Quotes
Quotes about Deeds
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.
Song of the brave, how thrills thy tone As when the Organ's music rolls; No gold rewards, but song alone, The deeds of great and noble souls. [Ger., Hoch klingt das Lied vom braven Mann, Wie Orgelton und Glockenklang; Wer hohes Muths sich ruhmen kann Den lohnt nicht Gold, den lohnt Gesang.]
Many brave men lived before Agamemnon; but, all unwept and unknown, are lost in the distant night, since they are without a divine poet (to chronicle their deeds). [Lat., Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Multi; sed omnes illacrimabiles Urguentur ignotique sacro.]
Nay, my lords, ceremony was but devised at first To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes, Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown; But where there is true friendship, there needs none.
And so the Word had breath, and wrought With human hands the creed of creeds In loveliness of perfect deeds, More strong than all poetic thoughts; Which he may read that binds the sheaf, Or builds the house, or digs the grave, And those wild eyes that watch the waves In roarings round the coral reef.
Who has not marveled at the might of kings When voyaging down the river of dead years? What deeds of death to still an hour of fears, What waste of wealth to gild a moth's frail wings! A Caesar to the breeze his banner flings, An Alexander with his bloody spears, A Herod heedless of his people's tears! And Rome in ruin while Nero laughs and sings: Ye actors of a drama, cruel and cold, Your names are by-words in Love's temple now, Your pomp and glory but a winding-sheet; Then Christ came scorning regal power and gold To wear warm blood-drops on a willing brow, And we, in love, forever kiss His feet.
Feast of Josephine Butler, Social Reformer, 1906 Commemoration of Apolo Kivebulaya, Priest, Evangelist, 1933 [In nineteenth-century America] religion became a matter of conduct, of good deeds, of works, with only a vague background of faith. It became highly functional, highly pragmatic; it became a guarantee of success, moral and material. "The proper study of mankind is man," was the evasion by which many American divines escaped the necessity for thought about God.
Whatever may be our differences of colour, culture, and class, the unity that is ours in Christ is given visible expression at every Synod. Here we all gather around the one Altar, here we all share in shaping the policy of the Church in this diocese; here we all take part in making provision for carrying on the work of the Church during the coming year. At this time, year by year, we are specially conscious of our unity in Christ, and are made aware afresh that we are members of this new race of human beings which is made up of all those of every ethnic group who have been added to Christ. We are members of that Kingdom in which all human antagonisms are transcended. Yet we shall not interpret aright this unity which is ours in Christ Jesus unless we continually remind ourselves that it has its origin in His death and resurrection. The Church springs out of the deeds of Jesus done in the flesh, and we can only fulfill our destiny in the Church as we learn that we are utterly dependent upon the whole Body of Christ. . . . Whatever gifts we possess belong to the Body, and are useful only as they are used in the common life of the Church. All this is made very plain in the New Testament Epistles, for in them we are taught that each local Christian community is a fellowship in which every member is to live in humility and in love to the brethren. Yet no local church is to live to it self. Again and again, local churches are reminded of their close relationship to one another, in life, work, worship, pain, and death. Not that such a relationship is to be regarded either as a matter of convenience or as a question of organization. On the contrary, this intimate relationship is seen as the direct outcome of the saving work of Christ. This unity with one another, and of local churches with each other, is the unity which belongs to the Body of Christ, arising from the unity of God Himself, uttered in the dying and rising again of Jesus, and now expressed in the order and structure of the Church.
Feast of Martin, Monk, Bishop of Tours, 397 That God loves us in spite of our sin is the Gospel truth; but this truth can only be shared by words, since good deeds are easily [taken to show] the opposite--that we love God. Faith is not understood when [it is] only demonstrated by life. The more sanctified a life without the verbal witness, the greater the danger of the Christian's goodness getting in the way. Should a person by the grace of God become easier to live with, he doesn't need to call attention to it: it will speak for itself. He can instead seek to balance the reverse effect of the good image by occasionally speaking of the unfavorable realities within, those parts that are still changing. In this way, his external behavior by contrast can point to the power of God, rather than to the effort of man. When we decrease, He can increase, but not until.
Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066 When night comes, list thy deeds; make plain the way 'Twixt heaven and thee; block it not with delays; But perfect all before thou sleep'st: then say: There's one sun more strung on my Bead of days. What's good, score up for joy; the bad, well scanned. Wash off with tears, and get thy Master's hand.
A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.
Now conscience wakes despair That slumber'd, wakes the bitter memory Of what he was, what is, and what must be Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue!
According to the state of a man's conscience, so do hope and fear on account of his deeds arise in his mind. [Lat., Conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ita concipit intra Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo.]
Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation. [Lat., Solent occupationis spe vel impune quaedam scelesta committi.]
Nor all that heralds rake from coffin'd clay, Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme, Can blazon evil deeds, or consecrate a crime.
Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination. [Lat., Factis ignoscite nostris Si scelus ingenio scitis abesse meo.]
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
Who doth right deeds Is twice born, and who doeth ill deeds vile.
Deeds, not words.
All your better deeds Shall be in water writ, but this in marble.
To be nameless in worthy deeds, exceeds an infamous history.
For now the field is not far off Where we must give the world a proof Of deeds, not words.
Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, Make our earth an Eden like the heaven above.
Men pass away, but their deeds abide.
