerl
#35. If the Church is not Making Disciples, then all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible, are a waste of time.
C.S. Lewis
#36. The problem of corrupt clergy haunts God's family in every age. Priests who misuse and abuse their authority inflict untold damage upon the people of God.
Scott Hahn
#37. The author reveals a cultural change that took place when clergy were paid based on a tax on the land's value rather than what it produced. This meant that, while parishioners could suffer through a terrible year, clergy would always have a comfortable one.
Bill Bryson
#38. Whatever your life's pursuit
art, poetry, sculpture, music, whatever your occupation may be
you can be as spiritual as clergy, always living a life of praise.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
#39. The clergy is in the same business as actors, just a different department.
John Hurt
#40. It was in this year, 1828, that the standard of "the Christian Party in Politics" was openly unfurled ... This was an evident attempt, through the influence of the clergy over the female mind - until this hour lamentably neglected in the United States - to effect a union of Church and State.
Frances Wright
#41. I seriously wish that he had spent his entire childhood being serially arse-raped by teachers, scoutmasters, members of the clergy, relatives, policemen, doctors, door-to-door salesmen and all registered sex offenders within a 500-mile radius of his unprotected bedroom.
Douglas Coupland
#42. In front of an audience of Protestant clergy, the Catholic JFK was drawing strength from his vulnerability.
David Pietrusza
#43. You know, Eric, I could have sworn I heard a goat bleating while I was working in the slype yesterday evening.
I expect the Dean had separated it from the sheep, Eric said solemnly. Isn't that what clergy are for?
Catherine Aird
#44. That's my theory: immediate electrocution of all ignorant and dirty people. I'm all for the criminals - give color to life. Trouble is if you started to punish ignorance you'd have to begin in the first families, then you could take up the moving-picture people, and finally Congress and the clergy.
F Scott Fitzgerald
#45. I am predominantly critical concerning the activities, and especially the political activities, through history of the official clergy.
Albert Einstein
#46. Clergy had a vested interest in retaining the old, ways, which made few demands of them as teachers, as spiritual guides, or as moral examples or agents.
Alister E. McGrath
#47. It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not, what they ought to be, so are the nation.
Jane Austen
#48. I'm a man of some intelligence. I've had some education, passed the bar, practiced law. I've been a teacher and I deal with men of substance, statesman, business leaders, the clergy ... So why do I spend my time arguing with Dizzy Dean?
Branch Rickey
#50. That diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages amoung some and to their eternal Infamy the Clergy can furnish their Quota of Imps for such business.
James Madison
#51. It is a very rare church indeed that encourages its members to think for themselves in religious matters, or even tolerates this, and in most of them the clergy are quite ready to lay down the law in other fields too.
Anne Roe
#52. The clergy are at present divided into three sections: an immense body who are ignorant; a small proportion who know and are silent; and a minute minority who know and speak according to their knowledge.
Thomas Huxley
#53. The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves ... these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.
Thomas Jefferson
#54. Perhaps you could not find such godless, such ruthless and such materialist people as clergy.
Irving Stone
#55. I was the biggest George Harrison fanatic in the world. He was raised Catholic; my parents are both ex-clergy, so I was raised Catholic, and I admired how he used his faith.
John Fugelsang
#56. If you need help, look to clergy who do not spout their own beliefs but direct you in sincerity by using the Bible.
Monica Johnson
#57. The clergy believe that any power confided in me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes, and they believe rightly.
Thomas Jefferson
#58. A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
Carl Sagan
#59. Your role during the prayer of consecration is crucial, helping the mass appear reverent and planned. Match the presider as he crosses himself and when he bows. Learn the liturgical style of your clergy so you will follow each one seamlessly; their practices vary.
Beth Wickenberg Ely
#60. Our Father GOD is the measure by which we know the shortcomings of earthly dads and earthly clergy; for their vocation is to be His image on earth. GOD allows them to fail so that we might seek perfect fatherhood in Him.
Scott Hahn
#61. I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution.
Jonathan Swift
#62. Among the clergy we find our most violent enemies, those most opposed to any change in woman's position.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
#63. The Clergy is the greatest hindrance to faith.
Martin Luther
#64. And sometimes the clergy are blindsided by that. Other times they realize that ahead of time and say they're not going to use those terms. So it gets complicated for sure.
Michael Emerson
#65. The clergy complain of the enormous spread of bold books, from the infidel tract to the latest handling of the miracle question.
Harriet Martineau
#66. While politicians, clergy, creators of advertisements, and other worthies assert stoutly that the family is the foundation of society, the nuclear family, as an institution, is currently in grave trouble.
Jane Jacobs
#67. The bourgeoisie, when it was struggling against the nobility sustained by the clergy, hoisted the flag of free thought and atheism; but once triumphant, it changed its tone and manner and today it uses religion to support its economic and political supremacy
Paul Lafargue
#68. If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the clergy.
Marquis De Lafayette
#69. For both Protestants and Catholics, and whether or not absolute continence is demanded of the clergy, celibacy remains a blessed spiritual state.
Meir Soloveichik
#70. By dividing the people of God as clergy and laymen, we have made the latter a majority of lame men.
Richard P. Stanley
#71. People take sides on political things, such as the Vietnam War. War is immoral and war is wrong, but I don't think the clergy ought to bring it before the Church.
Warren Giles
#72. I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain.
Samuel Johnson
#73. For the hair has grown on my upper lip
And the clergy are all clean-shaven
George Orwell
#74. Up to 700 A.D., it was assumed that the Christian family cared for their own dead. The clergy played little role in burial and none whatsoever in the arrangement and decoration of tombs.
Peter R.L. Brown
#75. He believed there were too many black clergy who were selling heaven to the people.2
Clarence Taylor
#76. Truth, for its own sake, had never been a virtue with the Roman clergy.
Charles Kingsley
#77. So too, in forming a constitution, or in enacting rules of procedure, or making canons, the people do not merely passively assent, but actively cooperate. They have, in all these matters, the same authority as the clergy.
Charles Hodge
#78. I think the issue of clergy sexual abuse sparked people to look at their faith in a different way.
William P. Leahy
#79. There is a long and well-documented tradition of wisdom in the Christian faith that any venture into leadership, whether by laity or clergy, is hazardous. it is necessary that there be leaders, but woe to those who become leaders.
Eugene H. Peterson
#80. Pray we for the Clergy; that they may rightly divide, that they may rightly walk; that while they teach others, themselves may learn.
Lancelot Andrewes
#81. Worshipped was that of Mammon. It is difficult to estimate the size of monastic occupation. At the time it was believed that the clergy owned one third of the land, but it may be safe to presume that the monks controlled one sixth of English territory.
Peter Ackroyd
#82. His friend laughed. 'You missed your calling, Freddie,' he said. 'You should have been one of the aforementioned clergy. Is this what marriage does to you? One shudders at the very idea.
Mary Balogh
#83. The clergy, no less than the capitalist class, lives on the backs of the people, profits from the degradation, the ignorance and the oppression of the people.
Rosa Luxemburg
#84. So long as you believe that man is essentially evil in nature, and a more vicious doctrine was never promulgated, it follows that he is often going to need to have his ears slapped back, and who should do this but the clergy?
Anne Roe
#85. The clergy would have us believe them against our own reason, as the woman would have her husband against his own eyes.
John Selden
#86. Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression.
Rudolph Rummel
#87. Parents, teachers, clergy and physicians change lives with their words. It is hypnotic for a child or patient to hear an authority figure's words. As I am always sharing, 'wordswordswords' can become 'swordswordswords,' and we can kill or cure with either words or swords.
Bernie Siegel
#88. We need a country literally full of cat guys and cat girls, bikers, politicians, clergy, and everyone in between, in order to keep millions from dying without homes.
Jackson Galaxy
#89. Give the clergy your sympathy; don't give them anything else.
Benjamin Jowett
#90. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not.
James Madison
#91. We need some clergy with some backbone, who don't mind making uncomfortable at times those who are very comfortable, and challenging them at the core of their faith, at least causing them to pause and to have dialogue and to be open for further discussion.
Tim McDonald
#92. From my childhood I had been intended for the clergy. This prospect hung like a dark cloud on my mind.
Nikola Tesla
#93. Among our own people also the church sorely needs clergy in close touch with the ordinary life of the laity, living the life of ordinary men, sharing their difficulties and understanding their trials by close personal experience.
Roland Allen
#94. Of learned men, the clergy show the lowest development of professional ethics. Any pastor is free to cadge customers from the divines of rival sects, and to denounce the divines themselves as theological quacks.
H.L. Mencken
#95. Have we arrived at our own faith and our own path or simply internalized the beliefs of parents, clergy, spouse, or friends?
Joan Z. Borysenko
#96. The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of it's benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.
Thomas Jefferson
#97. Because it can be very difficult to go talk to a member of the clergy, people must be able to count on the promise that what they say will not be repeated. Therefore, like therapists, ministers practice confidentiality in order to establish trust with those in their care.
Matthew Floding
#98. The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.
C.S. Lewis
#99. In 1788 Dr. Rush had told the clergy that, whatever their doctrinal differences, "you are all united in inculcating the necessity of morals," and "from the success or failure of your exertions in the cause of virtue, we anticipate the freedom or slavery of our country.
Gordon S. Wood
#100. I have a work presently in the Press named 'Six Months in Hell' which you may one day read. I consider it will be worth perusing, bruising badly the morals of Britain and America, while Royalty, clergy, critics, society and bloodhounds of law must all incur its censure.
Amanda McKittrick Ros
