PHARISAICAL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Pharisaical

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adjective

Pharisaical, Pharisaic adj.

Of or pertaining to the Pharisees; resembling the Pharisees. "The Pharisaic sect among the Jews."

Hence: Addicted to external forms and ceremonies; making a show of religion without the spirit of it; ceremonial; formal; hypocritical; self-righteous. "Excess of outward and pharisaical holiness." "Pharisaical ostentation."

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Etymology of 'Pharisaical'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pharisaical" Quotes from Famous Books

... still with his book, firm as a rock, sure of himself, convinced that he was doing the best thing, proud of his strength of mind and his obstinacy, perfectly pharisaical in his contempt of human weakness, persuaded that no power in earth or heaven could force him to do or say anything against his mature judgment. He sat in his deep chair near a window that was half open, his legs stretched straight out before him, his flashing patent ...

— Fair Margaret - A Portrait • Francis Marion Crawford

... and vicious conduct of my companions became to me a source of serious reflection. Far from following their example, I felt myself some degrees better than they were; and in the pride of my heart thanked God that I was not like these publicans. My pharisaical arrogance concealed from me the mortifying fact that I was much worse, and with very slight hopes of amendment. Humility had not yet entered my mind; but it was the only basis on which any religious improvement could be created—the ...

— Frank Mildmay • Captain Frederick Marryat

... came to Europe found everything so different from what he had imagined in his lonely meditations at Benares! It was the Bible only that saved him from returning to his old religion, and helped him to discern beneath theological futilities, accumulated during nearly two thousand years, beneath pharisaical hypocrisy, infidelity, and want of charity, the buried, but still living seed, committed to the earth by Christ and his Apostles. How can a missionary in such circumstances meet the surprise and questions of his pupils, unless he may point to that seed, and tell them what ...

— Chips From A German Workshop - Volume I - Essays on the Science of Religion • Friedrich Max Mueller

... interest he is to depend upon should harmonize with the interest hitherto prevalent in the County. Every thing short of this leaves them subject to a charge of acting upon false pretences, unless they prefer being accused of harbouring a pharisaical presumption, that would be odious were it not ridiculous. If the state of society in Westmoreland be as corrupt as they describe, what, in the name of wonder, has preserved their purity? Away then with hypocrisy and hollow pretext; let us be no longer ...

— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth

... incidents of the way. A conventional order of life is useful only in so far as it removes from the mind the necessity of detailed planning, and allows it to flow punctually and mechanically in an ordered course. But if we exalt that order into something sacred and solemn, then we become pharisaical and meticulous, and the savour of ...

— Where No Fear Was - A Book About Fear • Arthur Christopher Benson

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