Skip to content

Easter Quotes

The sources for this page are the faith, hope and spirituality pages, not a collection of Easter writing. A few entries do mention the day: Longfellow’s The Spanish Student (1843) sets a scene on a bright Easter Sunday with blossoming trees, and W. H. Auden, in A Certain World (1970), says Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry but Good Friday cannot, any more than Auschwitz.

Most of what else you find here is general. Expect devotional writers and poets, with sources and dates on every quote page. Anything flagged as disputed or misattributed carries a note that says what the editors turned up.

Random quote on Easter

Most quoted on easter:

Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn't trust the evidence of one's eyes watching the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest mission civilizatrice.

Edward Said Orientalism (1978)

If you send men to the penitentiary for speaking their thoughts, for endeavoring to enlighten their fellows, then the penitentiary will become a place of honor, and the victim will step from it — not stained, not disgraced, but clad in robes of glory.

Robert G. Ingersoll The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)

Tragedy enlightens — and it must, in that it points the heroic finger at the enemy of man's freedom. The thrust for freedom is the quality in tragedy which exalts. The revolutionary questioning of the stable environment is what terrifies.

Arthur Miller Tragedy and the Common Man (1949)

No one regards the magician today as other than an ordinary man gifted with no extraordinary powers. The spectators come, not to be impressed with awe, but fully aware that his causes and effects are natural.

Alexander Herrmann The Art of Magic (1891)

Earthly providence is a travesty of justice on any other theory than that it is a preliminary stage, which is to be followed by rectifications. Either there must be a future, or consummate injustice sits upon the throne of the universe. This is the verdict of humanity in all the ages.

Randolph Sinks Foster Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times.

Thomas Jefferson

I would remind you also that in that home of ancient magic which you call Egypt, the magical work there performed was definitely concentrated upon the producing of physical effects and material results. p. 119

Alice Bailey The Destiny of Nations (1949)

December will be magic again.
Take a husky to the ice
While Bing Crosby sings White Christmas.
He makes you feel nice.
December will be magic again.

Kate Bush December Will Be Magic Again (1980)

[M]agic can't operate without a magician, and being a magician can beat a man to his knees.

Susan Howatch

Through this dark and stormy night
Faith beholds a feeble light
Up the blackness streaking;
Knowing God's own time is best,
In a patient hope I rest
For the full day-breaking!

John Greenleaf Whittier

Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turn

T. S. Eliot

It’s an aspect of our survival. […] It’s not a skill. It’s something more innate, more profound. […] It is a human survival trait and without it we perish.

Jane Goodall The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (2021)

But felt through all this fleshly dresse
Bright shootes of everlastingnesse.

Henry Vaughan

'Tis this which makes
The best assurance of our promised heaven:
This triumph intellect has over death—
Our words yet live on others' lips; our thoughts
Actuate others. Can that man be dead
Whose spiritual influence is upon his kind?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star. In the form of many people
In all panoplies of time
Have I seen the luring vision
Of the Victory Maid, sublime.

George S. Patton Through A Glass, Darkly (1918)

From a religious perspective, loving one another is the highest commandment. From a spiritual perspective, loving one another is the wisdom of the ages. From a political perspective, loving one another is just the smartest thing to do. Plus, today it’s the only survivable option.

Marianne Williamson

Neither my deeds contain any essence
nor, my gestures have sense of zeal,
my days are creeping forth for nothingness;
with this body deficient of heart and soul
O' Glorious! O' Lord Almighty !
how can I come close to you?

Suman Pokhrel

The way to the soul is a very long walk

Julia de Burgos Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos (1982)

There is a faith that is enriched by the concepts of reason, and there is a reason that is enriched by the gifts of faith. (introduction, p. 6)

Battista Mondin

It has seemed to me that if I had the genius to found the jet propulsion field in the US, and found a multimillion dollar corporation and a world renowned research laboratory, then I should also be able to apply this genius in the magical field.

Jack Parsons

Related topics