# Quotes about the church - Quotes: 12 - Authors: 5 - Broader topic: [Quotes about religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.json ## Quotes > Voluntary self-directed religion was more dangerous to the Church than any number of infidels. [Barbara W. Tuchman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman.md) · [A Distant Mirror](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror.md) · p. 487 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror/voluntary-self-directed-religion.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md) > The emphasis on sorcery reflected accusations by the authorities more than it did actual practice. Being threatened, the Church responded by virulent persecution. [Barbara W. Tuchman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman.md) · [A Distant Mirror](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror.md) · p. 590 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror/the-emphasis-on-sorcery.md) Topics: [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md) > The system was aided by the Church, whose natural interests allied it more to the great than to the meek. [Barbara W. Tuchman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman.md) · [A Distant Mirror](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror.md) · p. 173 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror/the-system-was.md) Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md) > It’s a Catholic idea, actually—that the material world is redeemed; that time is continuous; that one can somehow be redeemed by the faith of an earlier age or a poorer class, if one lives within its shadow or its arrondissement or breathes its sigh. [Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown/its-a-catholic.md) Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [poverty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md) > Of all the institutions in their lives, only the Catholic Church has seemed aware of the fact that my mother and father are thinkers—persons aware of the experience of their lives. Other institutions—the nation’s political parties, the industries of mass entertainment and communications, the companies that employed them—have all treated my parents with condescension. [Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Hunger of Memory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/hunger-of-memory.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/hunger-of-memory/of-all-the.md) Topics: [parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md) > Christ forbiddeth his disciples and that oft... not only to climb above lords, kings, and emperors in worldly rule, but also to exalt themselves one above another in the kingdom of God: but in vain; for the pope would not hear it, though he had commanded it ten thousand times. [William Tyndale](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tyndale.md) · [The Obedience of a Christian Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tyndale/the-obedience-of-a-christian-man.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tyndale/the-obedience-of-a-christian-man/christ-forbiddeth-his.md) Topics: [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md) > A society like the Church, which claims to be Divine is perhaps more dangerous on account of the ersatz good which it contains then on account of the evil which sullies it. > > Something of the social labelled divine: an intoxicating mixture which carries with it every sort of license. Devil disguised. [Simone Weil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil.md) · [Simone Weil: An Anthology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil/simone-weil-an-anthology.md) · p. 122 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil/simone-weil-an-anthology/a-society-like.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md) > The cult of the Virgin, Mariolatry, which by the gradual elevation of the divine element in the Virgin has led almost to her deification, answers merely to the feeling that God should be a perfect man, that God should include in his nature the feminine element. The progressive exaltation of the Virgin Mary, the work of Catholic piety, having its beginning in the expression Mother of God, ...has culminated in attributing to her the status of co-redeemer and in the dogmatic declaration of her conception without the stain of original sin. Hence she now occupies a position between Humanity and Divinity and nearer Divinity than Humanity. And it has been surmised that in course of time she may perhaps even come to be regarded as yet another personal manifestation of the Godhead. [Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/the-cult-of-the.md) Topics: [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md) > It is the vital asserting itself, and in order to assert itself it creates, with the help of its enemy, the rational, a complete dogmatic structure, and this the Church defends against rationalism, against Protestantism, and against Modernism. The Church defends life. It stood up against Galileo, and it did right; for his discovery, in its inception and until it became assimilated to the general body of human knowledge, tended to shatter the anthropomorphic belief that the universe was created for man. It opposed Darwin, and it did right, for Darwinism tends to shatter our belief that man is an exceptional animal, created expressly to be eternalized. And lastly, Pius IX, the first Pontiff to be proclaimed infallible, declared he was irreconcilable with the so-called modern civilization. And he did right. [Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/it-is-the.md) Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md) > The real sin — perhaps it is a sin against the Holy Ghost for which there is no remission — is the sin of heresy, the sin of thinking for oneself. The saying has been heard before now, here in Spain, that to be a liberal — that is, a heretic — is worse than being an assassin, a thief, or an adulterer. The gravest sin is not to obey the Church, whose infallibility protects us from reason. [Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/the-real-sin.md) Topics: [sin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sin.md), [obedience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/obedience.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md) > The Catholic solution of our problem, of our unique vital problem, the problem of the immortality and eternal salvation of the soul, satisfies the will, and therefore satisfies life; but the attempt to rationalize it by means of a dogmatic theology fails to satisfy the reason. And reason has its exigencies as imperious as those of life. It is no use seeking to force ourselves to consider as super-rational what clearly appears to us to be contra-rational... Infallibility, a notion of Hellenic origin, is in its essence a rationalistic category. [Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/the-catholic-solution.md) Topics: [reason](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > And why be scandalized by the infallibility of a man, of the Pope? What difference does it make whether it be a book that is infallible — the Bible, or a society of men — the Church, or a single man? Does it make any essential change in the rational difficulty? And since the infallibility of a book or of a society of men is not more rational than that of a single man, this supreme offense to the eyes of reason has to be postulated. [Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/and-why-be-scandalized.md) Topics: [reason](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md)