Quotes about sin
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“Then Jesus changed the situation. When he paid for our sins on the cross, the veil in the temple that symbolized our separation from God was split from top to bottom, indicating that direct access to God was once again available.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

God, Change

“Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness.”

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist

Variant: All sins are attempts to fill voids.

Flying

“Of all the seven deadly sins, only Envy is no fun at all.”

Joseph Epstein (1937–1944) American essayist, short story writer and editor

Source: Envy

Envy

“When you're thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.”

Ken Follett book The Pillars of the Earth

Source: The Pillars of the Earth

God, Thinking

“It's another sin. Worse than all the other ones, which are immediate, violent and hot… It's the eighth deadly sin. The one God left out, Hope.”

Jennifer Donnelly A Northern Light

Source: A Northern Light

God, Hope

“The more I thought about human nature, the more I saw how our tragic inclination for sin/mistakes causes us to use our minds to rationalize our action.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Nature

“Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Communication

“Then love is sin, and let me sinful be.”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

Love

“Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy your loneliness says that you've sinned.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

"Sisters of Mercy"
Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
Context: Yes, you who must leave everything that you cannot control,
It begins with your family, and soon it comes round to your soul.
Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy your loneliness says that you've sinned.

Feeling, Thinking, Loneliness

“That is the one unforgivable sin in any society. Be different and be damned!”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

“There's only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but the second-best.”

Doris Lessing book The Golden Notebook

Anna Wulf
The Golden Notebook (1962)

“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

“The language of sin was universal, the original Esperanto.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: Horns

Universe

“Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Hurt

“The dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers.”

James Allen book As a Man Thinketh

Source: As a Man Thinketh

Men, World, Beauty

“That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin.”

Gene Wolfe The Claw of the Conciliator

Source: The Claw of the Conciliator

“Jesus died
For somebody's sins
But not mine.”

Patti Smith (1946) American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist

Gloria: In Excelsis Deo, from Horses (1975)
Lyrics

“Because there is no greater evil than ignorance and the destruction of genius. Ignorance has been responsible for more death, more bigotry, and more sin than any other force. It is the destroyer of mankind.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Shadows

Death, Evil

“To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Indifference

“We are not our parents, Gabriel. We do not have to carry the burden of their choices or their sins.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Parent

“Remember: He WANTS your fellowship, and He has done everything possible to make it a reality. He has forgiven your sins, at the cost of His own dear Son. He has given you His Word, and the priceless privilege of prayer and worship.”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

Source: Hope for Each Day: Words of Wisdom and Faith

Reality

“My Sin City heroes are knights in dirty, blood-caked armor. They bring justice to a world that gives them no medals, no praise, no reward.”

Frank Miller (1957) American writer, artist, film director

"Frank Miller: I Stole From The Best!" COMICDOM interview (22 January 2006), edited by Dimitris Sakaridis http://www.comicdom.gr/interviews.php?id=17&lang=en <br class="br">Context: My Sin City heroes are knights in dirty, blood-caked armor. They bring justice to a world that gives them no medals, no praise, no reward. That world, that city, often kills them for their brave service.

World, Justice

“It's a sin to hate, and for that reason alone, we must not hate the Normans… We can, however, thoroughly dislike them, Alice.”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: The Prize

Hate

“Human beings can't see anything without wanting to destroy it. That's original sin. And I'm going to destroy it. Death is going to die.”

Philip Pullman book Northern Lights

Variant: Human beings can’t see anything without wanting to destroy it, Lyra. That’s original sin.
Source: His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995), Ch. 21 : Lord Asriel's Welcome

Death

“Over the city lies the sweet, rotting odor of yesterday's unrecollected sins.”

Hilary Mantel book Wolf Hall

Source: Wolf Hall

“Jealousy is the most dreadfully involuntary of all sins.”

Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) British writer and philosopher

Jealousy

“There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do.”

John Steinbeck book The Grapes of Wrath

Source: The Grapes of Wrath

People

“I have spent weeks in the desert, forgetting to look at the moon, he says, as a married man may spend days never looking into the face of his wife. These are not sins of omission but signs of pre-occuopation.”

Michael Ondaatje book The English Patient

Source: The English Patient

Forgetting

“AZRAEL:

No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater… than central air.”

Kevin Smith (1970) American screenwriter, actor, film producer, public speaker and director

Pleasure

“Kat laughed. 'Who wants to live forever?'
Kish put his hand up. 'For the record, I do.'
Sin scowled at him. 'Then why do you irritate me so often?'
Suicidal tendencies are inherent in my species?”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

Suicide

“To me, the only sin is mediocrity.”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

New York Times interview (1985)

“When we wallow in guilt, remorse, and shame over real or imagined sins of the past, we are disdaining God's gift of grace.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

God, Imagination, Past

“Justified means just as if you've never sinned.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

“Well, every little boy thinks he invented sin. Virtue we think we learn, because we are told about it. But sin is our own designing.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Boy, Thinking, Learning

“I feel a sin coming on.”

Anne Taintor (1953) American artist

Source: I Can't Be Good All the Time: An Anne Taintor Collection

Feeling

“It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Source: Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I

Smile, Beauty

“I have sinned enough against the world. Teaching magic to a kender would ensure my damnation. —Raistlin Majere”

Margaret Weis book Dragons of Summer Flame

Source: Dragons of Summer Flame

World

“The early morning belongs to the Church of the risen Christ. At the break of light it remembers the morning on which death and sin lay prostrate in defeat and new life and salvation were given to mankind”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Life, Death, Light, Christ

“You see, the mailman saw your husband during one of his walks."
"He's my fiancé," I told her. "We are living in sin."
Heather blinked, momentarily knocked off her stride, but recovered. "Oh, that's nice."
"It's very nice. I highly recommend it.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Shifts

“I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin.”

Raymond Chandler book Farewell, My Lovely

Source: Farewell, My Lovely

Girl

“Getting to a higher spiritual level is like increasing your credit score. You get a lot more points for sinning and repenting than if you have no credit history at all.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

History

“When the sins of our fathers visit us
We do not have to play host.
We can banish them with forgiveness
As God, in his His Largeness and Laws.”

August Wilson Fences

Source: Fences

God, Law, Forgiveness

“The sorrow of God lies in our fear of Him, our fear of life, and our fear of ourselves. He anguishes over our self-absorption and self-sufficiency… God's sorrow lies in our refusal to approach Him when we sinned and failed.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging

Life, God, Fear

“To be a saint is the exception; to be a just person is the rule. Err, stumble, commit sin, but be one of the just.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Personality

“It is a sin to believe evil of others but it is seldom a mistake.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Evil

“Killing an animal to make a coat is sin. It wasn't meant to be, and we have no right to do it. A woman gains status when she refuses to see anything killed to be put on her back. Then she's truly beautiful.”

Doris Day (1922–2019) American actress, singer, and animal rights activist

Beauty, Animals

“T’ain’t no sin to take off your skin, and dance around in your bones.”

Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor

Dance

“And when we love our sin then we are damned indeed.”

Graham Greene book The Power and the Glory

Source: The Power and the Glory

Love

“Christian - One who follows the teachings of Christ insofar as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Source: The Devil's Dictionary and Other Works

Life, Christ

“Vivo sin vivir en mí… muero porque no muero. (I live without really being alive… I die because I am not dying.)”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

“We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

"We ReaI CooI" , The Bean Eaters (1960)
The "We"—you're supposed to stop after the "We" and think about their validity, and of course there's no way for you to tell whether it should be said softly or not, I suppose, but I say it rather softly because I want to represent their basic uncertainty, which they don't bother to question every day, of course.
"An Interview with Gwendolyn Brooks", Contemporary Literature 11:1 (Winter 1970)
The WEs in "We Real Cool" are tiny, wispy, weakly argumentative "Kilroy-is-here" announcements. The boys have no accented sense of themselves, yet they are aware of a semi-defined personal importance. Say the "We" softly.
Report from Part One (1972)
Source: Selected Poems

School, Singing