R Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with R. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Religion, it is true, still possesses the huge if cumbersome and unwieldy advantage of having come first.”
Source: God is Not Great
“Religion, it must be understood, is not faith. Religion is the story of faith.”
“Religion, it seems to me, has nothing whatsoever to do with any belief, with any priest, with any church or so-called sacred book. The state of the religious mind can be understood only when we begin to understand what beauty is; and the understanding of beauty must be approached through total aloneness.”
Source: The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti, (1963-1964): The New Mind
“Religion, it stops people from thinking because they think all the answers are in that one book; it impedes progress; it justifies crazy people. Flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative.”
“Religion, like all things, begins with self, And naught is known, until one knows himself.”
“religion, like beauty, cannot be experienced in cold blood.”
Source: Mixed Pasture: Twelve Essays and Addresses
“Religion, like its votaries, while it exists on earth, must have a body as well as a soul. A religion purely spiritual might suit a being as pure, but men are compound animals; and the body too often lords it over the mind.”
Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
“Religion, like poetry, is not a mere idea, it is expression. The self-expression of God is in the endless variety of creation; and our attitude toward the Infinite Being must also in its expression have a variety of individuality ceaseless and unendi.”
Source: Tagore
“Religion, like water, may be free, but when they pipe it to you, you've got to help pay for the piping. And the piper.”
“Religion, media and schools tell us to disregard animals, view them as commodities, property and resources, and convince us that animals cannot think clearly, nor act morally or altruistically, nor experience love and hatred, or kindness and terror, in the same way that we can.”
“Religion, morality, and knowledge are necessary for good government... Therefore schools and the means of educating the people should always be encouraged.”
“Religion, morality, and patriotism are feelings that are manifested only when they are outraged.”
Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms
“Religion, mysticism and magic all spring from the same basic 'feeling' about the universe: a sudden feeling of meaning, which human beings sometimes 'pick up' accidentally, as your radio might pick up some unknown station. Poets feel that we are cut off from meaning by a thick, lead wall, and that sometimes for no reason we can understand the wall seems to vanish and we are suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of the infinite interestingness of things.”
Source: The Occult: A History
“Religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and, therefore, that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate, unless under color of religion any man disturb the peace, the happiness, or safety of society, and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and charity toward each other.”
Source: The Writings of James Madison: 1769-1783
“Religion, politics, society are exploiting you, and you are being conditioned by them; you are being forced in a particular direction. You are not human beings; you are mere cogs in a machine.”
“Religion, richest favor of the skies.”
Source: The task, Table talk, and other poems: With critical observations of various authors on his genius and character, and notes, critical and illustrative
“Religion, society and state - from none of these do women get their proper honor. It is religion, which has created an unparalleled disparity between men and women.”
“Religion, Society, and Nature--these are the three struggles of man.”
Source: Hugo's Works: Toilers of the Sea
“Religion, the dominion of the human mind; Property, the dominion of human needs; and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent the stronghold of man's enslavement and all the horrors it entails.”
Source: Anarchism and Other Essays
“Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine. Since the relation may be either moral, physical, or ritual, it is evident that out of religion in the sense in which we take it, theologies, philosophies, and ecclesiastical organizations may secondarily grow.”
Source: James and Dewey on Belief and Experience
“Religion, to have any force upon men's understandings,--indeed, to exist at all,--must be supposed paramount to law, and independent for its substance upon any human institution, else it would be the absurdest thing in the world,--an acknowledged cheat.”
Source: The works and correspondence of...Edmund Burke
“Religion, to me, is a bureaucracy between man and God that I don't need.”
“Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?”
Source: Dune Messiah
“Religion, whatever it is, is a man's total reaction upon life.”
Source: James and Dewey on Belief and Experience
“Religion, which never intervenes directly in the government of American society, should therefore be considered as the first of their political institutions”
Source: Democracy in America: An Annotated Text Backgrounds Interpretations
“Religion, which true policy befriends,
Designed by God to serve man's noblest ends,
Is by that old deceiver's subtle play
Made the chief party in its own decay,
And meets the eagle's destiny, whose breast
Felt the same shaft which his own feathers drest.”
“Religion, you can't a handle on it, you just have to know or not know-people either believe or they don't believe.”
“Religion, you know, enters very deep; in reality it is the deepest impression I have in speaking to people, that they are or that they are not of my religion.”
Source: Selected Letters
“Religion--that voice of the deepest human experience.”
Source: Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism
“Religion-freedom-vengeance-what you will, A word's enough to raise mankind to kill.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)
“Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.”
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
“Religion. It's given people hope in a world torn apart by religion.”
“Religion: 'My identity is built on being a good person.' Gospel: 'My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on Christ's.'”
“Religion: A lot of fanciful ideas inspired by wishful thinking. Science: A lot of logical ideas based on the best evidence available. Which should we have faith in?”
“RELIGION: A set of beliefs held as dogmas, dominating the conduct of life, going beyond or contrary to evidence, and inculcated by methods which are emotional or authoritarian, not intellectual.”
Source: Uncertain Paths to Freedom: Russia and China, 1919-22
“Religion: Something comparable to childhood neurosis”
“Religion: Together we can find the cure.”
“Religion?" I asked more firmly. Patch dragged a hand thoughtfully along the line of his jaw. "Not religion ... cult." "You belong to a cult?" I realized too late that while I sounded surprised, I shouldn't have. "As it turns out, I'm in need of a healthy female sacrifice. I'd planned on luring her into trusting me first, but if you're ready now...”
Source: The Complete Hush, Hush Saga: includes Hush, Hush; Crescendo; Silence and Finale
“Religion?" Mr Kumar grinned broadly. "I don't believe in religion. Religion is darkness.”
Source: Life of Pi
“Religions . . . seem to avoid mountain passes.”
“Religions all have different names, but they all contain the same truths. ... I think the people of our religion should be tolerant and understand people believe different things.”
“Religions all over the world have for centuries been telling people to serve humanity, ut this has not produced any effect, On the contrary, it has created hypocrites. People who are not blissful are unable to help anybody. You can only give light to others if you have the light in the first place.
What has been happening is that blind people lead other blind people. This is a dangerous game, because if the blind person knows that he has nobody guiding him, then he tries to be aware and find his own way. He remains aware, careful and cautious. But if he finds somebody to lead him and guide him, then he need not be so alert. But if he is completely unaware that the guide is also blind, then there is more danger than before, and he will not live cautiously. He will think that somebody is there to take responsibility, so now he need not be alert.
It is because of this situation - blind people leading other blind people - that the whole of humanity has almost become a madhouse. Life has almost become intolerable.
And the people that have taught service to humanity have only hindered the growth of people. People start serving others, without knowing whether they are capable of helping others. The desire to guide others is there in anybody, because it is very ego-gratifying. That is why everybody is ready to give advice whether you ask for it or not.
Only the people who are blissful can be helpers. Unless a man is conscious it is possible for him to guide anybody. One can help others only if one has first helped yourself. It begins from your very being, from your innermost core. There has been enough of the kind of help, which has done enough harm.
The first step is to help yourself. If you can attain to light, to bliss and to an experience of godliness, then you are bound to help others. Then there is no need to say something about it. It will happen by itself, because your bliss, love, silence, light and truth will start overflowing. And only the joyful person can be helpful, the miserable person can only do harm.
The most basic thing is to become blissful. You can only share what you have. A man who has learned to love himself will be able to love others. A man who has become blissful will be able to spread his bliss. One always gives whatsoever one has. One radiates it. It starts to radiate and to function on its own accord. It is a magic, which works on its own.”
Source: The Way of the Heart
“Religions and many theoretical constructions are metanarratives, but liberalism and science are not.”
Source: Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody
“Religions and states and classes and tribes and nations do not have to work or argue for their adherents and subjects. They more or less inherit them. Against this unearned patrimony there have always been speakers and writers who embody Einstein's injunction to 'remember your humanity and forget the rest.' It would be immodest to claim membership in this fraternity/sorority, but I hope not to have done anything to outrage it. Despite the idiotic sneer that such principles are 'fashionable,' it is always the ideas of secularism, libertarianism, internationalism, and solidarity that stand in need of reaffirmation.”
Source: Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports
“Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.”
“Religions are all founded on miracles - on things we cannot understand, such as the Trinity. Jesus calls himself the Son of God, and yet is descended from David. I prefer the religion of Mahomet - it is less ridiculous than ours.”
“Religions are all living faiths and their essence does not consist in their externals such as rituals, methods of prayer, ceremonies, etc. It rather consist in the inner beliefs and convictions which they carry along with them and which give their followers a distinctive character and way of life.”
Source: Comparative Religion
“Religions are all the same...Based upon legends and fantasies”
“Religions are, by definition, metaphors, after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you—even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers, and triumphs over all opposition. Religions are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world. So none of this is happening. Such things could not occur. Never a word of it is literally true.”
Source: American Gods
“Religions are conclusions for which the facts of nature supply no major premises.”
Source: The Shadow on the Dial: And Other Essays