Robert Charles Wilson quote: “Nobody wants to conduct an autopsy on a dead saint.”

“You don’t need to conduct autopsies on your disasters.”

Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

“Saint, n. A dead sinner, revised and edited.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“We are all human beings, the best of us a saint, but never a god. We can follow a saint's conduct and imitate his behavior, but it is unnecessary to worship him.”

Cheng Yen (1937) Taiwanese Buddhist nun

Source: Master of Love and Mercy: Cheng Yen, p. 7

“They ridicule us for baptizing infants, praying for the dead, and asking the prayers of the saints.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) French abbot, theologian

These New Heretics, Sermon 66 on The Song of Songs. http://www.pathsoflove.com/bernard/songofsongs/sermon66.html <br class="br">Context: Look at those detractors. Look at those dogs. They ridicule us for baptizing infants, praying for the dead, and asking the prayers of the saints. They lose no time in cutting Christ off from all kinds of people to both sexes, young and old, living and dead. They put infants outside the sphere of grace because they are too young to receive it, and those who are full grown because they find difficulty in preserving chastity. They deprive the dead of the help of the living, and rob the living of the prayers of the saints because they have died. God forbid! The Lord will not forsake his people who are as the sands of the sea, nor will he who redeemed all be content with a few, and those heretics....

“Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

“They deprive the dead of the help of the living, and rob the living of the prayers of the saints because they have died”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) French abbot, theologian

These New Heretics, Sermon 66 on The Song of Songs. http://www.pathsoflove.com/bernard/songofsongs/sermon66.html <br class="br">Context: Look at those detractors. Look at those dogs. They ridicule us for baptizing infants, praying for the dead, and asking the prayers of the saints. They lose no time in cutting Christ off from all kinds of people to both sexes, young and old, living and dead. They put infants outside the sphere of grace because they are too young to receive it, and those who are full grown because they find difficulty in preserving chastity. They deprive the dead of the help of the living, and rob the living of the prayers of the saints because they have died. God forbid! The Lord will not forsake his people who are as the sands of the sea, nor will he who redeemed all be content with a few, and those heretics....