Our business is not only with eternity but with time, to build up on earth the kingdom of God, to enable man to live worthily and not merely to die in hope.
—John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (1875–1940) Scottish Novelist, Politician, Diplomat
I acknowledge myself a unitarian
—Abigail Adams (1744–1818) American First Lady
The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true, by the philosophers as equally false, and by the magistrate as equally useful.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
When the soul drifts uncertainly between life and the dream, between the mind’s disorder and the return to cool reflection, it is in religious thought that we should seek consolation.
—Gerard de Nerval (1808–55) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
I do benefits for all religions — I’d hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.
—Bob Hope (1903–2003) British-born American Comedian
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
Although every organized patriarchal religion works overtime to contribute its own brand of misogyny to the myth of woman-hate, woman-fear, and woman-evil, the Roman Catholic Church also carries the immense power of very directly affecting women’s lives everywhere by its stand against birth control and abortion, and by its use of skillful and wealthy lobbies to prevent legislative change. It is an obscenity — an all-male hierarchy, celibate or not, that presumes to rule on the lives and bodies of millions of women.
—Robin Morgan (b.1941) American Activist, Writer, Poet, Editor
Religion is a temper, not a pursuit.
—Harriet Martineau (1802–76) English Sociologist, Economist, Essayist, Philosopher
Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
History does not record anywhere or at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Novelist, Short story Author, Essayist, Screenwriter
It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.
—Sandra Day O’Connor (b.1930) American Jurist
Religion is the light of the world.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
As selfishness and complaint pervert and cloud the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
It was an admirable and true saying of Plutarch, “That a city may as well be built in the air, as a commonwealth or kingdom be either constituted or preserved without the support of religion.”
—Beilby Porteus (1731–1809) English Anglican Reformer, Abolitionist
Religions sprang up among men to deal with the sometimes terrifying aspects of existence, to make sense out of the senseless, to explain things we find inexplicable
—Gore Vidal (1925–48) American Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Playwright, Political Activist
But is it not the fact that religion emanates from the nature, from the moral state of the individual? Is it not therefore true that unless the nature be completely exercised, the moral state harmonized, the religion cannot be healthy?
—Harriet Martineau (1802–76) English Sociologist, Economist, Essayist, Philosopher
It is not God that is worshipped but the group or authority that claims to speak in His name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority not violation of integrity.
—Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) Indian Philosopher
Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science
—Henri Bergson (1859–1941) French Philosopher, Evolutionist
My theology, briefly, is that the universe was dictated but not signed.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
I daresay anything can be made holy by being sincerely worshipped.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
The object of living is work, experience, and happiness. There is joy in work. All that money can do is buy us someone else’s work in exchange for our own. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Religion is what keeps the poor man from murdering the rich.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
It is doubtless true that religion has been the world’s psychiatrist throughout the centuries.
—Karl Menninger (1893–1990) American Psychiatrist
On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of ‘conservatism’.
—Barry Goldwater (1909–98) American Elected Representative, Businessperson, Politician
Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–91) Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer, Novelist, Short Story Writer
I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
He was of the faith chiefly in the sense that the church he currently did not attend was Catholic.
—Kingsley Amis (1922–95) English Novelist, Poet
Toleration is the best religion.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.
—Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu Monk, Mystic
Better than hide-and-seek, I like the game called Sardines. In Sardines the person who is IT goes and hides, and everybody goes looking for him. When you find him, you get in with him and hide there with him. Pretty soon everybody is hiding together, all stacked in a small space like puppies in a pile. And pretty soon somebody giggles and somebody laughs and everybody gets found.
Medieval theologians even described God, in hide-and-seek terms, calling him Deus Absconditus. But me, I think old God is a Sardine player. And will be found the same way everybody gets found in Sardines – by the sound of laughter of those heaped together at the end.
—Robert Fulghum (b.1937) American Unitarian Universalist Author, Essayist, Clergyman
Why should a country worship another country’s tin gods, when it has tin gods of its own?
—Dero A. Saunders (1914–2002) American Journalist, Scholar
Nobody can deny but religion is a comfort to the distressed, a cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint on the wicked; therefore whoever would argue or laugh it out of the world without giving some equivalent for it ought to be treated as a common enemy.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat’s meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The loss of popular respect for religion is the dry rot of social institutions. The idea of God as the Creator and Father of all mankind is in the moral world, what gravitation is in the natural; it holds all together and causes them to revolve around a common center. Take this away, and men drop apart; there is no such thing as collective humanity, but only separate molecules, with no more cohesion than so many grains of sand.
—Henry Martyn Field
Such as men themselves are, such will God appear to them to be; and such as God appears to them to be, such will they show themselves in their dealings with their fellow men.
—William Motter Inge (1913–73) American Playwright, Novelist
If you’re going to do a thing, you should do it thoroughly. If you’re going to be a Christian, you may as well be a Catholic.
—Muriel Spark (1918–2006) Scottish Novelist, Short-story Writer, Poet
We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the genuinely kind intention of saving souls from the eternal fire of hell
—Karl Popper (1902–94) Austrian-born British Philosopher
My point is not that religion itself is the motivation for wars, murders and terrorist attacks, but that religion is the principal label, and the most dangerous one, by which a ‘they’ as opposed to a ‘we’ can be identified at all.
—Richard Dawkins (b.1941) British Evolutionary Biologist, Atheist
All belief that does not render us more happy, more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is, I fear, an erroneous and superstitious belief.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
All…religions show the same disparity between belief and practice, and each is safe till it tries to exclude the rest. Test each sect by its best or its worst as you will, by its high-water mark of virtue or its low-water mark of vice. But falsehood begins when you measure the ebb of any other religion against the flood-tide of your own. There is a noble and a base side to every history.
—Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823–1911) American Social Reformer, Clergyman
A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
All the principles which religion teaches, and all the habits which it forms, are favorable to strength of mind. It will be found that whatever purifies, also fortifies the heart.
—Hugh Blair (1718–1800) Scottish Preacher, Scholar, Critic
God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
It’s incongruous that the older we get, the more likely we are to turn in the direction of religion. Less vivid and intense ourselves, closer to the grave, we begin to conceive of ourselves as immortal.
—Edward Hoagland (b.1932) American Essayist, Novelist
Faith must be enforced by reason. When faith becomes blind it dies.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
The true meaning of religion is thus, not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.
—Lenny Bruce (1925–66) American Comedian, Writer, Social Critic, Satirist
The downside, of course, is that over time religions become encrusted with precepts and ideas that are the antithesis of soul, as each faith tries to protect its doctrines and institution instead of nurturing the evolution of consciousness. If one is not careful to distinguish the genuine insights of a religion from its irrelevant accretions, one can go through life following an inappropriate moral compass.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
The sight of a Black nun strikes their sentimentality; and, as I am unalterably rooted in native ground, they consider me a work of primitive art, housed in a magical color; the incarnation of civilized, anti-heathenism, and the fruit of a triumphing idea.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
If we subject everything to reason, our religion will have nothing mysterious or supernatural; if we violate the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
If I could choose what of all things would be at the same time the most delightful and useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing; for this makes life a discipline of goodness; creates new hopes when all earthly ones vanish; throws over the decay of existence the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death; makes even torture and shame the ladder of ascent to paradise; and far above all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of the future, the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the skeptic view only gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair.
—Humphry Davy (1778–1829) British Chemist, Inventor
True religion is not a mere doctrine, something that can be taught, but is a way of life. A life in community with God. It must be experienced to be appreciated. A life of service. A living by giving and finding one’s own happiness by bringing happiness into the lives of others.
—William J. H. Boetcker (1873–1962) American Presbyterian Minister
And I myself a Catholic will be,
So far at least, great saint, to pray to thee.
Hail, Bard triumphant! and some care bestow
On us, the Poets militant below.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet, Essayist
The first time I sang in the church choir; two hundred people changed their religion.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Humorist, Radio Personality
Religion is doing; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it, he “lives” his religion as much as he is able, otherwise it is not religion but fantasy or philosophy.
—Georges Gurdjieff (1877–1949) Armenian Spiritual Leader, Occultist
The man without religion is as a ship without a rudder.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
The first sign of your becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful.
—Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu Monk, Mystic
A Jew without Jews, without Judaism, without Zionism, without Jewishness, without a temple or an army or even a pistol, a Jew clearly without a home, just the object itself, like a glass or an apple.
—Philip Roth (1933–2018) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
Religion is the fashionable substitute for belief.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–72) American Jewish Rabbi
The best perfection of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner.
—Bonaventure (1221–74) Italian Christian Scholar, Theologian, Philosopher
Religions are not imaginative, not poetic, not soulful. On the contrary, they are parochial, small-minded, niggardly with the human imagination, precisely where science is generous.
—Richard Dawkins (b.1941) British Evolutionary Biologist, Atheist
It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy.
—William Ralph Inge (1860–1954) English Anglican Clergyman, Priest, Mystic
All religions die of one disease, that of being found out.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Political Leader, Writer, Editor, Journalist
It’s the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
The religious superstition is encouraged by means of the institution of churches, processions, monuments, festivities….The so-called clergy stupefy the masses….They befog the people and keep them in an eternal condition of stupefaction.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
She say, Celie, tell the truth, have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
Every condition of life has its perils and its advantages; and the office of religion is, not to change that in which Providence has placed us, but to strengthen and sanctify our hearts that we may resist the temptations, and improve the opportunities of blessings presented to us.
—George Washington Bethune (1805–62) American Clergyman
The difference between listening to a radio sermon and going to church…is almost like the difference between calling your girl on the phone and spending an evening with her.
—Dwight L. Moody (1837–99) Christian Religious Leader, Publisher
Take God for your spouse and friend and walk with him continually, and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you.
—John of the Cross (1542–1591) Spanish Roman Catholic Mystic
Without religion there can be no true morality.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
Religion is the last refuge of human savagery.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He’ll beat you all at piety.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The Church has always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for cash down.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
Church attendance is as vital to a disciple as a transfusion of rich, healthy blood to a sick man.
—Dwight L. Moody (1837–99) Christian Religious Leader, Publisher
A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy until they die!
—Philip Roth (1933–2018) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
I have, alas, only one illusion left, and that is the Archbishop of Canterbury.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
The word ”Christianity” is already a misunderstanding — in reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on the Cross.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Religion is the possibility of the removal of every ground of confidence except confidence in God alone
—Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Reformed Theologian, Author
Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
If we think of religion only as a means of escaping what we call the wrath to come, we shall not escape it; we are under the burden of death, if we care only for ourselves.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The great danger of conversion in all ages has been that when the religion of the high mind is offered to the lower mind, the lower mind, feeling its fascination without understanding it, and being incapable of rising to it, drags it down to its level by degrading it.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Churchgoers are like coals in a fire. When they cling together, they keep the flame aglow; when they separate, they die out.
—Billy Graham (1918–91) American Baptist Religious Leader
Now a Jew, in the dictionary, is one who is descended from the ancient tribes of Judea, or one who is regarded as descended from that tribe. That’s what it says in the dictionary; but you and I know what a Jew is — One Who Killed Our Lord. And although there should be a statute of limitations for that crime, it seems that those who neither have the actions nor the gait of Christians, pagan or not, will bust us out, unrelenting dues, for another deuce.
—Lenny Bruce (1925–66) American Comedian, Writer, Social Critic, Satirist
The religion of Christ reaches and changes the heart, which no other religion does.
—William Dean Howells (1837–1920) American Novelist, Short story Author, Editor
Who hates the Jews more than the Jew?
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
God’s commandments are intended to enhance the value and enjoyment of life, but not to mar it and make it gloomy.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Selfishness is the only real atheism; unselfishness the only real religion.
—Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) British Humorist, Novelist, Writer
Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
England has two books, one which she has made and one which has made her: Shakespeare and the Bible.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Those who marry God can become domesticated too — it’s just as hum-drum a marriage as all the others. The word Love means a formal touch of the lips as in the ceremony of the Mass, and Ave Maria like dearest is a phrase to open a letter. This marriage like the world’s marriages was held together by habits and tastes shared in common between God and themselves — it was God’s taste to be worshipped and their taste to worship, but only at stated hours like a suburban embrace on a Saturday night.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Never trust anybody not of sound religion, for he that is false to God can never be true to man.
—William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (1521–98) English Political leader
To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely.
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine Writer, Essayist, Poet
Bigger things than the State will fall, all religion will fall.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
Is discord going to show itself while we are still fighting, is the Jew once again worth less than another? Oh, it is sad, very sad, that once more, for the umpteenth time, the old truth is confirmed: What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews.”
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
Here, the churches seemed to shrink away into eroding corners. They seem to have ceased to be essential parts of American life. They no longer give life. It is the huge buildings of commerce and trade which now align the people to attention. These in their massive manner of steel and stone say, Come unto me all ye who labor, and we will give you work.
—Sean O’Casey (1880–1964) Irish Dramatist, Memoirist
We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.
—Luciano De Crescenzo (b.1928) Italian Writer, Film Actor, Director, Engineer
Religion maketh the man.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart.
—John Bunyan (1628–88) English Puritan Writer, Preacher
For this reason the Bible is a book of eternal and effective power; because, as long as the world lasts, no one will say: I comprehend it in the whole and understand it in the particular. Rather we must modestly say it on the whole it is venerable, and in the particular practical.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
You don’t have to be religious to have a soul; everybody has one. You don’t have to be religious to perfect your soul; I have found saintliness in avowed atheists.
—Harold Kushner (b.1935) American Jewish Religious Leader, Priest
Religion points to that area of human experience where in one way or another man comes upon mystery as a summons to pilgrimage.
—Frederick Buechner (b.1926) American Presbyterian Clergyman, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist, Theologian
We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
Division has done more to hide Christ from the view of all men than all the infidelity that has ever been spoken.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
The act of bell ringing is symbolic of all proselytizing religions. It implies the pointless interference with the quiet of other people.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination — everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
A religion that never suffices to govern a man will never suffice to save him. — That which does not distinguish him from a sinful world, will never distinguish him from a perishing world.
—John Howe (b.1957) Canadian Artist
I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
Our religion is itself profoundly sad—a religion of universal anguish, and one which, because of its very catholicity, grants full liberty to the individual and asks no better than to be celebrated in each man’s own language—so long as he knows anguish and is a painter.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
All religions have based morality on obedience, that is to say, on voluntary slavery. That is why they have always been more pernicious than any political organization. For the latter makes use of violence, the former — of the corruption of the will.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
Very religious people always shock slightly religious people by their blasphemous attitude to religion; and it was precisely for blasphemy that Jesus was crucified.
—R. G. Collingwood (1889–1943) English Philosopher, Historian, Archaeologist
The intellectual is constantly betrayed by his vanity. Godlike he blandly assumes that he can express everything in words; whereas the things one loves, lives, and dies for are not, in the last analysis completely expressible in words.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
It often happens that I wake at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope.
—Pope John XXIII (1881–1963) Italian Catholic Religious Leader, Pope
How can a bishop marry? How can he flirt? The most he can say is “I will see you in the vestry after service.”
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Difference of religion breeds more quarrels than difference of politics.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
I have known what the enjoyments and advantages of this life are, and what are the more refined pleasures which learning and intellectual power can bestow; and with all the experience that more than three-score years can give, I now, on the eve of my departure, declare to you, that health is a great blessing; competence obtained by honorable industry is a great blessing; and a great blessing it is, to have kind, faithful, and loving friends and relatives; but that the greatest of all blessings, as it is the most ennobling of all privileges, is to be indeed a Christian.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
A man without religion or spiritual vision is like a captain who finds himself in the midst of an uncharted sea, without compass, rudder and steering wheel. He never knows where he is, which way he is going and where he is going to land.
—William J. H. Boetcker (1873–1962) American Presbyterian Minister
Nothing can be hostile to religion which is agreeable to justice.
—William Ewart Gladstone (1809–98) English Liberal Statesman, Prime Minister
Religion would not have enemies, if it were not an enemy to their vices.
—Jean Baptiste Massillon (1663–1742) French Catholic Religious Leader, Theologian
Finding that no religion is based on facts and cannot be true, I began to reflect what must be the condition of mankind trained from infancy to believe in error.
—Robert Owen (1771–1858) British Social Reformer, Philosopher
The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.
—Richard Burton (1925–84) Welsh Actor
All human life is here, but the Holy Ghost seems to be somewhere else.
—Anthony Burgess (1917–93) English Novelist, Critic, Composer
One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organizations do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always.
—A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) American Christian Pastor, Preacher, Author, Editor
It is indolence… Indolence and love of ease; a want of all laudable ambition, of taste for good company, or of inclination to take the trouble of being agreeable, which make men clergymen. A clergyman has nothing to do but be slovenly and selfish; read the newspaper, watch the weather, and quarrel with his wife. His curate does all the work and the business of his own life is to dine.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
None but God can satisfy the longings of the immortal soul; as the heart was made for him, he only can fill it.
—Richard Chenevix Trench (1807–86) Irish Anglican Clergyman, Religious Leader, Poet
To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine Writer, Essayist, Poet
He who devotes himself to the mere study of religion without engaging in works of love and mercy is like one who has no God.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Political leader, Philosopher
I judge a man by his actions with men, much more than by his declarations Godwards — When I find him to be envious, carping, spiteful, hating the successes of others, and complaining that the world has never done enough for him, I am apt to doubt whether his humility before God will atone for his want of manliness.
—Anthony Trollope (1815–82) English Novelist
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
What the world craves today is a more spiritual and less formal religion. To the man or woman facing death, great conflict, the big problems of human life, the forms of religion are of minor concern, while the spirit of religion is a desperately needed source of inspiration, comfort and strength.
—John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874–1960) American Philanthropist, Businessperson
There need not be in religion, or music, or art, or love, or goodness, anything that is against reason; but never while the sun shines will we get great religion, or music, or art, or love, or goodness, without going beyond reason.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
I count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but innocence.
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–93) English Playwright, Poet, Translator
There’s no reason to bring religion into it. I think we ought to have as great a regard for religion as we can, so as to keep it out of as many things as possible.
—Sean O’Casey (1880–1964) Irish Dramatist, Memoirist
What I want is, not to possess religion, but to have a religion that shall possess me.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
The priesthood is a marriage. People often start by falling in love, and they go on for years without realizing that love must change into some other love which is so unlike it that it can hardly be recognized as love at all.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
I wouldn’t take the Pope too seriously. He’s a Pole first, a pope second, and maybe a Christian third.
—Muriel Spark (1918–2006) Scottish Novelist, Short-story Writer, Poet
Religion is not a burden, not a weight, it is wings
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister