Devil- christiansquoting.org.uk

Give the devil an inch, and he'll become your ruler.

My dear brothers, never forget when you hear the progress of the Enlightenment praised, that the devil's cleverest ploy is to persuade you he doesn't exist -- attributed to Baudelaire (1821-67)

Of course I believe in the devil. If I did not, I should have to believe that I am the devil myself. --G. K. Chesterton

None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect of Jesus; but the devil is always imagined as being of acute intellect, political cunning, and the fiercest courage. --Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) _Letters from New York_, Volume 1 [1843], Letter 33 [December 8, 1842]

There is an evil power, a Satanic power, which holds souls in error, and which persists. It is interesting to note that in the first centuries of the Christian era many demoniacal phenomena appeared in countries in the course of being converted from idolatry to Christianity. The same is true of pagan civilisation today. In my research into the fourth century, I was surprised to find a great recrudescence of magical practices at the very moment when Roman civilization under Constantine was about to be snatched away bodily from paganism and enter... into the kingdom of the Son; at that time, all the rites of sorcery took on an incredible virulence... Jean Danielou, The Salvation of the Nations

The attributes of God have been carefully explored. But the Devil's attributes have been left vague. I think I've found one of them. It is he who puts the prices on things." "Doesn't God put a price on things?" "No. One of his attributes is magnanimity. But the Devil is a setter of prices, and a usurer, as well. You buy from him at an agreed price, but the payments are all on time, and the interest is charged on the whole of the principal, right up to the last payment, however much of the principal you think you have paid off in the meantime."-- Robertson Davies, _World Of Wonders_

Look at me -- underestimated from Day One! You'd never think I was a master of the universe, now, would you?--John Milton aka Satan, in Devil's Advocate 1997

The Devil does not shock a saint into alertness by suggesting whopping crimes. He starts off with little, almost inoffensive things to which even the heart of a saint would make only mild protests.--Walter Farrell, _Companion to Summa_, 1941

The devil gets up to the belfry by the vicar's skirts. --Thomas Fuller

No popular film in the last two decades treats the Devil with more seriousness and subtlety [than The Exorcist]; indeed, it is stunnig to watch the film today. We all remember the vomiting and head-spinning, but what stands out now in an age of special effects is the dialogue about the nature of good and evil, the Devil's aim to confuse the two, and the unreliability of modern science in clarifying the issue. Satan is not treated as someone or something that can be reduced to petty human motivations or simplistic ambitions or explanations. He is what he is: a mystery, the omnipresent tempter. He is the Devil without quotation marks. -- Jonah Goldberg

To deny the existence of these evil spirits, to deny the existence of the Devil, is to deny the truth of the New Testament. To deny the existence of these imps of darkness is to contradict the words of Jesus Christ . . . If we give up the belief in devils, we must give up the inspiration of the Old and New Testament. We must give up the divinity of Christ. To deny the existence of evil spirits is to utterly destroy the foundation of Christianity . . . If all the accounts in the New Testament of casting out devils are false, what part of the Blessed Book is true? . . . If the Devil does not exist, the Christian creeds all crumble. Robert Green Ingersoll

The Devil has been one of the organising principles of world politics for as long as Christian civilisation has existed. The Devil serves to identify what evil is and became an entity who was reponsible for evil that let God and ourselves off the hook. That has been the function of the Devil in history.--Leslek Kolakowski

Satan is inconsistent. He persuades a man not to go to synagogue on a cold morning; yet when the man does go, he follows him into it.
The Koretser Rabbi, 18thC, quoted _Hasidic Anthology_, ed.Louis Newman

It is so stupid of the twentieth century to have abandoned belief in the devil when he is the only explanation for it. -- Ronald Knox

He is the most diligent preacher of all other; he is never out of his diocese.--Hugh Latimer, _Sermons_, 1549

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and healthy interesting in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.--C. S. Lewis, _The Screwtape Letters_

Let us act with humility, cast ourselves at one another's feet, join hands with each other, and help one another. For here we battle not against pope or emperor, but against the devil, and do you imagine that he is asleep?--Martin Luther

I often laugh at Satan, and there is nothing that makes him so angry as when I attack him to his face, and tell him that through God I am more than a match for him. Martin Luther

In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the best and easiest method of winning over the devil. Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are talking. But by all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him. Therefore, Jerome, joke and play games with your wife and others. In this way you will drive out your diabolical thoughts and take courage Be of good courage, therefore, and cast these dreadful thoughts out of your mind. Whenever the devil pesters you with these thoughts, at once seek out the company of men, drink more, joke and jest, or engage in some other form of merriment. Sometimes it is necessary to drink a little more, play, jest, or even commit some infraction in defiance and contempt of the devil in order not to give him an opportunity to make us scrupulous about trifles. We shall be overcome if we worry too much about falling into some sin. Accordingly if the devil should say, "Do not drink," you should reply to him, "On this very account, because you forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I shall drink a generous amount." Thus one must always do the opposite of that which Satan prohibits. What do you think is my reason for drinking wine undiluted, talking freely, and eating more often, if it is not to torment and vex the devil who made up his mind to torment and vex me. Martin Luther

The best way to get rid of the Devil, if you cannot kill it with the words of Holy Scripture, is to rail at and mock him. Music, too, is very good; music is hateful to him, and drives him far away. Martin Luther

The Devil fears the word of God, He can't bite it; it breaks his teeth. Martin Luther

It is the devil's masterstroke to get us to accuse him.--George Meredith (1828-1909)

Romantics regarded Milton's Satan as the most important symbol of the rebelliousness that they considered the greatest good.
Jeffrey Russell, The Prince of Darkness, p205

The prince of darkness is a gentleman. --Shakespeare, _King Lear_

It is in the highest interests of the devil to persuade the world that religious people are disagreeable.--Hubert van Zeller, _We Live With Our Eyes Open_, 1949