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Sin
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“Many are saved from sin by being so inept at it.”
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“If you are proposing to commit a sin it is as well to commit it with intelligence. Otherwise you are insulting God as well as defying Him, don't you think?”
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“Sin brought death, and death will disappear with the disappearance of sin.”
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“Mankind thinks either too much or too little of sin.”
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“Two points of danger beset mankind; namely, making sin seem either too large or too little ...”
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“Tain't nothin' Ah hate lak gittin' sin throwed in mah face dat done got cold.”
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“... I'm getting very old and my bones ache. My sins are deserting me, and if I could only have my time over again I'd take care to commit more of them.”
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“... some of our sins are so honestly the expression of nature that justification breaks through them.”
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“It is a human thing to sin, but perseverance in sin is a thing of the devil. ”
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“It is enough to make anybody's blood bile in thier vains to think how different sin is looked upon in a man and woman. I say sin is sin, and you can't make goodness out of it by parsin' it in the masculine gender, no more'n you can by parsin' it in the feminine or neutral.”
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“I value more than I despise / My tendency to sin, / Because it helps me sympathize / With all my tempted kin.”
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“To one who has led a virtuous life, to sin is the easiest thing in the world. No experience of unpleasant consequences grits that smooth sliding fall, no recollection of disillusionment blurs that pure desire.”
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“Sin recognized - but that - may keep us humble, / But oh, it keeps us nasty.”
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“For what he saw was that behind the new wrongs were the old ones, and that the sinners of to-day were, perhaps, the sinned against of yesterday.”
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“... you could have forgiven my committing a sin if you hadn't feared that I had a committed a pleasure as well.”
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“All sins are attempts to fill voids.”
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“Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction.”
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“Fashions in sin change.”
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“When it comes to finances, remember that there are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin.”
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“Sin has always been an ugly word, but it has been made so in a new sense over the last half-century. It has been made not only ugly but passé. People are no longer sinful, they are only immature or underprivileged or frightened or, more particularly, sick.”
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“Sins cut boldly up through every class in society, but mere misdemeanours show a certain level in life.”
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“Temptation does not make the sin, it lies ready in the heart.”
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“When will this old world begin / To see man and the woman equal in sin?”
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“Sin is living according to your own plan. Sin is trying to fill up your own life rather than allowing God to fill you. Sin is being willing to stay where you are rather than go through the pain and joy of being in process.”
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“When you are as old as I, young man, you will know there is only one thing in the world worth living for, and that is sin.”
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“Only the highest souls realize and accept that he who sins is far more to be pitied, aye, and loved, if love is what the highest human passion should be, than is the one against whom the sinner has sinned.”
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“... sin looks much more terrible to those who look at it than to those who do it. ”
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“... Aphrodite is about lust and gluttony — the only two sins worth committing, in my opinion.”
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“... whether or not virtue was in fact its own reward, it did seem like sin was its own punishment.”
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“The wages of sin are death, but of course, with taxes taken out, it'd just be kind of a tired feeling.”
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“Well, there's a Book that says we're all sinners and I at least chose a sin that's made quite a few people happier than they were before they met me, a sin that's left me with very little time to consider other extremely popular moral misdemeanors, like usury, intolerance, bearing false tales, extortion, racial bigotry, and the casting of that first stone.”
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“It is a lot easier to forgive an occasional big fault than it is to put up with never-ending petty irritations. The big sinners at least take a day off from their vices now and then, but the little sinners who sin against our habits and ideals and conventions are always on the job.”
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“Sins of commission are far more productive of happiness than the sins of omission.”
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“The wages of sin are the hardest debts on earth to pay, and they are always collected at inconvenient times and unexpected places.”
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“For myself, I would rather live with sins of excess than sins of denial.”
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“We don't call it sin today, we call it self-expression.”
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“I saw not till now what sin brings with it — that we must tread others underfoot.”
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“... we are not punished for our sins, but by them.”
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“That what he had just done involved him in any sort of danger never occurred to him. Not that he would have acted differently, but at least he would have been on guard, would not so soon have nearly fluttered into the presence of his Maker with his sins still on him, like feathers.”
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“It was no sin ... because the customs were different; sin changes, you know, like fashion.”
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“The great danger is that in the confession of any collective sin, one shall confess the sins of others and forget our own.”
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“Some there are who are much more ashamed of confessing a sin than of committing it.”
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“I have found this to be true, that one sin begets a dozen others.”
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“It wasn't sin that was born on the day Eve picked her apple. What was born that day was a splendid virtue called disobedience.”
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“God does not punish us for our sins but by them.”
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“Women keep a special corner of their hearts for sins they have never committed.”
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“How immense appear to us the sins that we have not committed.”
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“Temporary sins, eternal punishment.”
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“I was once asked for my definition of living in sin. It's this: any two people living together while one dominates and tyrannizes the other are, to me, living in sin.”
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“... when a swinging sin is to be committed, there is nothing like a gown and a cassock to cover it.”
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“Some sins have no season. We are as likely to be angry in November as to lose our rag in March ... There is, though, something autumnal about greed, apple-cheeked and wheat-crowned, purpled knee-high in grapes; something summery in sloth, as the hammock creaks in the fly-drowsy heat; and more than a tickle of spring in lust, as birds pair and the sap rises. Among these, ingratitude is winter, the worst of seasons.”
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“She sings like she's got a secret, and if you listen long enough, she'll tell it to you — and only you.”
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“Nothing is more beautifully and acceptably self-assertive than good singing.”
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“The man sang as only birds and Italians sing.”
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“As oil will find its way into crevices where water cannot penetrate, so song will find its way where speech can no longer enter.”
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“All the intelligence and talent in the world can't make a singer. The voice is a wild thing. It can't be bred in captivity.”
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“I dream of songs. I dream they fall down through the centuries, from my distant ancestors, and come to me. I dream of lullabies and sea shanties and keening cries and rhythms and stories and backbeats.”
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“Oh, I am all for singing. If I had had children I should have hounded them into choirs & choral societies, and if they weren't good enough for that, I would have sent them out, to sing in the streets.”
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“Singing is like going to a party at someone else's house. Acting is like having the party at your house.”
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“I sat on a broad stone / And sang to the birds. / The tune was God's making / But I made the words.”
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“Everybody wants to know about my style and how it came about. It's no big secret. It's the way I feel.”
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“The only thing better than singing is more singing.”
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“I like to sing when I have works to do — it does so help.”
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“The adage is true that if you miss one day's singing you notice it yourself; if you miss two your coach notices it; and if you miss three your public knows it.”
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“I've lived my songs.”
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“Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn't burn up any fossil fuel, doesn't pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.”
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“... she has not even a natural good voice to excuse her miserable performance; on the contrary, it is a croak, a squeak, and Nature has been as little her friend as Art has been her assistant.”
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“[On Helen Reddy:] She ought to be arrested for loitering in front of an orchestra.”
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“Happy trails to you, until we meet again / Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.”
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“[At age 14:] I wish I could describe the beautiful singing of the students! If one could imagine such a thing as a wood with leaves of thin steel — small singing leaves on long vibrating stems — and that there came, now a soft breeze, now a powerful storm, which set all the tiny leaves into motion, I wonder if it would be like the students' singing.”
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“You are the vibrating instrument ...”
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“Singing is best, it gives right joy to speech.”
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“[Advice to Bessie Smith:] Let your soul do the singin'.”
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“Only when I was singing did I feel loved.”
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“To sing is an expression of your being, a being which is becoming.”
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“Sugar! My voice is strong, smooth, and sweet. I will make you feel like dancing. Close your eyes and listen. My voice feels like feet skipping on cool wet sand, like running under a waterfall, like rolling down a hill. My voice climbs and rocks and dips and flips with the sounds of congas beating and trumpets blaring. Boom boom boom! Beat the congas. Clap clap clap! Go the hands. Shake shake shake! Go the hips. I am the Queen of Salsa and I invite you to come dance with me.”
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“I do not know who sings my songs / Before they are sung by me.”
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“Not all songs are religious, but there is scarcely a task, light or grave, scarcely an event, great or small, but it has its fitting song.”
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“Hymns, to Tobias, consisted of words alone. He could not follow the simplest tune, but like so many of the tone-deaf he loved to match his voice against the power of the organ.”
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“... the person who sings only the blues is like someone in a deep pit yelling for help ...”
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“Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope.”
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“Her singing was mutiny on the high C's.”
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“Find your own voice & use it, / use your own voice & find it.”
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“To sing is to love and to affirm, to fly and soar, to coast into the hearts of the people who listen, to tell them that life is to live, that love is there, that nothing is a promise, but that beauty exists, and must be hunted for and found. That death is a luxury, better to be romanticized and sung about than dwelt upon in the face of life.”
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“The stuff they wrote about me in Europe made me feel alive. Over here some damn body is always trying to embalm me. I'm always making a comeback, but nobody ever tells me where I've been.”
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“I can't stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain't music, it's close-order drill or exercise or yodeling or something, not music.”
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“I've been told nobody sings the word 'hunger' like I do.”
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“I can only sing songs my way. I don't know any other way.”
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“... there are three things I was born with in this world, and there are three things I will have until the day I die: hope, determination, and song.”
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“I'm not a politician; I am a singer. Long ago, they said, 'That one, she sings politics.' I don't sing politics; I merely sing the truth.”
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“My voice had a long, nonstop career. It deserves to be put to bed with quiet and dignity, not yanked out every once in a while to see if it can still do what it used to do. It can't.”
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“Captive people have a need for song.”
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“A song to me is a very tangible thing. I can feel it with my hands and see it with my eyes ...”
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“For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open — into the light, out of the darkness.”
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“[They say I] can hold a note as long as the Chase Manhattan Bank.”
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“I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.”
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“I have never given all of myself, even vocally, to anyone. I was taught to sing on your interest, not your capital.”
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“The songs of the singer / Are tones that repeat / The cry of the heart / 'Till it ceases to beat.”
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“It doesn't take long to sum up the major theses of most popular music: he loves me; he left me; I need him; I needed him, but now I need his best friend. Rather limited scope.”
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“Whenever new ideas emerge, songs soon follow, and before long the songs are leading.”
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“My voice is my instrument. ... It is not in the throat, from where it appears to come. It is in my feet and how they touch the floor, in my legs and how they lift and sink with the rhythm of the song. It is in my hips and belly and lower back ...”
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“I am the first instrument. I am the voice. I do not imitate other instruments. Other instruments imitate me.”
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“For me, singing is a way of escaping. It's another world. I'm no longer on earth.”
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“Someone once asked me why people sing. I answered that they sing for many of the same reasons the birds sing. They sing for a mate, to claim their territory, or simply to give voice to the delight of being alive in the midst of a beautiful day. Perhaps more than the birds do, humans hold a grudge. They sing to complain of how grievously they have been wronged, and how to avoid it in the future. They sing to help themselves execute a job of work. They sing so the subsequent generations won't forget what the current generation endured, or dreamed, or delighted in.”
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“The essential elements of singing are voice, musicianship, and story. It is the rare artist who has all three in abundance.”
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“Bing Crosby sings like all people think they sing in the shower.”
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“In unison we rise and stand / And wish that we were sitting. / We listen to the music start, / And wish that it were quitting. / We pass our hymnal to a guest / or fake a smoker's cough; / We drop our pencils, lose our gloves, / Or take our glasses off. / We move our lips to keep in style, / Emitting awkward bleats, / And when the last 'Amen' is sung, / Sink gladly in our seats. / O Lord, who hearest every prayer / And saves us from our foes, / Deliver now Thy little flock / From hymns nobody knows.”
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“Nobody can teach you how to sing the blues, you have to feel the blues.”
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“I love being single. It's almost like being rich.”
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“A bachelor is a man who can take a nap on top of a bedspread.”
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“... no bachelor should invite guests to his home unless he has a full retinue of servants to care for their wants.”
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“Being an old maid is like death by drowning, a really delightful sensation after you cease to struggle.”
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“Somehow, a bachelor never quite gets over the idea that he is a thing of beauty and a boy forever!”
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“Show me a woman with a subscription to a bridal magazine and I'll show you someone who doesn't even have a boyfriend.”
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“A bachelor's children are always young: they're immortal children — always lisping, waddling, helpless, and with a chance of turning out good.”
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“In the ages since Adam's marriage, it has been good for some men to be alone, and for some women also.”
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“He travels fastest who travels alone, and that goes double for she.”
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“Of all the benefits of spinsterhood, the greatest is carte blanche. Once a woman is called 'that crazy old maid' she can get away with anything.”
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“... there is a natural tribal hostility between the married and the unmarried. I cannot stand the shows so often quite instinctively put on by married people to insinuate that they are not only more fortunate but in some way more moral than you are.”
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“Bachelors begin at thirty-six. Up till this age they are regarded as single men.”
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“People always assume that bachelors are single by choice and spinsters because nobody asked them. It never enters their heads that poor bachelors might have worn the knees of their trousers out proposing to girls who rejected them or that a girl might deliberately stay unmarried ...”
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“There is simply no dignified way for a woman to live alone. Oh, she can get along financially perhaps (though not nearly as well as a man), but emotionally she is never left in peace. Her friends, her family, her fellow workers never let her forget that her husbandlessness, her childlessness — her selfishness, in short — is a reproach to the American way of life.”
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“A single woman with a narrow income must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid, the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman of fortune is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else. ”
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“Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor ...”
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“I'm single because I was born that way.”
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“Marriage? I ain't got time for a husband or child. All my life I've looked after myself as if I was my own child.”
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“[Referring to a bridesmaid/bridal attendant:] Always a maiden, never a wife.”
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“Unmarried but happy.”
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“I don't much like to think that being a bachelor girl limits how you see the world. On the other hand, I know it certainly limits how the world sees you.”
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“... no matter how lonely you get or how many birth announcements you receive, the trick is not to get frightened. There's nothing wrong with being alone.”
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“[When asked why she never married:] There was no need. I have three pets at home which answer the same purpose as a husband. I have a dog which growls every morning, a parrot which swears all the afternoon, and a cat that comes home late at night.”
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“When my bed is empty, / Makes me feel awful mean and blue. / My springs are getting rusty, / Living single like I do.”
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“The civilization of cities is breeding a new race of monks who have none of the original religious drive towards chastity, but are just incapable of facing the responsibilities of marriage.”
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“I think, therefore I'm single.”
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“My soul has found no other soul / To which it does belong.”
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“There are a lot of great things about not being married. But one of the worst things is no one believes that.”
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“I wonder if living alone makes one more alive. No precious energy goes in disagreement or compromise. No need to augment others, there is just yourself, just truth — a morsel — and you.”
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“Maybe staying single meant that you never had to grow up.”
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“The genuine solitaries of life fear intimacy more than loneliness. The married are those who have taken the terrible risk of intimacy and, having taken it, know life without intimacy to be impossible.”
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“By far and away the most common representation of the single woman in films is as the Shriveled-Up Spinster. She starts out shriveled and continues to shrivel throughout the movie, until she collapses into nothingness. As a symbol of society's contempt for nonconforming (unmarried, child-free) women, she is so widely accepted that she is the stereotype of choice for portraying women who live alone.”
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“But I maintain that under other circumstances Miss Ormiston would not only have made a successful business woman, but a successful single woman as well. Why do we think no life complete without without a marriage?”
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“In Mexico a bachelor is a man who can't play the guitar.”
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“Whaddaya mean 'old maids,' ha? The term is 'unclaimed treasure,' buddy, 'unclaimed treasure!'”
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“I've never been married, but I tell people I'm divorced so they won't think something's wrong with me.”
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“I hate it at weddings when old relatives tell me, 'You'll be next, love.' I get my own back at funerals.”
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“'I hate weddings,' she says. 'They make me feel so unmarried. Actually, even brushing my teeth makes me feel unmarried.'”
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“Single women making their way to individual destinies — who in the home circle understands them? If they try to share what they have found in their further reach, who wants it?”
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“When people ask me why I don't get married, I tell them I can't mate in captivity.”
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