Christopher Hitchens - Albert Camus - George Orwell - Matthew Arnold - Richard Dawkins - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV - Charles Churchill - Wendy Beckett - Craig Rustici - John Henry Newman - Alexander Pope - Deuteronomy 33:2&3 - Psalms 116:15 - Benito Mussolini - Samuel Beckett - Oscar Wilde - Robert Bartlett - The Sopranos TV -
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
Can one be a saint if God does not exist? That is the only concrete problem I know of today. Albert Camus
Many people genuinely do not want to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings. George Orwell
Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent. George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant, ‘Reflections on Gandhi’
Be neither saint nor sophist-led but be a man. Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888, Impedocles on Etna
Pope John Paul II created more saints than all his predecessors of the of the past centuries put together. And he had a special affinity with the Virgin Mary. His polytheistic hankerings were dramatically demonstrated in 1981 when he suffered an assassination attempt in Rome, and attributed his survival to intervention to Our Lady of Fatima. A maternal hand guided the bullet. One cannot but wonder why she didn’t guide it to miss him altogether. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, cited lecture Berkeley University 2008
The whole idea of creating saints, it’s pure Monty Python. They have to clock up two miracles. Richard Dawkins
It’s easy to be a saint in paradise. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s2e21: The Maquis II, Sisko to Kira
Stay out all night, but take especial care
That Prudence bring thee back to early prayer
As one with watching and with study faint,
Reel in a drunkard, and reel out a saint. Charles Churchill, 1731-64, Night
The glory of the container is meant to show the glory of the saint. Sister Wendy Beckett
There’s about twenty stories seemingly centred around cross-dressed saints. Professor Craig Rustici
And this is all that is known, and more than all – yet nothing to what the angels know – of the life of a servant of God, who sinned and repented, and did penance and washed out of his sins, and became a Saint, and reigns with Christ in heaven. John Henry Newman, Lives of the English Saints 1844-5
The worst of madmen is a saint run mad. Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace
And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words. Deuteronomy 33:2&3
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Psalms 116:15
The history of saints is mainly the history of insane people. Benito Mussolini
We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment. How many people can boast as much? Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde
Edward the Confessor is the only English king to be canonised. Professor Robert Bartlett, The Plantagenets II, BBC 2014
I’m not saying that I’m a saint. The Sopranos s4e9: Whoever Did This, Tony to Chris, HBO 2002