Priests Quotes

“Altho' I rarely waste time in reading on theological subjects, as mangled by our Pseudo-Christians, yet I can readily suppose Basanistos may be amusing. Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus. If it could be understood it would not answer their purpose. Their security is in their faculty of shedding darkness, like the scuttlefish, thro' the element in which they move, and making it impenetrable to the eye of a pursuing enemy, and there they will skulk.

[Letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp on 30 July 1810 denouncing the Christian doctrine of the Trinity]”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved - the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced! With the rational respect that is due to it, knavish priests have added prostitutions of it, that fill or might fill the blackest and bloodiest pages of human history.

{Letter to Thomas Jefferson, September 3, 1816]”
― John Adams, The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams

“When the late Pope John Paul II decided to place the woman so strangely known as “Mother” Teresa on the fast track for beatification, and thus to qualify her for eventual sainthood, the Vatican felt obliged to solicit my testimony and I thus spent several hours in a closed hearing room with a priest, a deacon, and a monsignor, no doubt making their day as I told off, as from a rosary, the frightful faults and crimes of the departed fanatic. In the course of this, I discovered that the pope during his tenure had surreptitiously abolished the famous office of “Devil’s Advocate,” in order to fast‐track still more of his many candidates for canonization. I can thus claim to be the only living person to have represented the Devil pro bono.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“[L]e philosophe n'a jamais tué de prêtres et le prêtre a tué beaucoup de philosophes...

(The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.)”
― Denis Diderot, Political Writings

“There exists indeed an opposition to it [building of UVA, Jefferson's secular college] by the friends of William and Mary, which is not strong. The most restive is that of the priests of the different religious sects, who dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of day-light; and scowl on it the fatal harbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies on which they live. In this the Presbyterian clergy take the lead. The tocsin is sounded in all their pulpits, and the first alarm denounced is against the particular creed of Doctr. Cooper; and as impudently denounced as if they really knew what it is.

[Letter to José Francesco Corrê a Da Serra - Monticello, April 11, 1820]”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“Gomst's mouth framed a 'no', but every other muscle in him said 'yes'. You'd think priests would be better liars, what with their jobs and all.”
― Mark Lawrence, Prince of Thorns

“...Turn our thoughts, in the next place, to the characters of learned men. The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. Read over again all the accounts we have of Hindoos, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Teutons, we shall find that priests had all the knowledge, and really governed all mankind. Examine Mahometanism, trace Christianity from its first promulgation; knowledge has been almost exclusively confined to the clergy. And, even since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate a free inquiry? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will soon find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your legs and hands, and fly into your face and eyes.

[Letters to John Taylor, 1814, XVIII, p. 484]”
― John Adams, The Letters of John and Abigail Adams

“There are ignorant priests and ignorant people, who are all too ready to cry sorcery if a woman is only a little wiser than they are!”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“First the priests arrive. Then the conquistadores.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“I didn't want to spent a lot of close time with someone who believed that fun is a bourgeois indulgence.”
― Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

“In medieval times, contrary to popular belief, most knights were bandits, mercenaries, lawless brigands, skinners, highwaymen, and thieves. The supposed chivalry of Charlemagne and Roland had as much to do with the majority of medieval knights as the historical Jesus with the temporal riches and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, or any church for that matter. Generally accompanied by their immoral entourage or servants, priests, and whores, they went from tourney to tourney like a touring rock and roll band, sports team, or gang of South Sea pirates. Court to court, skirmish to skirmish, rape to rape. Fighting as the noble's substitution for work.”
― Tod Wodicka, All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well

“The intellectual climate of the 1970s, for which the 1950s had already paved the way, contributed to this. A theory was even finally developed at that time that pedophilia should be viewed as something positive. Above all, however, the thesis was advocated-and this even infiltrated Catholic moral theology-that there was no such thing as something that is bad in itself. There were only things that were "relatively" bad. What was good or bad depended on the consequences.
In such a context, where everything is relative and nothing intrinsically evil exists, but only relative good and relative evil, people who have an inclination to such behavior are left without no solid footing. Of course pedophilia is first rather a sickness of individuals, but the fact that it could become so active and so widespread was linked also to an intellectual climate through which the foundations of moral theology, good and evil, became open to question in the Church. Good and evil became interchangeable; they were no longer absolutely clear opposites.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times - A Conversation with Peter Seewald

“That God is in truth the sort of bloodthirsty paranoid Who would rend to bits forty-two children for the crime of sassing one of his priests. Don't ask me about the Front Office's policies; I just work here.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Everyone agrees the celibacy rule is just a Church law dating from the 11th century, not a divine command.”
― Hans Küng

“The Pope would have an easier job than the President of the United States in adopting a change of course. He has no Congress alongside him as a legislative body nor a Supreme Court as a judiciary. He is absolute head of government, legislator and supreme judge in the church. If he wanted to, he could authorize contraception over night, permit the marriage of priests, make possible the ordination of women and allow eucharistic fellowship with this Protestant churches. What would a Pope do who acted in the spirit of Obama?”
― Hans Küng

“Perfect, that's our plan then. But you'll have to give up being a priest first. I wouldn't want to just sit around whispering and sipping hot chocolate.”
― Ted Dekker, The Priest's Graveyard

“We priests are the surgeons of souls, and it is our duty to deliver them of shameful secrets they would fain conceal, with hands careful to neither wound no pollute.”
― Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Le plus bel amour de Don Juan précédé de Le rideau cramoisi

“The only other person attending who was close to her age was Father St. Laurent, a devastatingly good-looking Roman Catholic priest who made the RC's vows of celibacy seem like a crime against the human gene pool.”
― Julia Spencer-Fleming, I Shall Not Want

“(Priests) cheapjack merchants selling paradise”
― Jean Lorrain

“Los Padres son dueños de todo y la gente no posée nada; es la obra maestra de la razón y la justicia. Yo no encuentro nada tan extraordinario como los Padres, que aquí luchan contra el rey de España y el de Portugal, y que allí, en Europa, confiesan a esos mismos reyes; que aquí matan españoles, y que en Madrid los envían al cielo: es algo portentoso”
― Voltaire, Candide

“When a misfortune strikes us, we can overcome it either by removing its cause or else by changing the effect it has on our feelings, that is, by reinterpreting the misfortune as good, whose benefit may only later become clear. Religion and art (as well as metaphysical philosophy) strive to effect a change in our feeling, in part by changing the way we judge experiences...and in part by awakening a pleasure in pain, in emotion generally...The more a person tends to reinterpret and justify, the less will he confront the causes of the misfortune and eliminate them; a momentary palliation and narcotization (as used, for example, for a toothache) is also enough for him in more serious suffering. The more the rule of religions and all narcotic arts decrease, the more squarely do men confront the real elimination of the misfortune - of course, this is bad for the tragic poets (there being less and less material for the tragedy, because the realm of the inexorable, invincible fate grows ever smaller) but it is even worse for the priests (for until now they had fed on the narcotization of human misfortunes).”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

“Take up the shield of faith and fight the battles of the Lord vigorously. You especially must stand as a wall against every height which raises itself against the knowledge of God. Unsheath the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and may those who hunger after justice receive bread from you. Having been called so that you might be diligent cultivators in the vineyard of the Lord, do this one thing, and labor in it together, so that every root of bitterness may be removed from your field, all seeds of vice destroyed, and a happy crop of virtues may take root and grow.”
― Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos: On Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism

“Society destroys the very roots of trust. Society does not allow you to trust yourself. It teaches you all other kinds of trust: trust in the parents, trust in the teachers, trust in
the church, trust in God, but the basic trust in yourself is destroyed. The man who trusts himself is dangerous to society, because a society depends on slavery. A man who trusts himself is an independent man. Freedom will
be his life. His love will have a truth to it. The society needs dependent people, who do not trust themselves. ”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, The Call of the Heart 

“And the Queen of Ruritania, James?’

‘Do not misunderstand me, sir. They could be secretly married — I should say re-married.’

‘Yes, certainly, re-married.’

‘By a trustworthy priest.’

‘You mean an untrustworthy priest?”
― Anthony Hope, Rupert of Hentzau

“FOLLOW YOUR HEART, FOLLOW YOUR BEING
How do we come in contact with our heart and begin to see the truth? We need to follow our heart, we need to follow our own nature. We need to have the courage to listen to our heart. To follow ournature means to  learn to trust yourself. Hidden deep within ourselves is the silent voice of truth. If you become silent, you will be guided from within from the silent voice. To follow our nature is the only possibility to attain freedom. When all lies and conditions from society is removed, you will discover your essential nature. Your nature is to become God. To follow your nature is to follow your consciousness, but you have been told by the parent, the teachers. the priests and the politicians to follow ideologies, philosophies and religions - and not to follow your own nature. When you know your own inner voice, you will be free. if you listen to your  heart, no one can manipulate and control you again.
To become available to your inner nature is mediation. It is to become aware that there is source within you, from where God speaks to you.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, God is Everywhere: You are Divine, Everything is Divine

“Kings are meant to rule, prophets are meant to speak, priests are meant to mediate. The essential quality of these three is to have the answers. But so much of the Old Testament is kings crying, priests failing, and prophets doubting. God is showing his people that there's a better prophet, priest, and king coming, one who weeps but with hope, one who stumbles but is on his way to the cross, one who doubts his calling but obeys his Father anyway.”
― Lore Ferguson Wilbert, A Curious Faith: The Questions God Asks, We Ask, and We Wish Someone Would Ask Us

“The moment truth is organized it becomes a lie. Jesus and Buddha never created any organized religion. An organized religion becomes politics. It becomes a manipulation, control and exploitation by the priests. You don't have to be Christians or Buddhists, because your own potential is to be a buddha. Buddha taught you to become a buddha. The people who were with Buddha were not part of any organized religion. They were free and independent individuals. Buddha did not want to be anybody's guru, he simply wanted to be a friend, a fellow traveler on the spiritual path. He wanted to create as many individuals in the world with absolute freedom in their soul with no chains to Christianity or Buddhism and with no scriptures, no teachings, except for awareness. He taught spirituality, not religion. Spirituality is not a membership of any church or cult, but a quality that transforms your being and makes your inner potential blossom. Buddha was available to help his people to become buddhas. He wanted a world of buddhas, who were free from organized religions and cults, and who would find their own wings to fly in the sky. Truth brings freedom, freedom from religions, cults and scriptures. Truth brings a silence, a peace and a sense of eternity, and immortality and deathlessness. But it has nothing to do with organized religion and cults.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, Meditation: A Love Affair with the Whole - Thousand and One Flowers of Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Freedom, Beauty and the Divine

“My path in life in life has always been to trust myself; my path in life has always been to trust my intuition, to trust my heart, to trust the inner true voice, to trust my inner source of love, truth and wisdom, which is already in contact with the Whole. I have always listened to other people, and to what situations in life can teach me, but then I have always listened to the silent whisperings of my heart.There is always a meaning with whatever happens. It is basically a question of perspective; it is a question of seeing a situation from the perspective of the limited personality, or to see a situation from the perspective of the unlimited inner being, from the perspective of the soul. It is a question of seeing the creative potential in every situation, to see what we can learn in every situation, and to be open to see how life will solve this situation.When we see the situation from the perspective of the soul, it is like watching the situation from the summit of the mountain, instead of seeing the situation from the perspective of the personality, to see the situation from the foot of the mountain. When we see the situation from the perspective of the soul, we can also see that both good and bad situations, both positive and negative experiences, are teachers in life to learn to create a greater understanding of the Whole.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten

“There are not many things that the different approaches of modern psychology agree about, but there is one thing that they all agree about: that people in groups and organizations, simply put, become more stupid. Individually people are more intelligent, because they have to take more responsibility. But in a group, people do not have to take the same amount of responsibility. People in groups and organizations tend to get caught up in the need of the ego to create hierarchies of power, status, positions, roles, norms and conformity.
All organizations are more or less dysfunctional. The sign of a dysfunctional group is that the members of the group play three roles and positions: aggressor,denier and victim. It is always easier to follow the group without reflection or awareness, than to trust your own heart, to trust your own intelligence,truth, wisdom and creativity. It is not always easy to follow your own heart,
but it always leads your right.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, Meditation: A Love Affair with the Whole - Thousand and One Flowers of Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Freedom, Beauty and the Divine

“We are born free, but we are not allowed to live in freedom by the society. Everybody is born in freedom, but everybody lives in a prison. Everybody lives as a prisoner and dies as a prisoner. 
The most spiritual act in life is to live in freedom. Meditation is the way to regain your freedom. Meditation is the way to destroy all the barriers and bondages that have been created by the society, the state, the establishment, the status quo and the church.
The society do not want you to live in freedom, because a free person cannot be controlled, manipulated and exploited. A free person cannot be reduced to a thing, a possession.
The society do not believe in man, the society believes in machines, because machines are obedient and do not rebel. Man can rebel, which is why each child is chained in such a way that very few people are able to live a life of freedom.
Meditation is a declaration of freedom. A meditator has to be alert, aware, adventurous and courageous to live in freedom. A meditator's search is for freedom, and when he is totally free he knows God.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, Meditation: A Love Affair with the Whole - Thousand and One Flowers of Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Freedom, Beauty and the Divine