Pope Leo XIII > Quotes

“Once the demands of necessity and propriety have been met, the rest that one owns belongs to the poor.”
― Pope Leo XIII

“Nothing is more useful than to look upon the world as it really is, and at the same time to seek elsewhere...for the solace to its troubles.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum: On the Condition of the Working Classes

“The world has heard enough of the so-called 'rights of man.' Let it hear something of the rights of God.”
― Pope Leo XIII

“No human law can abolish the natural and original right of marriage, nor in any way limit the chief and principal purpose of marriage ordained by God’s authority from the beginning: “Increase and multiply.”
― Pope Leo XIII

“The socialists, therefore, in setting aside the parent and setting up a State supervision, act against natural justice, and destroy the structure of the home.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum: Encyclical Letter - Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour

“Having a false and absurd notion as to what liberty is, either they pervert the very idea of freedom, or they extend it at their pleasure to many things in respect of which man cannot rightly be regarded as free.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Libertas: On the Nature of Human Liberty

“Inadequacy of his own strength, learned from experience, impels and urges a man to enlist the help of others.”
― Pope Leo XIII

“it is the glory of philosophy to be esteemed as the bulwark of faith and the strong defense of religion.”
― Pope Leo XIII, AETERNI PATRIS On The Restoration Of Christian Philosophy

“28. It is a capital evil with respect to the question We are discussing to take for granted that the one class of society is of itself hostile to the other, as if nature had set rich and poor against each other to fight fiercely in implacable war. This is so abhorrent to reason and truth that the exact opposite is true; for just as in the human body the different members harmonize with one another, whence arises that disposition of parts and proportion in the human figure rightly called symmetry, so likewise nature has commanded in the case of the State that the two classes mentioned should agree harmoniously and should properly form equally balanced counterparts to each other.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum: Encyclical Letter - Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour

“the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error,” as Augustine was wont to say.14 When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly “the bottomless pit” (Apoc. 9:2)”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Popes Against Modern Errors: 16 Papal Documents

“To refuse any bond of union between man and civil society, on the one hand, and God the Creator and consequently the supreme Law-giver, on the other, is plainly repugnant to the nature, not only of man, but of all created things; for, of necessity, all effects must in some proper way be connected with their cause; and it belongs to the perfection of every nature to contain itself within that sphere and grade which the order of nature has assigned to it, namely, that the lower should be subject and obedient to the higher.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Libertas: On the Nature of Human Liberty

“Pope Agatho: “Nothing of the things appointed ought to be diminished; nothing changed; nothing added; but they must be preserved both as regards expression and meaning.”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Popes Against Modern Errors: 16 Papal Documents

“In this true liberty consists: being free to live according to right reason.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Libertas: On the Nature of Human Liberty

“The human race, after its most miserable defection, through the wiles of the devil, from its Creator, God, the giver of celestial gifts, has divided into two different and opposite factions, of which one fights ever for truth and virtue, the other for their opposites. One is the kingdom of God on earth, the other is the kingdom of Satan. That, by accepting any that present themselves, no matter of what religion, they gain their purpose of urging that great error of the present day, that questions of religion ought to be left undetermined, and that there should be no distinction made between varieties. And this policy aims at the destruction of all religions, especially at that of the Catholic religion, which, since it is the only true one, cannot be reduced to equality with the rest without the greatest injury. But, in truth, the sect grants great license to its initiates, allowing them to defend either position, that there is a God, or that there is no God.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Humanum Genus On Freemasonry

“Mas, além da injustiça do seu sistema, vêem-se bem todas as suas funestas consequências, a perturbação em todas as classes da sociedade, uma odiosa e insuportável servidão para todos os cidadãos, porta aberta a todas as invejas, a todos os descontentamentos, a todas as discórdias; o talento e a habilidade privados dos seus estímulos, e, como consequência necessária, as riquezas estancadas na sua fonte; enfim, em lugar dessa igualdade tão sonhada, a igualdade na nudez, na indigência e na miséria. Por tudo o que Nós acabamos de dizer, se compreende que a teoria socialista da propriedade colectiva deve absolutamente repudiar-se como prejudicial àqueles membros a que se quer socorrer, contrária aos direitos naturais dos indivíduos, como desnaturando as funções do Estado e perturbando a tranquilidade pública. Fique, pois, bem assente que o primeiro fundamento a estabelecer por todos aqueles que querem sinceramente o bem do povo é a inviolabilidade da propriedade particular.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum: Encyclical Letter - Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour

“what Cyprian detested may come to pass, that what was a divine thing “may become a human church.”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Popes Against Modern Errors: 16 Papal Documents

“The foremost duty, therefore, of the rulers of the State should be to make sure that the laws and institutions, the general character and administration of the commonwealth, shall be such as of themselves to realize public well-being and private prosperity. This is the proper scope of wise statesmanship and is the work of the rulers. Now”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Third Way: Foundations of Distributism as Contained in the Writings of Pope Leo XIII and Gilbert K. Chesterton

“From a mass of conclusions men often come to wavering and doubt; and who knows not how easily the mind slips from doubt to error?”
― Pope Leo XIII, AETERNI PATRIS On The Restoration Of Christian Philosophy

“We have said that the State must not absorb the individual or the family; both should be allowed free and untrammeled action”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Third Way: Foundations of Distributism as Contained in the Writings of Pope Leo XIII and Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Each needs the other: capital cannot do without labour, nor labour without capital.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum

“It is the papal responsibility to keep the canonical decrees in their place and to evaluate the precepts of previous popes so that when the times demand relaxation in order to rejuvenate the churches, they may be adjusted after diligent consideration.”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Popes Against Modern Errors: 16 Papal Documents

“Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely, immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech and desire for novelty.”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Popes Against Modern Errors: 16 Papal Documents

“The branch has the same form when it has been cut off from the vine; but of what profit for it is the form, if it does not live from the root?”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Popes Against Modern Errors: 16 Papal Documents

“It is with a similar motive that efforts are being made by some, in connection with the New Law promulgated by Christ Our Lord. Assured that there exist few men who are entirely devoid of the religious sense, they seem to ground on this belief a hope that all nations, while differing indeed in religious matters, may yet without great difficulty be brought to fraternal agreement on certain points of doctrine which will form a common basis of the spiritual life. With this object, congresses, meetings and addresses are arranged, attended by a large concourse of hearers, where all without distinction, unbelievers of every kind as well as Christians, even those who unhappily have rejected Christ and denied His divine nature or mission, are invited to join in the discussion. Now, such efforts can meet with no kind of approval among Catholics. They presuppose the erroneous view that all religions are more or less good and praiseworthy, inasmuch as all give expression, under various forms, to that innate sense which leads men to God and to the obedient acknowledgement of His rule. Those who hold such a view are not only in error; they distort the true idea of religion, and thus reject it, falling gradually into naturalism and atheism. To favor this opinion, therefore, and to encourage such undertakings is tantamount to abandoning the religion revealed by God.”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Popes Against Modern Errors: 16 Papal Documents

“Men living together in society are under the power of God no less than individuals are and society, no less than individuals, owes gratitude to God, who gave it being and maintains it, and whose ever-bounteous goodness enriches it with countless blessings. Since, then, no one is allowed to be remiss in the service due to God, and since the chief duty of all men is to cling to religion in both its teaching and practice - not such religion as they may have a preference for, but the religion which God enjoins, and which certain and most clear marks show to be the only one true religion - it is a public crime to act as though there were no God. So, too, is it a sin in the State not to have care for religion, as a something beyond its scope, or as of no practical benefit or out of many forms of religion to adopt that one which chimes in with the fancy; for States are bound absolutely to worship God in that way which He has shown to be His will. All who rule therefore should hold in honor the holy Name of God, and one of their chief duties must be to favor religion, to protect it.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei: On the Christian Constitution of States

“These beautiful examples of the unchanging subjection to the princes necessarily proceeded from the most holy precepts of the Christian religion. They condemn the detestable insolence and improbity of those who, consumed with the unbridled lust for freedom, are entirely devoted to impairing and destroying all rights of dominion while bringing servitude to the people under the slogan of liberty.”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Popes Against Modern Errors: 16 Papal Documents

“Every civilized community must have a ruling authority, and this authority, no less than society itself, has its source in nature and has, consequently, God for its author. Hence it follows that all public power must proceed from God. For God alone is the true and supreme lord of the world. Everything without exception must be subject to Him, and must serve Him, so that whosoever holds the right to govern holds it from one sole and single source, namely, God, the Sovereign Ruler of all. "There is no power but from God." (Rom. 13:1)”
― Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei: On the Christian Constitution of States

“The Church is not something dead: it is the body of Christ endowed with supernatural life. As Christ, the Head and Exemplar, is not wholly in His visible human nature, which Photinians and Nestorians assert, nor wholly in the invisible divine nature, as the Monophysites hold, but is one, from and in both natures, visible and invisible; so the mystical body of Christ is the true Church, only because its visible parts draw
life and power from the supernatural gifts and other things whence spring their very nature and essence. But since the
Church is such by divine will and constitution, such it must uniformly remain to the end of time. If it did nor, then it would not have been founded as perpetual, and the end set before it would have been limited to some certain place and to
some certain period of time; both of which are contrary to the truth. The union consequently of visible and invisible
elements because it harmonizes with the natural order and by God's will belongs to the very essence of the Church, must
necessarily remain so long as the Church itself shall endure.”
― Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum: On the Unity of the Church

“by the example of teachers, the minds of the youth are corrupted and a tremendous blow is dealt to religion and the perversion of morals is spread. So the restraints of religion are thrown off, by which alone kingdoms stand. We see the destruction of public order, the fall of principalities and the overturning of all legitimate power approaching. Indeed this great mass of calamities had its inception in the heretical societies and sects in which all that is sacrilegious, infamous and blasphemous has gathered as bilge water in a ship’s hold, a congealed mass of all filth.”
― Pope Leo XIII, The Popes Against Modern Errors: 16 Papal Documents

“It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, of writing or worship, as if these were so many rights given by nature to man”
― Pope Leo XIII