Priests, throughout history and across cultures, have held a significant role in society. Whether acting as intermediaries between humanity and the divine, guiding individuals through spiritual journeys, or offering counsel and comfort in times of need, priests play a crucial role in the lives of many. Their words carry weight, resonating with the faithful and offering insights that transcend the mundane.
From ancient civilizations to modern religious institutions, priests have offered wisdom and guidance that often transcend the boundaries of religious affiliation. Their quotes reflect not only the doctrines of their faith but also the universal truths that resonate with individuals seeking guidance and enlightenment. These quotes inspire reflection, contemplation, and a deeper understanding of the human condition, serving as beacons of hope and guidance in an often tumultuous world.
Below, you will find a collection of quotes from priests spanning different eras, traditions, and perspectives. Whether you seek words of comfort, inspiration, or spiritual guidance, these quotes are sure to resonate with you and offer insight into the wisdom of those who have dedicated their lives to serving others.
Our priests and presidents, our surgeons and lawyers, our educators and newscasters need worry less about satisfying the demands of their discipline than the demands of good showmanship. Neil Postman
The Catholic men are more upset about women not being able to be priests than are Catholic women. Andrew Greeley
What they’re not ready for is guys like you and I and Nails and all the other gnarly gnarlingtons in my life, that we are high priests, Vatican assassin warlocks. Boom. Print that, people. See where that goes. Charlie Sheen
There is good news in the data the strongest support for priests is to be found among the younger generation. Andrew Greeley
In all the antique religions, mythology takes the place of dogma; that is, the sacred lore of priests and people… and these stories afford the only explanation that is offered of the precepts of religion and the prescribed rules of ritual. William Robertson Smith
Times have changed since George Herbert… but the principle and spirit in which he ministered as a priest remains an inspiration and model for all priests. Arthur Middleton
‘The Moonstone’ was all I could have hoped for. A mysterious, cursed jewel, wrested from India, only to be stolen later from a great British mansion. Enigmatic, dangerous priests who follow it across the ocean in hopes of wresting it back. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
My seven-year-old daughter knows old songs and how the neighborhoods got their names. There are little things: Businesses receive blessings from Hawaiian priests before opening, and everyone’s kids have their debut luau. You can’t really get through a day without doing something Hawaiian. Kaui Hart Hemmings
I really believed that the priests were acquainted with my thoughts; and often stood in great awe of them. They often told me they had power to strike me dead at any moment. Maria Monk
Whatever flaws or personal failings afflict them, it remains the case that the overwhelming majority of priests and politicians are honourable and honest – seeking to live out their beliefs and serve society. Keith O’Brien
That was my aspiration, so I was there in a seminary with just boys who were studying to be priests. Pretty rigorous schooling; we never got home, we stayed there all year. Peter Jurasik
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests. Thomas Paine
The highest service that men may attain to on earth is to preach the word of God. This service falls peculiarly to priests, and therefore, God more directly demands it of them. John Wycliffe
There are enormously gifted Episcopal priests around this church who are gay and lesbian, some of whom are partnered, who would make wonderful bishops and they’re going to be nominated and they’re going to be elected. Gene Robinson
I must be informed, that one of my great duties was, to obey the priests in all things; and this I soon learnt, to my utter astonishment and horror, was to live in the practice of criminal intercourse with them. Maria Monk
Priests, ministers and rabbis are asking where the children are going. Slowly but surely, they’re seeing that people are hungry for something beyond the doctrine. It isn’t that they don’t want religious truth. But they want the mystical core, the heart of the religious truth. Marianne Williamson
The priests say that God created our souls, and that just puts us under the control of another puppeteer. If God created our will, then he’s responsible for every choice we make. Orson Scott Card
A critic is a eunuch working in a harem. He watches it, but he knows he can’t do it. Critics very often are failed writers and, like failed priests, they hate religion. Howard Fast
In 1975, no State or Church guidelines existed in the Republic of Ireland to assist those responding to an allegation of abuse against a minor. No training was given to priests, teachers, police officers or others who worked regularly with children about how to respond appropriately should such allegations be made. Sean Brady
Teachers are the ministers and priests of culture, its practitioners and its emissaries. Tom Paulin
The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosopher’s or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself, and that is why you must know yourself – Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self. Jiddu Krishnamurti
It is an Englishman who turns out to be the real villain of ‘The Moonstone.’ By contrast, the three Indian priests who dedicate their lives to returning the jewel to its proper home in the temple, though they have nothing personal to gain by doing so, are positively heroic. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I like talking to priests, to Catholics. Everyone has their beliefs. Oscar Niemeyer
Voltaire! A name that excites the admiration of men, the malignity of priests. Pronounce that name in the presence of a clergyman, and you will find that you have made a declaration of war. Robert Green Ingersoll
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers. Denis Diderot
The net’s future is far from assured, and history offers much warning. Within a few decades of Gutenberg’s creation, princes and priests moved to restrict the right to print books. Vint Cerf
I never went to church. The priests couldn’t scare me with all that crap about hell, but somehow I knew, inside of me somehow, I knew that I’d pay for it. Jake LaMotta
I worked as a prosecutor watching Catholic priests charged with sex abuse and saw firsthand how the ‘circle the wagons’ mentality revictimized the innocent, coddled the guilty, and made matters worse for everyone. Christine Pelosi
Some of the priests from the Seminary were in the nunnery every day and night, and often several at a time. Maria Monk
The journey that ‘In Praise of Slowness’ has made since publication shows how far this message resonates. The book has been translated into more than 30 languages. It appears on reading lists from business schools to yoga retreats. Rabbis, priests and imams have quoted from it in their sermons. Carl Honore
Like the seasons of the year, like history, truth also repeats itself. But we seldom recognize it when great poets or true artists – the prophets and the priests of our day – present it to us in garments spick and span, following the fashion of the age, the slant of its fancy, the turn and temper of its mind. Ameen Rihani
The man or country that fights priestcraft and priests is to my mind striking deeper for freedom than can be struck anywhere. George Meredith
The legal system is often a mystery, and we, its priests, preside over rituals baffling to everyday citizens. Henry Miller
The really funny thing is that most all of my friends who are priests have seen me perform, and they say, ‘I wish I could talk the way you do on stage. I wish I could reveal truth to my congregation the way you do.’ Carlos Mencia
Even as a small child, I wondered why the Dominican nuns who educated me were subservient to the Jesuit priests who educated my brothers. Janine di Giovanni
I had displeased the jacobins by blaming their aristocratic usurpation of legitimate powers; the priests of all sorts by claiming religious liberty; the anarchists by repressing them; and the conspirators by rejecting their offers. Marquis de Lafayette
That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not. Thomas Paine
The Church is or should go back to being a community of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops, who have the care of souls, are at the service of the people of God. Pope Francis
Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State – to be ruled by priests with a divine mission. We have many non-Muslims – Hindus, Christians, and Parsis – but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other citizens and will play their rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan. Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Priests focus on the spiritual. As a lay person I could show people how to be good Catholics in the world. Bo Sanchez
I think you’ve got good people and bad people in everything you do. If you start making a big deal of it, then it’s a problem. It’s like in life. We’ve got bad doctors and lawyers. We’ve got bad priests! We don’t target every priest and say he’s bad. You have to go to church and you have to go see some doctors. Some people have to be good. Master P
As a Catholic, I am proud of the social mission of the church and its concerns for the poor and dispossessed, but I still personally would support women priests. Cherie Blair
What cursed spirit of falsehood moveth priests to close themselves within stone walls for all their life, since Christ commanded all his apostles and priests to go into all the world, and to preach the Gospel? John Wycliffe
The artistic taste of the Catholic priests is appalling and I am most anxious to have a Catholic church in which everything is genuine and good, and not tawdry and ostentatious. Giles Gilbert Scott
If priests were allowed to marry, if this would be an optional thing, and if he could have wife and children, he would certainly have less temptation to satisfy certain sexual impulses with minors. Hans Kung
For me, it’s a great joy to be together with priests: in the end, the bishop of Rome is the bishop and brother of all priests. His mandate is to confirm the brothers in the faith. Pope Benedict XVI
The priests are debarred from female society, nor is any woman permitted to enter the religious houses. Hernan Cortes
Women priests. Great, great. Now there’s priests of both sexes I don’t listen to. Bill Hicks
What I think we can do is help individuals understand the church teaching, but also maybe help the church understand the viewpoint of lay men and women about what they want in regard to priests, or how do they want the hierarchy to deal with them? William P. Leahy
When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man. Diogenes
Priests have to have the right to say that a sin is a sin. Rocco Buttiglione
When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly. We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord. Pope Francis
In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don’t baptize the children of single mothers because they weren’t conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today’s hypocrites. Those who clericalize the church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation. Pope Francis
What a travesty it is that the high priests of Leave in 2016, who insisted to all of us that Brexit would mean a return to parliamentary sovereignty, are undermining and circumventing parliamentary sovereignty in order to deliver their hard Brexit. Gina Miller
The pope’s instruction for priests to forgive may mean, in some cases, the difference between a woman staying in the Catholic Church or leaving for a more understanding and empowering church nearby. Anthea Butler
I started seeing in the monsters as a more sincere form of religion because the priests were not that great, but Frankenstein was great. Guillermo del Toro
Every race gets the religion it deserves, and only as policemen, pugilists, and priests have they succeeded, here and there a successful lawyer, but nothing more serious. George A. Moore
I hate that which we have decided to call realism, even though I have been made one of its high priests. Gustave Flaubert
It affects every aspect of our lives, is often said to be the root of all evil, and the analysis of the world that it makes possible – what we call ‘the economy’ – is so important to us that economists have become the high priests of our society. Yet, oddly, there is absolutely no consensus among economists about what money really is. David Graeber
Let judges secretly despair of justice: their verdicts will be more acute. Let generals secretly despair of triumph; killing will be defamed. Let priests secretly despair of faith: their compassion will be true. Leonard Cohen
People say that slaves were taken from Africa. This is not true: People were taken from Africa, among them healers and priests, and were made into slaves. Abdullah Ibrahim
I left because I decided it just really wasn’t for me, and I got a better understanding of what the Catholic Church needed from its priests and ministers. Peter Jurasik
Environmentalism is the powerful new secular religion and politically correct scientists are its high priests, rescuing the planet from the apocalypse of climate change, as the Doomsday clock ticks down. Miranda Devine
I don’t believe in organized religion – I dealt with them hand in hand, and a whole bunch of Catholic priests tried to molest me. Telling me I was gay and I should go home with them and stuff. Jonathan Davis
Francis seems familiar because Catholics have already known him in the Vatican II priests who have been their pastors and sacramental ministers over the years since that council brought new life to an old church. Catholics have known him in the bishops and priests who brought the spirit of the council to their dioceses and parishes. Eugene Kennedy
Priests and nuns actually meditated. It’s not religious. It’s about centering yourself. Tony Cardenas
Most of the early monks were not ordained. It was the pastoral work they undertook with the faithful that, over the centuries, gradually led to the present situation in which most monks are ordained priests. Basil Hume
And a third thing is the understanding of the Church as a community, a communion which is just a hierarchy but the people of God, whose servants are the priests and bishops. Hans Kung
Some of the most intelligent people I’ve met in my life are priests and pastors; now, a lot of them aren’t that, though. Some of the most sanctimonious and hypocritical people I’ve met are priests and pastors, also. Scott Derrickson
My parents were part of the Christian Family Movement, where we would have Masses said in our home and rotate with other families. I recall priests coming to our home and saying Mass in our living room. Catholicism was really woven through so much. Catherine Hicks
I have nothing against priests. In fact, I tried for a time to be one… It should be clear, then, that I respect, and am often fond of, the many priests in my life. Garry Wills
I believe that I have been basically anarchistic, anti-religion and anti-industry and business. In other words, anti-bureaucracy. I would like to see people behave well without having to have priests stand by, politicians stand by, or people collecting bills. B. F. Skinner
I’ve spoken with friends who are rabbis and priests and we’ve agreed that most people have an emotional attachment to their faith, a desire to fulfill their spiritual longings, but they are not experts in understanding the history of their religion. Feisal Abdul Rauf
Priests, she insisted, could not sin. It was a thing impossible. Everything that they did, and wished, was of course right. She hoped I would see the reasonableness and duty of the oaths I was to take, and be faithful to them. Maria Monk
Priests are not men of the world; it is not intended that they should be; and a University training is the one best adapted to prevent their becoming so. Samuel Butler
Good priests never look for awards and, perversely enough in the clerical culture universe, do not receive many. Like the aged nuns who taught selflessly and nearly anonymously all their lives, these servants of the People of God only get into the papers when their obituaries are printed. Eugene Kennedy
Jesus Christ never preached there should be celibate priests. The only reason the church has this is because it’s a mechanism of power and control. You can control priests who are celibate. Alex Gibney
Now that we do not have priests and philosophers any more, artists are the most important people in the world. Gerhard Richter
As priests uphold their people in prayer, so their people are to uphold them with prayer and love, for he cannot work without his people. Arthur Middleton
The Gospel having spread itself into Persia, the pagan priests, who worshipped the sun, were greatly alarmed, and dreaded the loss of that influence they had hitherto maintained over the people’s minds and properties. John Foxe
I didn’t grow up in the Catholic church, but I went to a Catholic high school and a Catholic college, and the Jesuit priests are not saints floating around campus. Chris Sullivan
Hell is paved with priests’ skulls. John Chrysostom
Many Catholic parishes were segregated prior to the Civil Rights movement, and the first large contingent of African-American Catholic priests would enter into the seminary in the 1920s. Anthea Butler
I’m the go-to guy for Mexican priests. I’m the new Barry Fitzgerald, except with a Mexican accent. Cheech Marin
I think generally, Pope Benedict did a good job cleaning up the way the church handled abusive priests but didn’t go far enough in how he handled bishops who enabled them. Ross Douthat
Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends. Virginia Woolf
When you get to 15 and most of your teachers are priests, there’s bound to be a conflict. Ian Hart
People who commit crimes should be responsible for those crimes. It doesn’t matter whether they’re priests or ministers or atheists. John Ashcroft
We will that all men know we blame not all the lords, nor all those that are about the king’s person, nor all gentlemen nor yeomen, nor all men of law, nor all bishops, nor all priests, but all such as may be found guilty by just and true inquiry and by the law. Jack Cade
You are priests, not social or political leaders. Let us not be under the illusion that we are serving the Gospel through an exaggerated interest in the wide field of temporal problems. Pope John Paul II
As scientists have discovered – or perhaps explained is a better word, or perhaps identified – we now live in the age of the Anthropocene. The geologic age of the Anthropocene. Those high priests of material evidence have given us our own epoch like the Holocene, the Pleistocene! Apparently we now, it seems, have superhuman powers. Kate Bernheimer
The priests say the new dawn will be like the rain that fertilizes the soil before we begin to plant our corn. It will renew the natural cycle of life. The Mayan people will once again flourish. I believe in this very strongly. The holy men say we are entering a period of clarity. We are rediscovering our Mayan values. Rigoberta Menchu
Priests and pastors are probably the most stereotyped characters in film and television, and the reason why, I think, is that most people don’t know one. Most writers who work in Hollywood don’t know any. Scott Derrickson
I think all priests should be married. Denis Leary
There are bad preppies and bad priests and bad humanitarians. Any group can have its bad apple. Whit Stillman
We have one of our priests in prison right now, Steve Kelly, for his antiwar actions, and three of us in the community are forbidden to visit him because we’re all convicted felons. Daniel Berrigan
The earliest known writing probably emerged in southern Mesopotamia around 5,000 years ago, but for most of recorded history, reading and writing remained among the most elite human activities: the province of monarchs, priests and nobles who reserved for themselves the privilege of lasting words. Tom Chatfield
Government is a true religion: it has its dogmas, its mysteries, its priests. To submit it to the individual discussion is to destroy it; it is given life only through the national mind, that is to say, by political faith, which is a creed. Joseph de Maistre
We have to be evangelists for music. We couldn’t just be high priests of music. Simon Rattle
What, but the rapacity of the only men who exercised their reason, the priests, secured such vast property to the church, when a man gave his perishable substance to save himself from the dark torments of purgatory. Mary Wollstonecraft