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A sin is an immoral act considered to be against divine law

• Sin: An immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. Oxford Dictionary
• Sin: Any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense.  Dictionary.com
• A sin is wrong not because it makes you feel bad–though it should–but because it is wrong. S. M. Stirling
• The eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate, it is immutable. Patrick Henry
• If a thing is sinful on Sunday, it is sinful on Friday. Robert A. Heinlein
• Vice,  Evil,  Temptation,  Virtue,  Goodness,  Guilt,  Hell,  Karma

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To sin is to miss the mark

• According to Christian teachings, the normal collective state of humanity is one of “original sin.” Sin is a word that has been greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted. Literally translated from the ancient Greek in which the New Testament was written, to sin means to miss the mark, as an archer who misses the target, so to sin means to miss the point of human existence. It means to live unskillfully, blindly, and thus to suffer and cause suffering. Again, the term, stripped of its cultural baggage and misinterpretations, misinterpretations, points to the dysfunction inherent in the human condition. Eckhart Tolle

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Sin is the absence of God and the opposite of love

• Sin is absence of God. Nothing more, nothing less. Simon Mawer
• Sin is the exact opposite of love. Love means harmony; sin, discord. Love is constructive; sin, destructive. Love clings to God as a Father, as Jesus did. Sin would murder God if it could, as it murdered Jesus on Calvary. Reuen Thomas
• The only sins are violations of love. Vanna Bonta
• Love,  God

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Who are we to judge sinners, for we all sin

• Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone. Jesus
• When sinners judge, God takes the stand. Toba Beta
• Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. John 8:7
• Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality. Kahlil Gibran
• Who are you to condemn another’s sin? He who condemns sin becomes part of it, espouses it. Georges Bernanos
• For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 Bible
• You can’t judge a person with one sin he has commited. Kazi Shams
• No one was ever scolded out of their sins. William Cowper
• Let go of the need to judge

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If you must be angry, be angry with the sin, not the sinner

• A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners. Lucius Annaeus Seneca
• He that would be angry and sin not, must not be angry with anything but sin. John Ruskin
• Hate the sin, love the sinner. Mahatma Gandhi
• Look on Sin and loathe it; With minds loathing it, Then will ye make An end of Misery. Buddha
• When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself. Anthony de Mello
• It is right to hate sin, but not to hate the sinner. Giovanni Guareschi
• How shall I lose the sin yet keep the sense, And love th’ offender, yet detest the offence? Alexander Pope
• Make peace with man and war with your sins. Proverb
• It is sinful to have enmity against aught but sin. Benjamin Whichcote

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Better compassion  for the sinner than condemnation

• Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation. Henry Ward Beecher
• Compassion

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Sin, by nature, is a seductive and tempting thing

• sin, how you paint your face! How you flatter us poor mortals on to death! You never appear to the sinner in your true character; you make fair promises, but you never fulfil one; your tongue is smoother than oil, but the poison of asps is under your lip! Hosea Ballou
• Pleasure is the bait of sin. Plato
• Temptation

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The pleasures of the flesh often seduce us to sin

• In the realm of evil thoughts none induces to sin as much as do thoughts that concern the pleasure of the flesh. Thomas Aquinas
• When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Pleasure

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What is forbidden often seduces us to sin

• There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable. Mark Twain
• Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent. Mark Twain
• He who has it in his power to commit sin, is less inclined to do so. The very idea of being able, weakens the desire. Ovid

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True virtue is to resist sin when it calls most strongly

• It is easy enough to be virtuous when nothing tempts you to stray; when without or within no voice of sin is luring your soul away. But it is only a negative virtue until it is tried by fire. For the soul that is worth the treasures of the earth is the soul that resists desire.  Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• In my judgment, such of us as have never fallen victims have been spared more by the absence of appetite, than from any mental or moral superiority over those who have. Abraham Lincoln
• Virtue

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Sin can come at a heavy price, with bitter consequences

• All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions. Reinhold Niebuhr
• It is ever thus that the things which we do wrong – although they may seem little at the time, and though from the hardness of our hearts we pass them lightly by – come back to us with bitterness. Bram Stoker
• It is certain, sin hath no real pleasures to bestow; they are all embittered, either by adverse strokes of providence from without, or painful and dreadful gripes and stings of conscience within. Wellins Calcott
• A man by his sin may waste himself, which is to waste that which on earth is most like God. This is man’s greatest tragedy and God’s heaviest grief. W. Tozer
• For consequences of past sin, effect doth ever follow cause; If we sow tares, we reap not grain, for such are Nature’s laws. Ardelia Cotton Barton
• Consequences

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Sin weakens and harms us and others

• Sin always wounds the sinner. Caryll Houselander
• Sin in its ordinary progress first deceives, next hardens, and then destroys. John Thornton
• Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. WM. Paul Young
• Some sins, like asps, always carry their sting with them. Henry Ward Beecher
• Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful. Benjamin Franklin
• It’s sin and not poverty that makes men miserable. Scottish Proverb
• A sinner is an incendiary and sets the world on fire. Benjamin Whichcote
• All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation. W. H. Auden

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Sin corrupts and obscures the soul

• Sin is whatever obscures the soul. Andre Gide
• When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
• The soul

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Sin leads to the pain of guilt

• When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself. Anthony de Mello
• The more sinful and guilty a person tends to feel, the less chance there is that he will be a happy, healthy, or law- abiding citizen. He will become a compulsive wrong-doer. Albert Ellis
• The worst of evil befalling sinners is not an infliction from without, but arises out of the guilt of conscience within. Benjamin Whichcote
• Guilt

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Sin disconnects us from God and each other

• You have seen a ship out on the bay, swinging with the tide, and seeming as if it would follow it; and yet it cannot, for down beneath the water it is anchored. So many a soul sways toward heaven, but cannot ascend thither, because it is anchored to some secret sin. Henry Ward Beecher
• If it were not for sin, we should converse together as angels do. Benjamin Whichcote
• Sin is absence of God. Nothing more, nothing less. Simon Mawer
• I couldn’t live in peace if I put the shadow of a wilful sin between myself and God. George Eliot
• All sins cast long shadows. Proverb
• . . . it is the very nature of sin to prevent man from meditating on spiritual things. . . Mary Martha Sherwood
• God,  Connection

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Sin brings punishment …

• Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. WM. Paul Young
• We are punished by our sins, not for them. Elbert Hubbard
• Every sin brings its punishment with it. Romanian Proverb
• Men are not punished for their sins, but by them. Elbert Hubbard
• God is the creditor of that punishment which is due upon Sin; and He has the right of abating, as well as the right of exacting. Benjamin Whichcote
• God is the only being who is good, and the standards are set by Him. Because God hates sin, He has to punish those guilty of sin. Maybe that’s not an appealing standard. But to put it bluntly, when you get your own universe, you can make your own standards. Francis Chan
• Sin let loose speaks punishment at hand. William Cowper
• Indulgent gods, grant me to sin once with impunity. That is sufficient. Let a second offence bear its punishment. Ovid
• Let him who sins when drunk be punished when sober. Legal Maxim

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… and creates its own hell

• Sin makes its own hell, and goodness its own heaven. Mary Baker Eddy
• Sin is the great element of hell, and where it exists heaven cannot be. Its triumphs are deeper than those of time, and more terrible than death. It has swept over the moral world, more glorious than the physical, and blighted by the beautiful and desecrated the holy. It has scattered abroad and afar the seeds of envy, war, lust, intemperence, murder, and all abomination and iniquity. It has drawn man aside from innocence and rectitude, and he has gone forth from the joy of Eden with a bowed head and a burning heart; and, worse than all, it has spread a veil athwart his moral vision, and alienated him from his Maker. E. H. Chapin
• Hell

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Sin creates negative karma

• People get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That’s not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. To the degree that you didn’t understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you’re given this gift of teachings in the form of your life, to give you everything you need to open further. Pema Chodron
• Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and a justification of the evil of the world ? If the evils we suffer are the result of sins committed in our past lives, we can bear them with resignation and hope that if in this one we strive toward virtue our future lives will be less afflicted. William Somerset Maugham
• Karma

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Sin leads to a kind of death

• Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end. Edwards Tryon
• Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Francis Quarles
• Sin hath the devil for its father, shame for its companion, and death for its wages. Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
• The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it’s just sort of a tired feeling. Paula Poundstone
• For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Bible
• Sin brought death, and death will disappear with the disappearance of sin. Mary Baker Eddy
• Death

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Sinful gains rarely last long

• That which is won ill, will never wear well, for there is a curse attends it which will waste it. The same corrupt dispositions which incline men to sinful ways of getting, will incline them to the like sinful ways of spending. Matthew Henry

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Sinful pleasure is short lived, and ends in bitterness and pain

• The pleasure of sin is soon gone, but the sting remains. Thomas Watson
• Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end. Edwards Tryon
• It is certain, sin hath no real pleasures to bestow; they are all embittered, either by adverse strokes of providence from without, or painful and dreadful gripes and stings of conscience within. Wellins Calcott
• Sin is sweet in the mouth and bitter in digestion. It lies hard on the stomach. Henry Ward Beecher
• Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure. Lord Byron
• Sin is sweet in the beginning, but bitter in the end. The Talmud
• The great cheat and delusion set before every generation is simply this tradition, that there is anything like real substantial pleasure in sin. E. H. Chapin
• Pleasure is the bait of sin. Plato
• Pain

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Some argue for committing little sins to avoid larger ones

• There are worse things than a lie… I have found… that it may be well to choose one sin in order that another may be shunned. Anthony Trollope
• You know some religious scholars believe that when faced with overwhelming temptation you should commit a small sin just to relieve the pressure a bit. Bree Despain
• In the lower degree of sin, God is neglected; in the higher degree of sin, God is affronted. Benjamin Whichcote

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Others argue that even little sins can lead you far astray …

• Now, men think, with regard to their conduct, that, if they were to lift themselves up gigantically and commit some crashing sin, they should never be able to hold up their heads; but they will harbor in their souls little sins, which are piercing and eating them away to inevitable ruin. Henry Ward Beecher
• Wickedness comes to its height by degrees. He that dares say of a less sin, Is it not a little one? will ere long say of a greater, Tush, God regards it not! Anne Bradstreet
• You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. C. S. Lewis

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… for committing a sin creates a slippery slope to greater sin

• It is a great deal easier to commit a second sin, than it was to commit the first; and a great deal harder to repent of a second, than it was to repent of the first. Benjamin Whichcote
• After the first blush of sin comes its indifference. Henry David Thoreau
• One leak will sink a ship, and one sin will destroy a sinner. John Bunyan
• The malignity of sin does, in time, vitiate the principles of Nature; and the sinner comes to live entirely by sense and passion, who has been wont to put a violence upon judgment, reason, and conscience. Benjamin Whichcote
• The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one’s self. All sin is easy after that. Pearl Bailey
• So possible is it for us to roll ourselves up in wickedness, till we grow invulnerable by conscience; and that sentinel, once dozed, sleeps fast, not to be awakened while the tide of pleasure continues to flow or till something dark and dreadful brings us to ourselves again. Daniel Defoe
• Commit a sin twice and it will not seem a crime.

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Transcending sin brings connection to God

• God’s whole nature moves toward the man who wants to be free from sin, as broadly and irresistibly as the summer moves from the south toward the north. Henry Ward Beecher
• God,  Transcendence

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Transcending sin brings peace, hope and cheerfulness

• The man who finds that in the course of his life he has done a lot of wrong often wakes up at night in terror, like a child with a nightmare, and his life is full of foreboding: but the man who is conscious of no wrongdoing is filled with cheerfulness and hope. Plato
• Supreme bliss comes to a Self-realized yogi whose mind is tranquil, whose desires are under control, and who is free from sin. Bhagavad Gita
• Most fear stems from sin; to limit one’s sins, one must assuredly limit one’s fear, thereby bringing more peace to one’s spirit. Marvin Gaye
• Inner peace,  Hope,  Cheerfulness

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Transcending sin brings purity

• Purity: Absence of vice in human character.  Freedom from immorality, sin or guilt.  Freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes.  Oxford Dictionary
• Sanctification is the real change in man from the sordidness of sin to the purity of God’s image. William Ames
• Purity

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Transcend sin through love

• Love is the medicine of all moral evil. By it the world is to be cured of sin. Henry Ward Beecher
• We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and He saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love. Peter Kreeft
• Where there is love there is no sin.
• Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Bible (1 Peter 4:8-9)
• Love

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Transcend sin by choosing life

• When we talk about sin, we need to understand what sin is. Sin is not God says ‘you can’t do this’ because He wants to take something away from you. He says: “If you do this, it will be death. If you do this, it will be life.” And then He says: “Please, choose life, so that you can live. I’ve made you, I know how you work. I’ve made this whole Earth, I know how it works. Please, choose life. Lacey Mosley

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Transcend sin through self-discipline and will power

• Why is discipline important? Discipline teaches us to operate by principle rather than desire. Saying no to our impulses (even the ones that are not inherently sinful) puts us in control of our appetites rather than vice versa. It deposes our lust and permits truth, virtue, and integrity to rule our minds instead. John MacArthur
• Self-discipline,  Will power,  Self-control

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Transcend sin by acknowledging it and owning it

• We can only know God well when we know our own sin. And those who have known God without knowing their wretchedness have not glorified Him but have glorified themselves. Blaise Pascal
• Only those who are truly aware of their sin can truly cherish grace. C.J. Mahaney
• Far better it is for you to say: “I am a sinner,” than to say: “I have no need of religion.” The empty can be filled, but the self- intoxicated have no room for God. Fulton J. Sheen
• Men are willing to admit that they are sinners, but not that they are sinning. Ivan Panin
• Sometimes we keep the sin in our lives well protected, guarded, covered over with lies. Sometimes we are not free enough to own our sin, so we cannot be healed of it. An unacknowledged wound cannot be healed. Macrina Wiederkehr
• The knowledge of sin is the beginning of salvation. Latin Proverb
• Acknowledgement

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Transcend past sins through genuine repentance …

• Remorse is impotence, it will sin again. Only repentance is strong, it can end everything. Henry Miller
• Low self-esteem causes me to believe that I have so little worth that my response does not matter. With repentance, however, I understand that being worth so much to God is why my response is so important. Repentance is remedial work to mend our minds and hearts, which get bent by sin. John Ortberg Jr.
• He that does not repent, sins again. Benjamin Whichcote
• It is good for a man to repent of his sins; but better for him had he never sinned. William Scott Downey
• Remorse withers the succulent fruits of sin. Abraham Miller
• Repentance is but want of power to sin. John Dryden
• If a man possesses a repentant spirit his sins will disappear, but if he has an unrepentant spirit his sins will continue and condemn him for their sake forever. Buddha
• Sin is the failure of a fallible creature; and reversible by repentance. Benjamin Whichcote
• The damage a man does to another, he may make amends for by restitution or recompense, but sin cannot be taken away by recompense, for that were to make the liberty to sin a thing vendible. But sins may be pardoned to the repentent either gratis or upon such penalty as God is pleased to accept. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
• The man who sins and then repents deserves a well-twisted rope at the gallows. Abraham Miller
• When the sinner hath used his liberty to repent, and God hath used his prerogative to pardon, the sin which hath been, is as if it had not been. Benjamin Whichcote
• If you have sinned, do not lie down without repentance; for the want of repentance after one has sinned makes the heart yet harder and harder. John Bunyan
• Repentance for past crimes is just and easy; but sin-no-more’s a task too hard for mortals. Sir John Vanbrugh
• Regret

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… for in true repentance, lies forgiveness

• The Lord does not forgive excuses, He forgives sin. Rick Joyner
• For every sin there is forgiveness, and especially for the sins of youth. Marcel Proust
• God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won’t. Alfred Korzybski
• Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven. Igor Stravinsky
• Forgiveness

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Transcend past sins through reforming yourself

• If one could wallow amid filth for half a life and then wash himself clean in a day, then sin would be no worse than dirt on the hands which water can cleanse in a minute. Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation often requires a sphere of years. Henry Ward Beecher

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Transcend past sin through confession

• There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution. Oscar Wilde
• Confess your sins to the Lord and you will be forgiven; confess them to man and you will be laughed at. Josh Billings
• A sin confessed is half forgiven. Proverb

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Transcend past sin by following the path back to God …

• The sorrow of God lies in our fear of Him, our fear of life, and our fear of ourselves. He anguishes over our self- absorption and self- sufficiency… God’s sorrow lies in our refusal to approach Him when we sinned and failed. Brennan Manning
• The path of the sinner back to God is brighter and brighter all the way up to the smile of the face and the touch of the hand; and that is salvation. Henry Ward Beecher
• God builds for every sinner, if he will but come back, a highway of golden promises from the depths of degradation and sin clear up to the Father’s house. Henry Ward Beecher
• God

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… by using the lessons of sin to renew your connection with God

• When we learn from experience, the scars of sin can lead us to restoration and a renewed intimacy with God. Charles Stanley
• Only those who are truly aware of their sin can truly cherish grace. C.J. Mahaney

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Your sin only truly dooms you if you love it and make no effort to escape it

• Everybody sins, Francis. The terrible thing is that we love our sins. We love the thing that makes us evil. Robert Cormier
• No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from. George Eliot
• When we love our sin then we are damned indeed. Graham Greene
• Really to sin you have to be serious about it. Henrik Ibsen
• Not to be ashamed of sin is to sin double. German Proverb

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Some argue that sin is a breaking of divine law and is black and white

• Sin: An immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. Oxford Dictionary
• Sin: Any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense. com
• A sin is wrong not because it makes you feel bad–though it should–but because it is wrong. S. M. Stirling
• The eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate, it is immutable. Patrick Henry
• If a thing is sinful on Sunday, it is sinful on Friday. Robert A. Heinlein

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Others argue that sin is more of a subjective thing

• Liberals and conservatives disagree over what are the most important sins. For conservatives, the sins that matter are personal irresponsibility, the flight from family life, sexual permissiveness, the failure of individuals to work hard. For liberals, the gravest sins are intolerance, a lack of generosity toward the needy, narrow-mindedness toward social and racial minorities. E.J. Dionne, Jr.
• Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad. Baruch Spinoza

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In defining sin, we often have different standards for ourselves and others

• That which we call sin in others is experiment for us.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Other men’s sins are before our eyes; our own are behind our backs. Seneca
• Most people repent their sins by thanking God they ain’t so wicked as their neighbors. Josh Billings

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Christianity talks about seven deadly sins

• The Bible and several other self-help or enlightenment books cite the Seven Deadly Sins. They are: pride, greed, lust, envy, wrath, sloth, and gluttony. That pretty much covers everything that we do, that is sinful… or fun for that matter. Dave Mustaine
• Seven Deadly Sins: Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Science without humanity. Knowledge without character. Politics without principle. Commerce without morality. Worship without sacrifice. Mahatma Gandhi
• The seven deadly sins… food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability and children. Nothing can lift those seven millstones from man’s neck but money; and the spirit cannot soar until the millstones are lifted. George Bernard Shaw

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Pride is a sin

• And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Pride is the master sin of the devil, and the devil is the father of lies. Edwin Hubbel Chapin
• The sin of pride may be a small or a great thing in someone’s life, and hurt vanity a passing pinprick, or a self-destroying or ever murderous obsession. Iris Murdoch
• Vanity is my favourite sin. Al Pacino
• The very heart and root of sin is an independent spirit. We erect the idol self, and not only wish others to worship, but worship it ourselves. Richard Cecil
• Pride and conceit were the original sins of man. Alain Rene Lesage
• Pride

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Sloth and idleness is a sin …

• Toil is man’s allotment; toil of brain, or toil of hands, or a grief that’s more than either, the grief and sin of idleness. Herman Melville
• Sloth is the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it would die for. Dorothy Sayers
• Idleness,  Laziness

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… but so too is incessant busyness

• Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness. Samuel Butler
• I was raised to feel that doing nothing was a sin. I had to learn to do nothing. Jenny Joseph
• Busyness

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Hatred and revenge is a sin

• Dislike what deserves it, but never hate: for that is of the nature of malice; which is almost ever to persons, not things, and is one of the blackest qualities sin begets in the soul. William Penn
• Revenge is a common passion; it is the sin of the uninstructed. The savage deems it noble; but Christ’s religion, which is the sublime civilizer, emphatically condemns it. Why? Because religion ever seeks to ennoble man; and nothing so debases him as revenge. Bulwer Lytton
• Hate,  Revenge

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Cruelty is a sin, perhaps the worst of all

• Cruelty is, perhaps, the worst kid of sin. Intellectual cruelty is certainly the worst kind of cruelty. Gilbert K. Chesterton
• Cruelty

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Indifference is a sin

• To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. Abraham Lincoln
• It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer. Neither is resignation. Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment. Elie Wiesel
• The worst sin towards our fellow creature is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity. Josh Billings
• The worst sin is to be indifferent. George Bernard Shaw
• So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect. Eleanor Roosevelt
• Neutrality is at times a graver sin than belligerence. Louis Brandeis
• Apathy and indifference

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Envy is a sin

• Every other sin hath some pleasure annexed to it, or will admit of some excuse; but envy wants both; we should strive against it, for if indulged in, it will be to us as a foretaste of hell upon earth. Robert Burton
• Envy

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Ingratitude is a sin

• God help us to be grateful for our blessings, never to be guilty of the sin of ingratitude, and to instill this same gratitude into the lives of our children. Someone has said that an ungrateful man is like a hog under a tree eating apples and never looking up to see where they come from. Ezra Taft Benson
• Nothing is a greater stranger to my breast, or a sin that my soul more abhors, than that black and detestable one, ingratitude. George Washington
• Ingratitude

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Ignorance is a sin

• Ignorance is not innocence but sin. Robert Browning
• I count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but ignorance. Christopher Marlowe
• Ignorance

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Self-pity is a sin

• Being Lutheran, Mother believed that self-pity is a deadly sin and so is nostalgia, and she had no time for either. Garrison Keillor
• Certainly the most destructive vice if you like, that a person can have. More than pride, which is supposedly the number one of the cardinal sins – is self pity. Self pity is the worst possible emotion anyone can have. And the most destructive. It is, to slightly paraphrase what Wilde said about hatred, and I think actually hatred’s a subset of self pity and not the other way around – ‘ It destroys everything around it, except itself ‘ Stephen Fry
• Self-pity

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To sin is go against yourself

• Now let us see what the word impeccability means. Impeccability means “without sin.” Impeccable comes from the Latin pecatus, which means “sin.” The im in impeccable means “without,” so impeccable means “without sin.” Religions talk about sin and sinners, but let’s understand what it really means to sin. A sin is anything that you do which goes against yourself. Everything you feel or believe or say that goes against yourself is a sin. You go against yourself when you judge or blame yourself for anything. Being without sin is exactly the opposite. Being impeccable is not going against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself. Don Miguel Ruiz

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To reject yourself is a sin

• From this point of view, the whole concept of sin changes from something moral or religious to something commonsense. Sin begins with rejection of yourself. Self-rejection is the biggest sin that you commit. In religious terms self-rejection is a “mortal sin,” which leads to death. Impeccability, on the other hand, leads to life. Don Miguel Ruiz
• Rejection,  Self-acceptance

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Not living a full, joyful life is a sin

• If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.  Albert Camus
• The worst sin – perhaps the only sin – passion can commit, is to be joyless. Dorothy L. Sayers
• Embrace life

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Not to live up to your potential is a sin

• You are an instrument of God. Don’t leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for ‘Three Blind Mice’ when you can can play the ‘Gloria’? No, not Bach’s ‘Gloria.’ Yours! Your ‘Gloria’ lives within you. The greatest sin is not finding it, ignoring what God made possible in you.  Abraham Verghese
• That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin. Gene Wolfe
• Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it. Reinhold Niebuhr
• Potential,  Growth

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Wasting time is a sin

• In zen, it is a cardinal sin to waste time. To waste time is to squander the here and now, which, if you think about it, is all that we have. Philip T. Sudo
• Time

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Harming other living beings is a sin

• He that wrongs any creature, sins against God, the creator. Benjamin Whichcote
• Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful– just stupid.) Robert A. Heinlein
• There are only three sins – causing pain, causing fear, and causing anguish. The rest is window dressing. Roger Caras
• Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

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Impatience is a sin – or is it?

• I don’t see why patience is listed among the virtues. I think it ought to be put on the index list. It ought to be considered a sin. The very word “patience” ought to be crossed out from any decent vocabulary. Let us analyze what patience is. How was the illusion formed that patience is a virtue? When we build something-      -a house or a play– we need great patience to adjust the parts, to perfect the whole. But it is not the patience itself which gives results. It is patience combined with creative effort. Let us call this combination creative patience. The effort without patience would be like meat without salt. But patience by itself is like salt without meat.  Maria Moravsky
• Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return. H. Auden
• Impatience

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Doing the right thing for the wrong reason is still a sin

• The noonday devil of the Christian life is the temptation to lose the inner self while preserving the shell of edifying behavior. Suddenly I discover that I am ministering to AIDS victims to enhance my resume. I find I renounced ice cream for Lent to lose five excess pounds… I have fallen victim to what T.S. Eliot calls the greatest sin: to do the right thing for the wrong reason. Brennan Manning
• Right action

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Pursuing good by wrong means is still a sin

• Never let a man imagine that he can pursue a good end by evil means, without sinning against his own soul. The evil effect on himself is certain. Robert Southey

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Stupidity is a sin

• There is no sin except stupidity. Oscar Wilde
• Sin is too stupid to see beyond itself. Alfred Lord Tennyson
• If there is an eighth deadly sin, it ought to be stupidity, by which all virtues run out into dry sands. Lois McMaster Bujold
• Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results. Margaret Atwood
• Stupidity,  Foolishness

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Here is a list of more things that people label as sin …

• The foulest sinner of all is the hypocrite who makes a racket of religion. Robert A. Heinlein
• If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. Charles Darwin
• It is a sin against hospitality, to open your doors and darken your countenance. Proverb
• If a woman sleeps alone it puts a shame on all men. God has a very big heart, but there is one sin He will not forgive. If a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go. Nikos Kazantzakis
• And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Terry Pratchett
• The only sin is mediocrity. Martha Graham
• It is the glory of God not honored. The holiness of God not reverenced. The greatness of God not admired. The power of God not praised. The truth of God not sought. The wisdom of God not esteemed. The beauty of God not treasured. The goodness of God not savored. The faithfulness of God not trusted. The commandments of God not obeyed. The justice of God not respected. The wrath of God not feared. The grace of God not cherished. The presence of God not prized. The person of God not loved. That is sin. John Piper
• In self-defense and in defense of the innocent, cowardice is the only sin. Dean Koontz
• There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness. Frank Capra
• I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting. William Shakespeare
• Jealousy is the most dreadfully involuntary of all sins. Iris Murdoch
• There is only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but the second-best. Doris Lessing
• The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one’s own -even more, one’s own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being. Katherine Anne Porter
• That is the one unforgivable sin in any society. Be different and be damned! Margaret Mitchell
• He tried to name which of the deadly seven might apply, and when he failed he decided to append an eighth, regret. Charles Frazier
• Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all. Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Anger is not a sin, but how we act when we’re angry can be

• Anger is not a sinful emotion. But how we act when we are angry may well be a sin. Doris Moreland Jones
• Anger is energy, and energy must be transferred into activity. Anger comes from our passions, but it becomes sin when it is destructive, either to others or to ourselves. Pent-up anger will either explode uncontrollably or eat away at our hearts and souls until it takes up all of our interior space. Unless and until we deal with our anger, there is no room in us for anything else. G. Porter Taylor
• Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Bible, Ephesians 4:26
• All anger is not sinful, because some degree of it, and on some occasions, is inevitable. But it becomes sinful and contradicts the rule of Scripture when it is conceived upon slight and inadequate provocation, and when it continues long. Wilson Mizner
• Anger

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Making a mistake is not a sin if we learn from it

• Everything we enjoy in society is a direct result of the accumulated learning derived from millions of mistakes. No mistakes, no progress. Yet we still look at making a mistake as embarrassing, wrong, an act bordering on sin. If you’re making mistakes, it means you’re doing new things, taking risks, stretching yourself. You’re growing, learning. And isn’t the journey, the experience, not the destination, what life is all about? Robert White
• God knows I’m not perfect, either. I’ve made tons of stupid mistakes, and later I regretted them. And I’ve done it over and over again, thousands of times; a cycle of hollow joy and vicious self-hatred. But even so, every time I learned something about myself. Hideaki Anno
• Mistakes

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Sex is not a sin, but sin has perverted it

• Sex is not sinful, but sin has perverted it. Walter Lang
• When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities. Matt Groening
• Sexuality

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Fear is at the root of much sin

• Fear is the original sin. Almost all of the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something. It is a cold slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear; and it is of all things degrading. L.M. Montgomery
• Most fear stems from sin; to limit one’s sins, one must assuredly limit one’s fear, thereby bringing more peace to one’s spirit. Marvin Gaye
• Fear

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Selfish interest is at the root of much sin

• Think about yourself, about what you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay you, what people think of you, and then to you nothing will be pure. May God keep our hearts pure from that selfishness which is the root of all sin. Charles Kingsley
• Almost every sinful action ever committed can be traced back to a selfish motive. It is a trait we hate in other people but justify in ourselves. Stephen Kendrick
• The essence of all immorality and sin is making ourselves the center around which we subordinate all interest. Cecil J. Sharpe
• Selfishness,  Transcending the ego

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Boredom is at the root of much sin

• Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it. Bertrand Russell
• Idle people are often bored and bored people, unless they sleep a lot, are cruel. It is not accident that boredom and cruelty are great preoccupations in our time. Renata Adler
• Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings. Soren Kierkegaard
• The devil’s name is dullness. General Robert E. Lee
• Vanity, revenge, loneliness, boredom, all apply: lust is one of the least of the reasons for promiscuity. Mignon McLaughlin
• All human evil comes from a single cause, man’s inability to sit still in a room. Blaise Pascal
• Boredom

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Freedom leads to sin – or does it?

• Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin. John Green
• The essence of man is his freedom. Sin is committed in that freedom. Sin can therefore not be attributed to a defect in his essence. It can only be understood as a self-contradiction, made possible by the fact of his freedom but not following necessarily from it. Reinhold Niebuhr
• One who is allowed to sin, sins less. Publius Cornelius Tacitus
• Freedom

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Sin and evil, in many religions, are closely associated

• To make it evident that Sin is a great evil, we need but reflect a little on the nature and effects of it. If we inquire into the nature of Sin, we shall find that it is founded in the subversion of the dignity and defacing the beauty of human nature: And that it consists in the darkness of our understanding, the depravity of our affections, and the feebleness and impotence of the will. Wellins Calcott
• Evil

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However, sin doesn’t always start with evil intentions

• No man commits evil for the sake of it; even the Devil himself has some farther design in sinning, than barely the wicked part of it. Daniel Defoe
• Black sin is oft white truth, that missed its way. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions. Reinhold Niebuhr
• Sin is looking for the right thing in the wrong place. Augustine of Hippo

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Thoughts on sin and the devil

• Whosoever obeyeth the devil, casteth himself down: for the devil may suggest, compel he cannot. Francis Quarles
• To sin is a human business, to justify sins is a devilish business. Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
• The person sins, then blames Satan for it. Afghan Proverb
• If you do not want the fruits of sin stay out of the devil’s orchard.
• Sin hath the devil for its father, shame for its companion, and death for its wages. Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
• No man commits evil for the sake of it; even the Devil himself has some farther design in sinning, than barely the wicked part of it. Daniel Defoe
• He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasteth of it, is a devil. Thomas Fuller
• These days, the wages of sin depend on what kind of deal you make with the devil. Kara Vichko
• Tis no sin to cheat the devil. Daniel Defoe

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Many argue that man is sinful by nature …

• The day we find the perfect church, it becomes imperfect the moment we join it. Charles H. Spurgeon
• The word ‘sin’ is derived from the Indo-European root ‘es-,’ meaning ‘to be.’ When I discovered this etymology, I intuitively understood that for a person trapped in patriarchy, which is the religion of the entire planet, ‘to be’ in the fullest sense is ‘to sin’. Mary Daly
• The only sin is the sin of being born. Samuel Beckett
• Original sin is the only rational solution of the undeniable fact of the deep, universal and early manifested sinfulness of men in all ages, of every class, and in every part of the world. Charles Hodge
• In Adam’s fall– We sinned all. Thomas Moore
• If Jupiter hurled his thunderbolt as often as men sinned, he would soon be out of thunderbolts. Ovid
• It is true that we cannot be free from sin, but at least let our sins not be always the same . . . Teresa of Avila

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… and that the world we’re living in is full of sin

• In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers. Herman Melville
• Everything sinful is glamorous these days, isn’t it? Aimee Agresti
• Everything that used to be a sin is now a disease. Bill Maher

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Some talk about sin a less derogatory light …

• Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly. Martin Luther
• The imagination is a wonderful thing; it allows for all manner of undiscoverable sins. Sarah Strohmeyer
• You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
• It ain’t no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don’t break any. Mae West
• Had I not sinned what would there be for you to pardon. My fate has given you the opportunity for mercy. Ovid
• Sin writes histories, goodness is silent. Thomas Fuller

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… some even celebrating it to some degree

• If you really have to sin, then choose a sin that you enjoy.  Iranian Proverb
• For God’s sake, if you sin, take pleasure in it, and do it for the pleasure… Gerald Gould
• The sinning is the best part of repentance. Arabian Proverb
• If it were possible to have a life absolutely free from every feeling of sin, what a terrifying vacuum it would be! Cesare Pavese
• What is termed Sin is an essential element of progress. Without it the world would stagnate, or grow old, or become colorless. By its curiosity Sin increases the experience of the race. Through its intensified assertion of individualism, it saves us from monotony of type. In its rejection of the current notions about morality, it is one with the higher ethics. Oscar Wilde
• I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. Billy Joel
• They say there’s a heaven for those who will wait. Some say it’s better, but I say it ain’t. I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. Sinners are much more fun. Billy Joel
• There was no point in waiting until the next world. You had to do everything now, every kind of sin. Anne Rice
• Commit the oldest sins the newest kind of ways. William Shakespeare

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The experience of sin can help us on the path to virtue and wisdom

• We cannot well do without our sins; they are the highway of our virtue. Henry David Thoreau
• Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners. Eric Hoffer
• Only the sinner has a right to preach. Christopher Morley
• Virtue,  Wisdom

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Saints are sinners who keep on trying

• I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying. Nelson Mandela
• It is no more effort for a man to be a saint than to be a sinner; it becomes a mere matter of habit. Jerome K. Jerome
• The saints are the sinners who keep on trying. Robert Louis Stevenson
• God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners. Soren Kierkegaard

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As you grow older, sin starts to forsake you – or does it?

• Sins become more subtle as you grow older: you commit sins of despair rather than lust. Piers Paul Read
• To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it. Saint Augustine of Hippo

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To sin in secret is less of a sin – or is it?

• A sin concealed is half-pardoned. Italian Proverb
• A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world, as a public indecency. Miguel de Cervantes
• A sin takes on a new and real terror when there seems a chance that it is going to be found out. Mark Twain
• History is to the effect that man’s sins always find him out; but men continue to bet that they won’t. Edgar Watson Howe
• It is a public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all. Moliere
• The imagination is a wonderful thing; it allows for all manner of undiscoverable sins. Sarah Strohmeyer

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The worst sins are those committed consciously and justified afterwards

• It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin. Seneca (Seneca the Elder)
• The deadliest sin were the consciousness of no sin. Thomas Carlyle
• To sin is a human business, to justify sins is a devilish business. Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

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All parties to a sin are jointly and individually responsible

• He sins as much who holds the bag as he who puts into it. French Proverb
• Every sin is the result of collaboration. Stephen Crane
• Sin with the multitude, and your responsibility and guilt are as great and as truly personal, as if you alone had done the wrong. Tryon Edwards
• The sins ye do by two and two, ye must pay for, one by one. Rudyard Kipling

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Sin only really matters to the ego, not to your true self

• There is no holy life. There is no war between good and evil. There is no sin and no redemption. None of these things matter to the real you. But they all matter hugely to the false you, the one who believes in the separate self. You have tried to take your separate self, with all its loneliness and anxiety and pride, to the door of enlightenment. But it will never go through, because it is a ghost. Deepak Chopra
• Transcending the ego

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Thoughts on sin and the law

• Sin: An immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. Oxford Dictionary
• The more sinful and guilty a person tends to feel, the less chance there is that he will be a happy, healthy, or law- abiding citizen. He will become a compulsive wrong-doer. Albert Ellis
• It ain’t no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don’t break any. Mae West
• So many laws argues so many sins. John Milton
• Law can discover sin, but not remove, Save by those shadowy expiations weak. John Milton
• Laws can discover sin, but not remove it. John Milton

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Thoughts on saints and sinners

• No sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints. Charles Caleb Colton
• He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasteth of it, is a devil. Thomas Fuller
• As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints. Charles Caleb Colton
• The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde
• Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners. Eric Hoffer
• I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. Billy Joel
• They say there’s a heaven for those who will wait. Some say it’s better, but I say it ain’t. I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. Sinners are much more fun. Billy Joel
• I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying. Nelson Mandela
• It is no more effort for a man to be a saint than to be a sinner; it becomes a mere matter of habit. Jerome K. Jerome
• The saints are the sinners who keep on trying. Robert Louis Stevenson

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Thoughts on virtue and sin

• Most sins … are only perverted virtues. John Daniel Barry
• Many people keep their old sins warm while they go to try on virtue and see if they like it. Henry Ward Beecher
• Sin is committable in thought, word or deed; so is virtue.  Martin H. Fischer
• It is easy enough to be virtuous when nothing tempts you to stray; when without or within no voice of sin is luring your soul away. But it is only a negative virtue until it is tried by fire. For the soul that is worth the treasures of the earth is the soul that resists desire.  Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers. Herman Melville
• Most sins … are only perverted virtues. John Daniel Barry
• Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. William Shakespeare
• We cannot well do without our sins; they are the highway of our virtue. Henry David Thoreau
• Virtue

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• Convent – a place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness. Ambrose Bierce
• Fox-terriers are born with about four times as much original sin in them as other dogs. Jerome K. Jerome
• I have a head for business and a body for sin. Unfortunately, the sin appears to be gluttony. Jenny Colgan
• Keyholes are the occasions of more sin and wickedness, than all other holes in this world put together. Laurence Sterne
• Saintship: The exclusive possession of those who have either worn out or never had the capacity to sin.  Elbert Hubbard
• Success is the one unpardonable sin against our fellows. Ambrose Bierce
• That which we call sin in others is experiment for us.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The Church says: The body is a sin. Science says: The body is a machine. Advertising says: The body is a business. The body says: I am a fiesta. Eduardo Galeano
• When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities. Matt Groening
• Your grandchildren will likely find it incredible – or even sinful – that you burned up a gallon of gasoline to fetch a pack of cigarettes! Paul MacCready, Jr.
• It ain’t a sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don’t break any. Mae West
• To err is human – but it feels divine. Mae West
• The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it’s just sort of a tired feeling. Paula Poundstone
• Never support two weaknesses at the same time. It’s your combination sinners – your lecherous liars and your miserly drunkards – who dishonor the vices and bring them into bad repute. Thornton Wilder
• The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Oscar Wilde
• Few sinners are saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon. Mark Twain
• I always say beauty is only sin deep. H. H. Munro
• The more sins you confess, the more books you will sell. Ninon de Lenclos
• Tis no sin to cheat the devil. Daniel Defoe
• The only people who should really sin are the people who can sin and grin. Ogden Nash
• If Jupiter hurled his thunderbolt as often as men sinned, he would soon be out of thunderbolts. Ovid
• Going to the opera, like getting drunk, is a sin that carries its own punishment with it. Hannah More

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