Church quotes

Church

3.1K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

3.1K quotes

Explore further

Browse quotes that often appear alongside church — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.

Quote collection

Church quotes (page 26 of 155)

Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.

Lawrence Wright Author, Journalist
Church

"Churches are tax exempt because they are supposed to provide a public good. To prove that good to the IRS, churches arent supposed to hoard their money. They are supposed to spend it on goods and services for the faithful. Under this pretense, the church has made massive investments in tax free real estate all over the world. And when it comes to labor costs, they are almost free."

Read quote 3 likes
George Bernard Shaw Playwright, Critic
Church

"I am highly susceptible to the force of all truly religious music, especially to the music of my own church, the church of Shelley, Michelangelo, and Beethoven."

Read quote 3 likes
George Eliot Novelist, Poet, Journalist
Church

"the Press has no band of critics who go the round of the churches and chapels, and are on the watch for a slip or defect in the preacher, to make a 'feature' in their article: the clergy are, practically, the most irresponsible of all talkers."

Read quote 3 likes
George Harrison Musician, Singer-songwriter
Church

"There's this morbid side to the way many represent Christianity today, where you don't smile, because it's too serious, and you can't expect to see God - that kind of stuff. If there is God, we must see Him, and I don't believe in the idea you find in most churches, where they say, "No, you're not going to see Him. He's way up above you. Just believe what we tell you and shut up.""

Read quote 3 likes
Church

"No Church-yard is so handsom, that a man would desire straight to bee buried there. [No churchyard is so handsome that a man would desire straight to be buried there.]"

Read quote 3 likes
Leo Tolstoy Novelist, Philosopher
Church

"Nowhere nor in anything, except in the assertion of the Church, can we find that God or Christ founded anything like what churchmen understand by the Church."

Read quote 3 likes
Henri Nouwen Theologian, Author
Church

"The great call for the Church is to not just be concerned about right or wrong behavior, which is moral life, but about communion with God, which is mystical life."

Read quote 3 likes
Gilbert K. Chesterton Writer, Journalist
Church

"If the world grows to worldly, it can be rebuked by the Church; but if the Church grows to worldly, it cannot be adequately rebuked for worldlyness by the world."

Read quote 3 likes
Gilbert K. Chesterton Writer, Journalist
Church

"Bowing down in blind credulity, as is my custom, before mere authority and the tradition of the elders, superstitiously swallowing a story I could not test at the time by experiment or private judgment, I am firmly of the opinion that I was born on the 29th of May, 1874, on Campden Hill, Kensington; and baptised according to the formularies of the Church of England in the little church of St. George opposite the large Waterworks Tower that dominated that ridge."

Read quote 3 likes