Celibacy Quotations

For the standard of Christian life was to be strained to a higher pitch; more fasting was required, and more careful separation from the manners and enjoyments of the world; celibacy and martyrdom had great value set upon them, and second marriages were prohibited.

Marriage may often be a stormy lake, but celibacy is almost always a muddy horse pond.

A celibate, like the fly in the heart of an apple, dwells in a perpetual sweetness, but sits alone, and is confined and dies in singularity.

If, hypothetically, Western Catholicism were to review the issue of celibacy, I think it would do so for cultural reasons, not so much as a universal option.

The truly longstanding tradition in the church is that some are called to celibacy. Some feel called to it. But the church has never supported that celibacy be mandated for someone not called to it. It's never imposed on someone.

For both Protestants and Catholics, and whether or not absolute continence is demanded of the clergy, celibacy remains a blessed spiritual state.

You know, in some ways, the celibacy tradition goes back to the tribe of Levi and, certainly, sacrifice and the notion of sacrifice. In the Old Testament, the shedding of blood was for a man to perform. It was not for the woman, who gave life.

I decided to try celibacy because I heard it would help the meditation, and I tried meditation because I heard it would help with the music. So, it all really comes back to the music.

The church may hold whatever it holds with regard to clerical celibacy.

Celibacy is not a matter of compulsion. Someone is accepted as a priest only when he does it of his own accord.

I took the vow of celibacy in 1906. I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of making the vow. She had no objection.

Celibacy is exhausting.

I try and take the family with me everywhere I can. It's getting harder the more kids I have. But celibacy sucks.

I took a vow of political celibacy.

Might I have had my own will, I would not have married Wisdom herself, if she would have had me.

Asceticism and celibacy can conceal many incapacities.

In the name of celibacy, sex has been repressed for centuries and you have become just full of sexuality. Rather than transcending it you are boiling within.

I would like to sit still for a while but I'm restless you know and sitting still is only an ideal like celibacy and complete cleanliness.

Celibacy is the worst form of self-abuse.

I never cheated on my wife. I took seriously those vows of celibacy.

Unlike celibacy, which people choose, asexuality is an intrinsic part of who we are.

I left the convent and that was because I wasn't a very good nun. I could see that I wasn't going to make it. It's very difficult to be a nun, or to live a religious life. It's very difficult to live a life of total celibacy or a life without any possessions or material responsibilities at all, or in total obedience to somebody else, and remain a mature whole human being, and I knew that I wasn't going to be one of those.

Good God. I don’t believe St. Vincent and the word ‘celibacy’ have ever been mentioned in the same sentence before.

It's cooler to be strong.

I’m single right now and I’ve chosen to be single because I don’t have the time to get to know anybody. So it’s okay not to have sex, it’s okay to get to know people. I’m celibate. Celibacy’s fine.

It would not have suprised Emilio Sandoz that his sex life was discussed with such candor and affectionate concern by his friends. The single craziest thing about being a priest, he'd found, was that celibacy was simultaneously the most private and most public aspect of his life.

Even supposing there were some spiritual advantage in celibacy, it ought to be completely voluntary.

I think that one of the qualifications of artists should be a vow of celibacy. They should be confined to ruining only their own lives.

To me, the most obscene word in our language is celibacy.

Vice is waste of life. Poverty, obedience and celibacy are the canonical vices.

I consider my greatest accomplishment to be lifelong celibacy.

Celibacy goes deeper than the flesh.

The ideal state for a philosopher, indeed, is celibacy tempered by polygamy.

God has set the type of marriage through creation. Each creature seeks its perfection in another.

Celibacy is a great help, inasmuch as it enables one to lead a life of full surrender to God.

Yes, hypothetically, western Catholicism could revise the theme of celibacy. ... But for the moment, I am in favor of maintaining celibacy, with the pros and the cons it has, because we have ten centuries of more good experiences than bad ones.