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Religion quotes

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“RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1911

“So that, in effect, religion, which should most distinguish us from beasts, and ought most peculiarly to elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than beasts themselves.” John Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” - 1689

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice” - 1600

“As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others.” Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” - 1845

“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.” David Hume, “A Treatise of Human Nature” - 1738

“I have no objection to any person’s religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any other person, because that other person don’t believe it also.” Herman Melville, “Moby-Dick” - 1851

“Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.” Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre” - 16 October 1847

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” G. K. Chesterton, “What's Wrong with the World” - 1910

“My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven. He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God...” Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre” - 16 October 1847

“In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it.” C. S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity” - 1952

“Religion and spirituality are very different, but people often confuse the two. Some things cannot be taught, but they can be awakened in the heart.” Muhammad Ali, “The Soul of a Butterfly” - 2004

“I was an Agnostic. Agnostics didn't have much to argue about.” Charles Bukowski, “Ham on Rye” - 1982

“Gods don’t like people not doing much work. People who aren’t busy all the time might start to think.” Terry Pratchett, “Small Gods” - 1992

“Religion, in short, is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.” William James, “The Varieties of Religious Experience” - 1902

“The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance... or change.” Stephen King, “The Stand” - 1978

“Humans! They lived in a world where the grass continued to be green and the sun rose every day and flowers regularly turned into fruit, and what impressed them? Weeping statues. And wine made out of water!” Terry Pratchett, “Small Gods” - 1992

“A convert's enthusiasm for his new religion is greater than that of a person who is born in it.” Mahatma Gandhi, “The Story of my Experiments with Truth” - 1929

“It is in itself a kind of religion; it does not reason, but it acts from the impulse of faith and of sentiment.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1835

“They have made the happy discovery, that the way to silence religious disputes, is to take no notice of them.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

“As, in religion, man is governed by the products of his own brain, so in capitalistic production, he is governed by the products of his own hand.” Karl Marx, “Das Kapital” - 1867

“I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of any one.” Charles Darwin, “On The Origin of Species” - 1859

“It is thus quite certain that the constitution of the true religion, the ordinances of which are derived from God, must be incomparably superior to that of every other.” René Descartes, “Discourse on the Method” - 1637

“They blended religion and art and science because, at base, science is no more than an investigation of a miracle we can never explain, and art is an interpretation of that miracle.” Ray Bradbury, “The Martian Chronicles” - 1950

“I had decided against religion a couple of years back. If it were true, it made fools out of people, or it drew fools. And if it weren't true, the fools were all the more foolish.” Charles Bukowski, “Ham on Rye” - 1982

“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth—only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.” C. S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity” - 1952

“Love and religion! thought Clarissa, going back into the drawing-room, tingling all over. How detestable, how detestable they are!” Virginia Woolf, “Mrs Dalloway” - 1925

“she thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness.” Virginia Woolf, “Mrs Dalloway” - 1925

“The only true world solution today is governments guided by true religion—of the spirit.” Malcolm X, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” - 1965

“And this Feare of things invisible, is the naturall Seed of that, which every one in himself calleth Religion; and in them that worship, or feare that Power otherwise than they do, Superstition.” Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” - 1651

“I am not religious, I reckon. But peace is my heart: I know it is.” William Faulkner, “As I Lay Dying” - 1930

“Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the Creating Personality, God.” A. W. Tozer, “The Pursuit of God” - 1948

“Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either.” Kurt Vonnegut, “Cat's Cradle” - 1963

“MAYONNAISE, n. One of the sauces which serve the French in place of a state religion.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1906

“But then the pastors and men of God can only be human,—cannot be altogether men of God; and so they have oppressed us, and burned us, and tortured us, and hence come to love palaces, and fine linen, and purple, and, alas, sometimes, mere luxury...” Anthony Trollope, “Phineas Redux” - 1874

“Where would Jesus be if no one had written the gospels?” Chuck Palahniuk, “Fight Club” - 1996

“The majority of people living on our planet profess to be believers. This should spur religions to dialogue among themselves for the sake of protecting nature, defending the poor, and building networks of respect and fraternity.” Pope Francis, “Laudato si'” - 24 May 2015

“Don’t wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.” Albert Camus, “The Fall” - 1956

“I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes,—a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,—a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,—and a dark shelter under, which the darkest,...” Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” - 1845

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

“Tom counted the pages of the sermon; after church he always knew how many pages there had been, but he seldom knew anything else about the discourse.” Mark Twain, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” - 1876

“It is, I am afraid, true that frequently various religious groups endeavor to exert pressures and control over different legislative and educational fields. It is the job of all of us to be alert for such infringement of our prerogatives and...” Eleanor Roosevelt, “The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt” - 1961

“What good is religion if it collapses under calamity? Think of what earthquakes and floods, wars and volcanoes, have done before to men! Did you think God had exempted Weybridge? He is not an insurance agent.” H. G. Wells, “The War of the Worlds” - 1898

“If we continue to think and live as if we belong only to different cultures and different religions, with separate missions and goals, we will always be in self-defeating competition with each other.” Muhammad Ali, “The Soul of a Butterfly” - 2004

“A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear and punishment and hope of reward after death.” Albert Einstein, “The world as I see it” - 1949

“There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious.” William James, “The Varieties of Religious Experience” - 1902

“The world bears the Gospel a grudge because the Gospel condemns the religious wisdom of the world. Jealous for its own religious views, the world in turn charges the Gospel with being a subversive and licentious doctrine, offensive to God and...” Martin Luther, “Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians” - 1535

“What have I always believed? That on the whole, and by and large, if a man lived properly, not according to what any priests said, but according to what seemed decent and honest inside, then it would, at the end, more or less, turn out all right.” Terry Pratchett, “Small Gods” - 1992

“I doubt whether the people of this country would suffer an execution for heresy, or a three years imprisonment for not comprehending the mysteries of the Trinity.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

Related topics

God science belief morality reason truth fear faith government miracle slavery Christianity difference love ignorance evil heart freedom will comfort

Related authors

C. S. Lewis (6)
Carl Sagan (5)
Albert Einstein (4)
Thomas Jefferson (4)
Muhammad Ali (3)
Ambrose Bierce (3)
Terry Pratchett (3)
William James (3)
Charlotte Brontë (2)
Herman Melville (2)
Virginia Woolf (2)
David Hume (2)
Mahatma Gandhi (2)
Martin Luther (2)
Alexis de Tocqueville (2)
Frederick Douglass (2)
Karl Marx (2)
Immanuel Kant (2)
Charles Bukowski (2)
Isaac Asimov (2)

Related sources

Mere Christianity (4)
The world as I see it (4)
Notes on the State of Virginia (4)
The Soul of a Butterfly (3)
The Devil's Dictionary (3)
The Varieties of Religious Experience (3)
Small Gods (3)
Contact (3)
Jane Eyre (2)
Moby-Dick (2)
Mrs Dalloway (2)
The Story of my Experiments with Truth (2)
Democracy in America (2)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (2)
Das Kapital (2)
Critique of Pure Reason (2)
Ham on Rye (2)
Foundation (2)
The Real Frank Zappa Book (2)
The Screwtape Letters (2)