Pope Gregory Quotes

#1. Pope Gregory believed that successful pastoral leadership required a balance between the contemplation of the isolated ascetic and the action of the well-trained administrator.

Gregory The Great

#2. A deadly sins addendum is long overdue. Life has changed since Pope Gregory the Great scribbled his initial list in the sixth century.

P. J. O'Rourke

#3. Climaxing a movement for calendar reform which had been developing for at least a century, in 1582 Pope Gregory ordained that October 4 was to be followed by October 15.

Daniel J. Boorstin

#4. For if we are bidden to honor carnal fathers and mothers, how much more the spiritual? ... If this virtue of charity has been overlooked, a man will lose any fruit of salvation in any good he may do.

Pope Gregory VII

#5. The universe is not rich enough to buy the vote of an honest man.

Pope Gregory I

#6. You cannot acquire the gift of peace if by your anger you destroy the peace of the Lord.

Pope Gregory I

#7. Pray to Saint Philomena, What ever you ask from her, She will obtain for you.

Pope Gregory XVI

#8. What do they not see, who see Him Who sees all things?

Pope Gregory I

#9. I feel that the same God-force that is the mother and father of the Pope is also the mother and father of the loneliest wino on the planet.

Dick Gregory

#10. To do penance is to bewail the evil we have done, and to do no evil to bewail.

Pope Gregory I

#11. The Bible is a stream of running water, where alike the elephant may swim, and the lamb walk without losing its feet.

Pope Gregory I

#12. Let nothing of the truths that have been defined be lessened, nothing altered, nothing added, but let them be preserved intact in word and in meaning.

Pope Gregory XVI

#13. That it has pleased God to make Holy Scripture obscure in certain places lest, if it were perfectly clear to all, it might be vulgarized and subjected to disrespect or be so misunderstood by people of limited intelligence as to lead them into error.

Pope Gregory VII

#14. The only true riches are those that make us rich in virtue. Therefore, if you want to be rich, beloved, love true riches. If you aspire to the heights of real honor, strive to reach the kingdom of Heaven. If you value rank and renown, hasten to be enrolled in the heavenly court of the Angels.

Pope Gregory I

#15. Affliction strengthens the vigor of our soul, whereas happiness weakens it.

Pope Gregory I

#16. I have loved justice and hated inequity; and therefore I die in exile.
[Lat., Dilexi justitiam et odi iniquitatem, propterea morior in exilio.]

Pope Gregory VII

#17. We ascend to the heights of contemplation by the steps of action.

Pope Gregory I

#18. We are making a new order," he said. "A new world. There is talk of the end of the authority of the Pope, the map of France and Spain is being redrawn. Everything is changing, and here we are, at the very front of the change.

Philippa Gregory

#19. Whoever wishes to hold the fortress of contemplation must first of all train in the camp of action.

Pope Gregory I

#20. Act in such a way that your humility may not be weakness, nor your authority be severity. Justice must be accompanied by humility, that humility may render justice lovable.

Pope Gregory I

#21. Ignorance is a dangerous and spiritual poison, which all men ought warily to shun.

Pope Gregory I

#22. The Holy Bible is like a mirror before our mind's eye. In it we see our inner face. From the Scriptures we can learn our spiritual deformities and beauties. And there too we discover the progress we are making and how far we are from perfection.

Pope Gregory I

#23. Out of the Roman States there is no country where I am Pope except the United States.

Pope Gregory XVI

#24. The unrestrained freedom of thinking and of openly making known one's thoughts is not inherent in the rights of citizens and is by no means worthy of favor and support.

Pope Gregory XVI

#25. And here we must narrowly watch ourselves, seeing that banquets can scarcely be celebrated blamelessly, for almost always luxury accompanies feasting; and when the body is swallowed up in the delight of refreshing itself, the heart relaxes to empty joys.

Pope Gregory I

#26. Now if the wearing of fine and precious robes were not a fault, word of God would never have so carefully expressed this. For no one seeks costly garments except for vainglory, that he may seem more honorable than others; for no one wishes to be clothed with such, where he cannot be seen by others.

Pope Gregory I

#27. The holy universal Church teaches that it is not possible to worship God truly except in Her and asserts that all who are outside of Her will not be saved.

Pope Gregory I

#28. There are in truth three states of the converted: the beginning, the middle, and the perfection. In the beginning they experience the charms of sweetness; in the middle the contests of temptation; and in the end the fullness of perfection.

Pope Gregory I

#29. I am a woman who slept with my father the Pope.
They say I did, at least, and so does he.
And who am I to make of the Pope a liar,
And who is he to make a liar of me?

Gregory Maguire

#30. The human mind is prone to pride even when not supported by power; how much more, then, does it exalt itself when it has that support?

Pope Gregory I

#31. I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.

Pope Gregory VII

#32. I despise the proper constructions and cases, because I think it very unfitting that the words of the celestial oracle should be restricted by the rules of Donatus [a well-known grammarian].

Pope Gregory I

#33. He who is required by the necessity of his position to speak the highest things is compelled by the same necessity to exemplify the highest things.

Pope Gregory I

#34. If we are, in fact, now occupied in good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves. We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow.

Pope Gregory I

#35. You don't climb a mountain in leaps and bounds, but by taking it slowly.

Pope Gregory I

#36. That rule must be absolutely observed which states that, except for the most serious reasons and with the Apostolic See, no innovations are to be introduced into the holy rites of the liturgy.

Pope Gregory XVI

#37. Scriptura sacra mentis oculis quasi quoddam speculum opponitur, ut interna nostra facies in ipsa videatur. Holy scripture is placed before the eyes of our mind like a mirror, so that we may view our inner face therein.

Pope Gregory I

#38. It is the custom of the Roman Church which I unworthily serve with the help of God, to tolerate some things, to turn a blind eye to some, following the spirit of discretion rather than the rigid letter of the law.

Pope Gregory VII

#39. Beyond a doubt, they perish eternally who do not keep the Catholic faith entire and unchanged.

Pope Gregory XVI

#40. The more the wicked abound, so much the more must we suffer with them in patience; for on the threshing floor few are the grains carried into the barns, but high are the piles of chaff burned with fire.

Pope Gregory I

#41. Queen Victoria was loyal and true to the Pope; that is what I was told, and so is Edward the Seventh loyal and true, but he has got something contrary in his body.

Lady Gregory

#42. Whatsoever one would understand what he hears must hasten to put into practice what he has heard.

Pope Gregory I

#43. The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.

Pope Gregory I