Indulgence

Indulgence is the act of indulging. It means tolerance, catering to someone's every desire, and something in which someone indulges. It denotes an indulgent act, a favour granted and gratification. In Catholic theology, an indulgence technically is a remission of the temporal punishment which would otherwise be inflicted for a previously forgiven sin as a natural consequence of having sinned.

Woe unto those who request money rather than devotion, contrition, and the satisfaction of the divine through true and virtuous life for the forgiveness of sins. ~ Saint Nectarios of Aegina

Bestowin the Easter Mass Plenary Indulgence.

CONTENT : A - F , G - L , M - R , S - Z , See also , External links

Quotes

Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author

A - F

I have fixed my eyes on the spaces that heaven’s light illuminates, that I may not lay too heavy a strain on the indulgence with which you have accompanied me over the dreary and heartbreaking course by which men have passed to freedom; and because the light that has guided us is still unquenched, and the causes that have carried us so far in the van of free nations have not spent their power; because the story of the future is written in the past, and that which hath been is the same thing that shall be. . -John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton.

• I have fixed my eyes on the spaces that heaven’s light illuminates, that I may not lay too heavy a strain on the indulgence with which you have accompanied me over the dreary and heartbreaking course by which men have passed to freedom; and because the light that has guided us is still unquenched, and the causes that have carried us so far in the van of free nations have not spent their power; because the story of the future is written in the past, and that which hath been is the same thing that shall be.
  • John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton in: The History of Freedom and Other Essays, Cosimo, Inc., 1 November 2007, p. 60.

• We seek for truth in ourselves; in our neighbours, and in its essential nature. We find it first in ourselves by severe self scrutiny, then in our neighbours by compassionate indulgence, and, finally, in its essential nature by that direct vision which belongs to the pure in heart.
  • Saint Bernard in: Yale Studies in English, Volume 125, Lamson, Wolffe and Company, 1954, p. 118.

• We must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them.
  • Sarah Bernhardt in: Elizabeth Silverthorne Sarah Bernhardt, Infobase Publishing, 2003, p. 104.

• Self-denial is indulgence of a propensity to forego.
  • Ambrose Bierce, The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales, tredition, 7 February 2012, p. 269.

• Every human creature is sensible of the propensities to some infirmity of temper which it should be his care to correct and subdue, particularly in the early period of life; else, when arrived at a state of maturity, he may relapse into those faults which were originally in his nature, and which will require to be diligently watched and kept under through the whole course of life.
  • Dr. Blair in: The new handbook of illustration; or, Treasury of themes, meditations [&c., signed E.S.P., 1874, p. 499.

• In principle there is a difference between violence which is incidental and violence which is infected for the indulgence of cruelty. The violence of sado-masochistic encounters involves the indulgence of cruelty by sadists and the degradation of victims. Such violence is injurious to the participants and unpredictably dangerous.
  • R.V. Brown, in Cases and Materials on Criminal Law, Oxford University Press, 30 September 2010, p. 264.

• I think it's almost an indulgence to focus on the dark side of things. And as you get older, you want to focus on the positive.
  • Rob Brydon in: John Preston How Rob Brydon learnt to play nice, The Telegraph, 17 September 2012.

• The greatest crimes do not arise from a want of feeling for others but from an over-sensibility for ourselves and an over-indulgence to our own desires.
  • Edmund Burke in Frank L. Day Impact of a Father's Reflection, Xulon Press, 2010, p. 44.

• Autobiographies tell more lies than all but the most self-indulgent fiction.
  • A. S. Byatt in: Encounter, Volume 61, Martin Secker & Warburg., 1983, p. 305

The nurse of infidelity is sensuality. Youth are sensual. The Bible stands in their way. It prohibits the indulgence of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. - Richard Cecil.

• In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close—knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self—indulgence and consumption.
  • Jimmy Carter in: Andrew J. Bacevich The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War, Oxford University Press, 09-May-2013, p. 101.

• The nurse of infidelity is sensuality. Youth are sensual. The Bible stands in their way. It prohibits the indulgence of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
  • Richard Cecil in: Richard Cecil, Josiah PRATT (the Elder.) Remains of the Rev. Richard Cecil … With a view of his character, by the Rev. Josiah Pratt … To which is prefixed a memoir of his life signed: J. Cecil . Tenth edition, Johnstone & Hunter, 1854, p. 135.

• It feeds and grows on the blood which it sheds. The passions, from which it springs, gain strength and fury from indulgence.
  • William Ellery Channing, in The works of Wm. Ellery Channing, James Hedderwick & Son, 1835, p. 32.

• If you consider that the constant tenor of the gospel precepts is to promote love, peace, good-will among men you will not doubt that the cultivation of an amiable disposition is a great part your religious duty; since nothing leads more directly to the breach of charity, and to the injury and molestation of our fellow creatures, than the indulgence of an ill-temper.
  • Hester Chapone in:Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, Cambridge University Press, 21 November 2013, p. 120.

• When you and I are inclined to nestle down in indolence and self indulgence. God "stirs up our nests" and bids us fly upward.
  • Theodore L. Cuyler in:The Church Times, Volumes 8-10, The Diocese, 1897, p. 189.

• I refer, of course, to the debts our nation has amassed for itself over decades of indulgence. It is the new Red Menace, this time consisting of ink. We can debate its origins endlessly and search for villains on ideological grounds, but the reality is pure arithmetic.
  • Mitch Daniels in: Kathryn Jean Lopez Mitch Daniels Takes CPAC, National Review Online, 11 February 2011.

• As a prudent man, he is not much disturbed by invitations which carry their obvious and certain penalties; what shakes him is the enticement bare of any probable secular retribution. Ergo, the worst and damndest indulgence is that which goes unwhipped.
  • Langdon Davies in: David M. Rooney The Wine of Certitude: A Literary Biography of Ronald Knox, Ignatius Press, 2009, p. 146.

• An excessive indulgence in the pleasures of social life, constitutes the great interests of a luxuriant and opulent age; but of late, while the arts of assembling in large societies have been practised, varied by all forms, and pushed on to all excesses.
  • Isaac D'Israeli in:Miscellanies of literature, by the author of 'Curiosities of literature', 1840, p. 402.

• Grief is the agony of an instant; the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.
  • Benjamin Disraeli in: Richard Zera Business Wit & Wisdom, Beard Books, 31-Mar-2005, p. 100.

• I cannot recall a period when I did not draw; and at school, the studies that were distasteful to me, mathematics and grammar, were retarded by the indulgence of teachers who were proud of my drawing faculties, and passed over my neglect of uncongenial subjects.
  • Jacob Epstein in: Milton Hindus The Jewish East Side: 1881 – 1924, Transaction Publishers, p. 6.

• When we are dead: it is the living only who cannot be forgiven—the living only from whom men's indulgence and reverence are held off, like the rain by the hard east wind.
  • George Eliot in: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 86: Lifted Wail, William Blackwood, 1859, p. 24.

• But the duty to which you have called me must be performed; grant me, I pray you, your indulgence and your sympathy.
  • Edward Everett in Western Christian Advocate, Volume 77, 1911, p. 11.

• People talk of the courage of convictions, but in actual life a man's duty to his family may make a rigid course seem a selfish indulgence of his own righteousness.
  • Francis Scott Fitzgerald in: Novels and Stories, 1920-1922, Library of America, 2000, p. 431.

G - L

Remember there is always a limit to self-indulgence, none to restraint...Civilization, in the real sense of the term, consists not in the multiplication but in the deliberate and voluntary restriction of wants. This alone promotes real happiness and contentment, and increases the capacity for service. - Mahatma Gandhi.

Bernard d'Agesci (fr) with the golden book

• Remember there is always a limit to self-indulgence, none to restraint. ... Civilization, in the real sense of the term, consists not in the multiplication but in the deliberate and voluntary restriction of wants. This alone promotes real happiness and contentment, and increases the capacity for service.
  • Mahatma Gandhi in: Larry Chang Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing, Gnosophia Publishers, 2006, p. 619.

• And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord. The superstition of the people was not embittered theological rancor.
  • Edward Gibbon in: Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1, John Murray, 1846, p. 31.

• In my present insistence on high standards you will see that there is less self-indulgence than resolve and application. I do not let the Christian monopolize the ideal of perfection.
  • André Gide in:Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality, Transaction Publishers, 1 August 2010, p. 298.

• Self-centered indulgence, pride and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle.
  • Billy Graham in: Todd Starnes God Less America, Charisma Media, 6 May 2014, p. 210.

• He could see naught but vanity in beauty
  And naught but weakness in a fond caress,
  And pitied men whose views of Christian duty
  Allowed indulgence in such foolishness.
  • Daniel Gray in: John James Piatt The Union of American Poetry and Art: A Choice Collection of Poems by American Poets, Parts 1-14, W. E. Dibble, 1880, p. 179.

• Remember that every guilty compliance with the humors of the world, every sinful indulgence of our own passions, is laying up cares and fears for the hour of darkness, and that the remembrance of ill-spent time will strew our sick bed with thorns and rack our sinking spirits with despair.
  • Reginald Heber in: Elon Foste New Cyclopædia of Prose Illustrations:, Funk & Wagnalls, 1877, p. 223.

• They err, that through indulgence to others, or fondness to any sin in themselves, substitute for repentance anything less.
  • Hammond in: Samuel Johnson A Dictionary of the English Language:, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805.

• I believe eating well, and with people you love, is about feeding your body, heart, and soul - I used juicing to ensure I covered my nutritional bases every day, and as a tool to restore inner balance if my body needed a break from too much indulgence.
  • Salma Hayek in: Eric Helms The Juice Generation: 100 Recipes for Fresh Juices and Superfood Smoothies, Simon and Schuster, 14 January 2014, p. 7.

• Love turns, with a little indulgence, to indifference or disgust; hatred alone is immortal.
  • William Hazlitt in: Bhimeswara Challa Man's Fate and God's Choice: An Agenda for Human Transformation, Trafford Publishing, 2011, p. 140.

• It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip.
  • Lillian Helman in: Amy Elizabeth Dean Morning Light: A Book of Meditations to Begin Your Day, Hazelden Publishing, 21 August 2013, p. 6.

• I like doom and gloom with a sense of humour. Maybe it's a Scottish thing, we like to undercut indulgence with a laugh.
  • Shirley Henderson in: Jane Graham Meet the real Shirley Henderson, The Guardian, 11 March 2010.

• ...of the world and drudgery of business, seeks a pretense of reason to give itself a full and uncontrolled indulgence.
  • David Hume in:Modern Philosophy (Second Edition): An Anthology of Primary Sources, Hackett Publishing, 2009, p. 548.

• The taste for w:Luxuryluxuries increases with marvelous rapidity under indulgence.
  • George Payne Rainsford James in Henry Mills Alden Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 9, Harper & Brothers, 1854, p. 806

• An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate.
  • Criss Jami in:Venus in Arms, Criss Jami, 01-Jan-2012, p. 9.

• What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights. They are not exercised in virtue of governmental indulgence, but as rights, of which government cannot deprive any portion of citizens, however small.
  • Richard Mentor Johnson in: William Bruce Wheeler, Susan Becker, Lorri Glover Discovering the American Past: A Look at the Evidence, Volume I: To 1877, Volume 2, Cengage Learning, 1 January 2011, p. 149.

• Rare indulgence produces greater pleasure.
  • Juvenal in: Tania Ahsan The brilliant book of calm: Down to earth ideas for finding inner peace in a chaotic world, Infinite Ideas, 18 May 2008, p. 201.

• As long as sex is dealt with in the current confusion of ignorance and sophistication, denial and indulgence, suppression and w:Stimulationstimulation, punishment and exploitation, secrecy and display, it will be associated with a duplicity and indecency that lead neither to intellectual honesty nor human dignity.
  • Alfred Charles Kinsey, et al., in: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Indiana University Press, 1948, p. 5.

• I must therefore implore your indulgence for a pretty long and plain development of my views concerning that cause which the citizens of New York, and you particularly, gentlemen, honour with generous interest.
  • Lajos Kossuth in: Lajos Kossuth, Francis William Newman Select speeches, condensed and abridged, with Kossuth's express sanction, by F. W. Newman, 1853, p. 31.

• Eat to live, not live to eat proverbial saying, late 14th century, distinguishing between necessity and indulgence; Diogenes Laertius says of Socrates, 'he said that other men live to eat, but he eats to live.
  • Diogenes Laertius in: Elizabeth Knowles The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Oxford University Press, 12 October 2006, p. 529.

• Study is the bane of childhood, the oil of youth, the indulgence of adulthood, and a restorative in old age.
  • Walter Savage Landor in: Thomas Chi Oil USA, OilUSA.Co, 1 December 2011, p. 7.

• I'm really interested in the difference between selfishness and generosity. It confuses me to no end because sometimes it all just feels like pure indulgence on my part.
  • Nate Lowman in:Nate Lowman, Interview Magazine.

• For who in fact seeks the salvation of souls through indulgences, and not instead money for his coffers? This is evident from the way indulgences are preached. For the commissioners and preachers do nothing but extol indulgences and incite.
  • Martin Luther in:Veroffentlichungen, Volume 56, Institut für Europäische Geschichte (Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany), 1969, p. 241.

M - R

Fur is my default, my indulgence. All human beings and myself have a lot of defaults. Many indulgences. - Catherine Malandrino.

I love to have a bath with beautiful, relaxing music on and have no rush to do anything. It's a wonderful indulgence, and it helps me to calm down and stop my mind running overtime. - Kylie Minogue.

• Fur is my default, my indulgence. All human beings and myself have a lot of defaults. Many indulgences.
  • Catherine Malandrino in: Catherine Malandrino Loves Fur, Old Buildings, Cigarettes, New York Media LLC, 13 February 2011.

• I love to have a bath with beautiful, relaxing music on and have no rush to do anything. It's a wonderful indulgence, and it helps me to calm down and stop my mind running overtime.
  • Kylie Minogue in: Kathy Lette Kylie Minogue, Woman&Home.

• Too rigid specialization is almost as bad for a historian's mind, and for his ultimate reputation, as too early an indulgence in broad generalization and synthesis.
  • Samuel E. Morison in: Capitalizing on Language Learners' Individuality: From Premise to Practice, Multilingual Matters, 11 December 2013, p. 198.

• L'Oreal's slogan 'because you're worth it' has come to epitomize banal narcissism of early 21st century capitalism; easy indulgence and effortless self-love all available at a flick of the credit card.
  • Geoff Mulgan in: Because you're worth it, The Guardian, 12 June 2006.

• Woe unto those who request money rather than devotion, contrition, and the satisfaction of the divine through true and virtuous life for the forgiveness of sins.
  • Saint Nectarios of Aegina, On Confession

• Pope was not content to satisfy; he desired to excel and therefore always endevoured to do his best; did not court the candour, but dared the judgement of his reader, and, expecting no indulgence from others, he shewed none to himself. He examined lines and words with minute and punctilious observation, and retouched every part with indefatigable diligence, till he had nothing to be forgiven.
  • Alexander Pope in: Samuel Johnson, Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay The Six Chief Lives from Johnson's "Lives of the Poets": With Macaulay's "Life of Johnson"., Macmillan, 1878, p. 415.

• Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.
  • Ayn Rand in:Ayn Rand Novel Collection, Penguin, 6 September 2011.

• It is time to celebrate the New Black Americans - those who have sealed the Deal, who aren't beholden to liberal indulgence any more than they are to the disdain of the hard Right. It is time to praise blacks who are merely undeniable in their individuality and exemplary in their levels of achievement.
  • John Ridley in: D. Marvin Jones Fear of a Hip-Hop Planet: America's New Dilemma, ABC-CLIO, 2013, p. 186.

• If all these gracious indulgences are without any effect on us, we must perish in our own folly.
  • Rogers in: John Wilkes Encyclopaedia Londinensis, Volume 11, 1812.

• If he has not the right spirit, the spirit which makes him scorn self-indulgence, timidity, and mere ease, that is if he has not the spirit which normally stands at the base of physical hardihood, physical prowess, then that boy does not amount to much, and he is ordinarily going.
  • Theodore Roosevelt in: Works: Presidential addresses and state papers, Dec. 3, 1901, June 1910, and European addresses. 8 v, Review of Reviews Publishing Company, 1910, p. 12.

• A 'treat' is different from a 'reward,' which must be justified or earned. A treat is a small pleasure or indulgence that we give to ourselves just because we want it. Treats give us greater vitality, which boosts self-control, which helps us maintain our healthy habits.
  • Gretchen Rubin in: What Are Your Treats? Do You Have Any That Don’t Look Like Treats?, The Happiness Project, 24 March 2014.

S - Z

• And my ending is despair,
  Unless I be reliev'd by prayer;
  Which pierces so, that it assaults
  Mercy itself, and frees all faults.
  As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
  Let your indulgence set me free.
  • William Shakespeare in: Tempest. Two gentlemen of Verona. Merry wives of Windsor. Measure for measure. Comedy of errors. Much ado about nothing. Love's labour's lost. Midsummer night's dream. Merchant of Venice. As you like it. Taming of the shrew. All's well that ends well. Twelfth night. A winter's tale. King John. King Richard II. First and second parts of King Henry IV. King Henry V. First and second parts of King Henry VI, G. Routledge & sons, limited, 1875, p. 32.

• Relieved by prayer which pierces so, that it assaults mercy itself and frees all faults. As you from crimes would pardon'd be, Let your indulgence set me free.
  • William Shakespeare in: The Tempest, in Jim McGahern [A Leg Up on the Canon Book 4: Adaptations of Shakespeare's Romances and Poetry and Thompson's Hound of Heaven], iUniverse, 1 September 2012, p. 200.

• I take a massage each week. This isn't an indulgence, it's an investment in your full creative expression/productivity/passion and sustained good health.
  • Robin S. Sharma in:How I start my day: Robin Sharma, The Times of India, 20 June 2013.

• A token of ecological awareness in a society devoted to self destruction and waste but unwilling to acknowledge its indulgent ways.
  • Dan Simmons in:The Fall of Hyperion, Hachette UK, 18 November 2010, p. 106.

• So long as the law considers all these human beings, with beating hearts and living affections, only as so many things belonging to the master -- so long as the failure, or misfortune, or imprudence, or death of the kindest owner, may cause them any day to exchange a life of kind protection and indulgence for one of hopeless misery and toil -- so long it is impossible to make anything beautiful or desirable in the best-regulated administration of slavery.
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe et al, in: Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly, Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1878, p. 10.

• Whoever visits some estates there, and witnesses the goodhumored indulgence of some masters and mistresses, and the affectionate loyalty of some slaves, might be tempted to dream the oft-fabled poetic legend of a patriarchal institution.
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe in:Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly, Sampson Low, Son and Company, 1853, p. 22

I play only classical music. My pianos are my only big indulgence, but they're a necessity. When I'm playing the piano is literally the only time I can be completely abstract and disconnected from the regular world and yet be connected - to my music. - Rafael VinolyRafael Vinoly.

• I play only classical music. My pianos are my only big indulgence, but they're a necessity. When I'm playing the piano is literally the only time I can be completely abstract and disconnected from the regular world and yet be connected - to my music.
  • Rafael Vinoly in: Robin Finn, Classical Piano and Modern Design, The New York Times, 11 November 2011.

• This is to be understood not as an eschewal of the enjoyment of life, but recognition that spiritual and religious goals are impeded by such indulgence. Those who practice ascetic lifestyles do not consider their practices virtuous in themselves.
  • Lindsey Wei in Valley Spirit: A Female Story of Daoist Cultivation, Singing Dragon, 15 January 2013, p. 62.

• The famous saying 'God is love', it is generally assumed, means that God is like our immediate emotional indulgence, not that the meaning of love ought to have something of the 'otherness' and terror of God.
  • Charles Williams in: Peter J. Schakel, Charles A. Huttar Word and Story in C. S. Lewis: Language and Narrative in Theory and Practice, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 14 April 2008, p. 121.

• While overeating would be seen by some as an indulgence of self, it is in fact a profound rejection of self. It is a moment of self-betrayal and self-punishment, and anything but a commitment to one's own well-being.
  • Marianne Williamson in:A Course In Weight Loss, Hay House, Inc, 2012, p. 157.

• Being raised Catholic in a pressure-cooker household besieged by alcohol and bill collectors enforced and heightened a sense of sentry duty in me, the oldest of five children and the one most responsible for keeping everything from capsizing. Wild indulgence was for other people, the non-worriers.
  • James Wolcott in:Norman Mailer Sent Me, Vanity Fair, November 2011.

• it is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens.
  • George Washington, in Morton J. Frisch, Richard G. Stevens American Political Thought: The Philosophic Dimension of American Statesmanship, Transaction Publishers, 2011, p. 17.

• it is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.
  • George Washington, American Political Thought: The Philosophic Dimension of American Statesmanship, Transaction Publishers, 2011, p. 17.

• This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.
  • Walt Whitman in Prefcae to Leaves of Grass, quoted in: Timothy V. Rasinski, Lorraine Griffith Fluency Through Practice & Performance, Shell Education, 01-Jul-2010, p. 137.

See also

• Affection
• Tolerance