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There is no surer mark of a low and unregenerate nature than this tendency of power to loudness and wantonness instead of quietness and reverence. To souls baptized in Christian nobleness the largest sphere of command is but a wider empire of obedience, calling them, not to escape from holy rule, but to its full impersonation.

— James Martineau

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More quotes by James Martineau

There is no room in the universe for the least contempt or pride; but only for a gentle and a reverent heart.

Hours of Thought on Sacred Things (1879)

There is no human life so poor and small as not to hold many a divine possibility.

Trust arises from the mind's instinctive feeling after fixed realities, after the substance of every shadow, the base of all appearance, the everlasting amid change.

Hours of Thought on Sacred Things (1879)

God loves our mercy to one another; but not upon conditions at variance with sanctity to Him.

Religion is no more possible without prayer than poetry without language, or music without atmosphere.

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The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis God in the Dock (1970)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James Martineau (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.