“One is a saint or one is not; every man can choose the career that suits him; but to be saint and sinner at the same time requires singular ingenuity.”
Source: Esther: A Novel (1884), Ch. IV
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Henry Adams 311
journalist, historian, academic, novelist 1838–1918Related quotes

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“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”

“Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.”

Siddhartha (1922)
Context: Everything that is thought and expressed in words is one-sided, only half the truth; it all lacks totality, completeness, unity. When the Illustrious Buddha taught about the world, he had to divide it into Samsara and Nirvana, illusion and truth, into suffering and salvation. One cannot do otherwise, there is no other method for those who teach. But the world itself, being in and around us, is never one-sided. Never is a man or a deed wholly Samsara or wholly Nirvana; never is a man wholly a saint or a sinner. This only seems so because we suffer the illusion that time is something real.
“A saint is a sinner who loves; it's that simple!”
Attributed to Catherine Doherty in Inflamed by Love by Jean Fox
Attributed