Flannery O'Connor Quotes

I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil. I have also found that what I write is read by an audience which puts little stock either in grace or the devil. You discover your audience at the same time and in the same way that you discover your subject, but it is an added blow.

Where God has his church the Devil will have his chapel.

It is not God but the Devil who is in charge of the international situation and those who are working for God in it are poor servants if all they do is worship God and neglect their duty to cincumvent the Devil.

God never talks. But the devil keeps advertising, Father. The devil does a lot of commercials.

Satan, really, is the romantic youth of Jesus re-appearing for a moment.

The devil says I'm out, but the Lord says I'm safe.

Christ shared our experience; he suffered as we suffer; he died as we shall die, and for forty days in the desert he underwent the struggle between good and evil.

When you live with the Devil you learn there's a God very quickly.

I did spend a lot of time as a child very confused about whether I had a devil in me, or whether I was in a state of grace. I mean, these ideas are so potent to anybody with half an imagination.

People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.

The devil ain't got no power over me. The devil come, and me shake hands with the devil. Devil have his part to play. Devil's a good friend, too... because when you don't know him, that's the time he can mosh you down.

'You are no saint,' says the devil. Well, if I am not, I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Sink or swim, I go to Him; other hope, I have none.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

Everything doesn't happen for a reason, if by this we mean evil is a part of God's plan. But God does ensure that evil will not prevail and that light will always, ultimately, overcome the darkness. If we follow God's lead, our work is to push back the darkness.

Why is it Christians are more confident in the Devil taking me more than Christ keeping me.

At the bottom of a Peretti novel is the biblical view of things, the Christian message. Whether you're a Christian or not, you're still going to have to deal with good versus evil.

God is working, and obviously, the devil is trying to work, too, but it will not happen.

In my home, life was framed as an epic spiritual battle between good and evil.

Sin and grace, absence and presence, tragedy and comedy, they divide the world between them and where they meet head on, the Gospel happens.

If grace belongs to God, there are those who say that luck belongs to the Devil and that he looks after his own.

I am just a man, not fit to do the work of God... or the Devil.

Becuse God loves us, but the devil takes an interest.

The battle against the Devil, which is the principal task of Saint Michael the Archangel, is still being fought today, because the Devil is still alive and active in the world.

So now the devil's in my soul.

God show me the way because the Devil trying to break me down