Pi"ous (?), a. [L. pius: cf. F. pieux.]
1. Of or
pertaining to piety; exhibiting
piety; reverential; dutiful; religious; devout; godly. "Pious hearts." Milton. "Pious poetry."
Johnson. Where was the martial brother's pious care? Pope. 2. Practiced under the pretext of religion; prompted by mistaken piety; as, pious errors; pious
frauds. Syn. -- Godly; devout; religious; righteous.
Quotes From Classical Literature on 'pious'You can hear pronunciation of the quotes if you click on  . The sound files tend to be pretty big.
 That Angels loue good men with: Euen of her,
That when the greatest stroake of Fortune falls
Will blesse the King: and is not this course pious ?
Cham. Heauen keep me from such councel: tis most true
These newes are euery where, euery tongue speaks ' em,
And euery true heart weepes for' t. All that dare
Looke into these affaires, see this maine end,
The French Kings Sister. Heauen will one day open
catastrophe. It is true the gods' intention is to destroy mankind, but
the scene throughout is laid in Southern Babylonia. After seven days'
storm, the Sun comes out, and the vessel with the pious priest- king
and his domestic animals on board grounds, apparently still in
Babylonia, and not on any distant mountain, such as Mt. Nisir or the
great mass of Ararat in Armenia. These are obviously details which
tellers of the story have added as it passed down to later
generations. When it was carried still farther afield, into the area
Already the mystery began to define itself, as figures grow
clearer with the lifting of a fog. Here was this good and pious
lady pursued from place to place by a sinister and unrelenting
figure. She feared him, or she would not have fled from
Lausanne. He had still followed. Sooner or later he would
overtake her. Had he already overtaken her? Was THAT the secret
of her continued silence? Could the good people who were her
this chilling blast of scepticism. Then shaking his head with
sublime confidence--" There is always a demand!" he cried; " that
ineffable type is one of the eternal needs of man' s heart; but pious
souls long for it in silence, almost in shame. Let it appear, and
their faith grows brave. How SHOULD it appear in this corrupt
generation? It cannot be made to order. It could, indeed, when the
order came, trumpet- toned, from the lips of the Church herself, and
was addressed to genius panting with inspiration. But it can spring
in the venerable traditions recorded in the first two chapters of
Genesis, was perhaps more potent than any other in keeping alive
a sort of pious conviction that Evolution, after all, would turn
out true. I have recently read afresh the first edition of the
'Principles of Geology'; and when I consider that this remarkable
book had been nearly thirty years in everybody' s hands, and that
it brings home to any reader of ordinary intelligence a great
principle and a great fact-- the principle, that the past must be
the end of theirs. For this reason they discover upon all occasions
the utmost fear of everything which by possibility may lead to such
an event. I do not mean that they manifest any of that pious fear
which is backward to commit the safety of the country to the dubious
experiment of war. Such a fear, being the tender sensation of
virtue, excited, as it is regulated, by reason, frequently shows
itself in a seasonable boldness, which keeps danger at a distance,
by seeming to despise it. Their fear betrays to the first glance of
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