“How immense to us appear the sins we have not committed.”
Reported in Louis Klopsch, ed., Many Thoughts of Many Minds: A Treasury of Quotations From the Literature of Every Land and Every Age (1896), p. 229.
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Suzanne Curchod6
French-Swiss salonist and writer 1737–1794Related quotes
“The worst sin any of us can commit is not committing any sin.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: Il peccato peggiore che ognuno di noi possa commettere è non commettere alcun peccato.
Source: prevale.net
Henri Barbusse (1873–1935) French novelist
Light (1919), Ch. XIX - Ghosts
Context: In those former times we lived. Now we hardly live any more, since we have lived. They who we were are dead, for we are here. Her glances come to me, but they do not join again the two surviving voids that we are; her look does not wipe out our widowhood, nor change anything. And I, I am too imbued with clear-sighted simplicity and truth to answer "no" when it is "yes." In this moment by my side Marie is like me.
The immense mourning of human hearts appears to us. We dare not name it yet; but we dare not let it not appear in all that we say.
Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897–1963) American missionary
The Pursuit of God (1957)
“I have committed the worst sin that can be committed. I have not been happy.”
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature
He cometido el peor pecado que uno puede cometer. No he sido feliz.
"El Remordimiento" [Remorse] in La moneda de hierro [The Iron Coin], as quoted in Borges at Eighty : Conversations (1982) edited by Willis Barnstone, also in Hispanic Literature Criticism : Allende to Jiménez (1994), p. 298
“How extraordinary it is that one feels most guilt about the sins one is unable to commit.”
V.S. Pritchett (1900–1997) British writer and critic
Vol. 2, Ch. 10
Midnight Oil (1971)
“I have a head for business and a body for sin. Unfortunately, the sin appears to be gluttony.”
Jenny Colgan (1972) British writer
Source: Meet Me at the Cupcake Café
“We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.”
Edwin Markham (1852–1940) American poet
“There is more magic in sin if it is not committed.”
V.S. Pritchett (1900–1997) British writer and critic
"Rudyard Kipling: A Pre-Raphaelite's Son", p. 36
The Tale Bearers: English and American Writers (1980)
“I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Variant: You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray