“When's there ever been a decent saint who didn't start out as a thief?”

Jón Hreggviðsson
Íslandsklukkan (Iceland's Bell) (1946), Part III: Fire in Copenhagen

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When's there ever been a decent saint who didn't start out as a thief?" by Halldór Laxness?
Halldór Laxness photo
Halldór Laxness 216
Icelandic author 1902–1998

Related quotes

Mellin de Saint-Gelais photo

“A friendship that can be ended / didn't ever start”

Mellin de Saint-Gelais (1495–1558) French poet

Original: Amitié qui se peut finir / Ne fut jamais bien commencée
Source: Oeuvres poétiques

Meg Rosoff photo
Billy Joel photo

“We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

We Didn't Start the Fire.
Song lyrics, Storm Front (1989)

Tom Clancy photo

“There's nothing that's ever happened in the world that didn't start in one human mind.”

Tom Clancy (1947–2013) American author

2000s, In Depth with Tom Clancy (2002)

Miguel de Cervantes photo

“If a governor comes out of his government rich, they say he has been a thief; and if he comes out poor, that he has been a noodle and a blockhead.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part 2: Chapter LV

Joseph Heller photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“Any God that would damn one of his children for the expression of his honest thought wouldn't make a decent thief. When I read a book and don't believe it, I ought to say so. I will do so and take the consequences like a man.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Speech on Religious Intolerance as presented at the Pittsburgh Opera House (14 October 1879).
Context: They say the religion of your fathers is good enough. Why should a father object to your inventing a better plow than he had? They say to me, do you know more than all the theologians dead? Being a perfectly modest man I say I think I do. Now we have come to the conclusion that every man has a right to think. Would God give a bird wings and make it a crime to fly? Would he give me brains and make it a crime to think? Any God that would damn one of his children for the expression of his honest thought wouldn't make a decent thief. When I read a book and don't believe it, I ought to say so. I will do so and take the consequences like a man.

Bob Dylan photo

“I’m going out of my mind, oh, oh; with a pain that stops and starts; like a corkscrew to my heart; Ever since we’ve been apart”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), You're a Big Girl Now

Ramakrishna photo

“If you can find out the nature of Maya, the universal illusion, it will leave you just as a thief runs away when detected.”

Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher

61
Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (1960)

George Carlin photo

“An art thief is a man who takes pictures.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Books, Napalm and Silly Putty (2001)

Related topics