"Un Nouveau théologien" (1911)
Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry (1943)
Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance
Lord Illingworth http://books.google.com/books?id=RHkWAAAAYAAJ&q=&quot;The+only+difference+between+the+saint+and+the+sinner+is+that+every+saint+has+a+past+and+every+sinner+has+a+future&quot;&pg=PA119#v=onepage, Act III <br class="br">A Woman of No Importance (1893)
Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist
Source: Esther: A Novel (1884), Ch. IV
“I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun.”
Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist
Variant: I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
“A saint is a sinner who loves; it's that simple!”
Catherine Doherty (1896–1985) Religious order founder; Servant of God
Attributed to Catherine Doherty in Inflamed by Love by Jean Fox
Attributed
Gardiner Spring (1785–1873) American clergyman
Quote reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 365.
“Saint, n. A dead sinner, revised and edited.”
Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
“There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.”
Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher
This is sometimes attributed to Augustine, but the earliest known occurrence is in Persian Rosary (c. 1929) by Ahmad Sohrab (PDF) http://magshare.net/narchive/NArchive/Misc/Raw_Data/A_Persian_Rosary_by_Mirza_Ahmad_Sohrab.pdf, which probably originates as a paraphrase of a statement in Oscar Wilde's 1893 play A Woman of No Importance: "The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future." <br class="br">Misattributed
