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Religion Quotes

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Religion Quotes

“Religion is like the fashion, one man wears his doublet slashed, another lashed, another plain; but every man has a doublet; so every man has a religion. We differ about the trimming.”

Men Religion Fashion Every Man One Man Trimming

Author:John Selden

“When table utensils were invented in the 1100s, the Catholic Church condemned them as obscene and heretical, claiming, 'God gave us fingers with which to eat.' And we're supposed to get politically discouraged? Oh please. We're being opposed by people who denounced the fork.”

People Religion Church Feminism Please Catholic Tables Fingers Discouraged Catholic Church Forks Obscene Utensils

Author:Robin Morgan

“Religion is for the man in humble life, and to raise his nature, and to put him in mind of a state in which the privileges of opulence will cease, when he will be equal by nature, and may be more than equal by virtue.”

Men Mind May States Religion Virtue He Man Equal Raises Privilege Humble Cease Opulence

Book:The works and correspondence of...Edmund Burke

Source: The works and correspondence of...Edmund Burke

“Religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort.”

Religion Source Comfort Bases Civil Society

Book:Edmund Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches

Source: Edmund Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches

“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.”

Men World Humans Would Be Law Religion Force Understanding Independent Institutions Substance Cheat Paramount

Book:The works and correspondence of...Edmund Burke

Source: The works and correspondence of...Edmund Burke

“True religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric cannot be stable nor lasting.”

Whole Religion Foundation Lasting Contempt Stable Fabric True Religion

Author:Edmund Burke

“How many evils has religion caused! [Lat., Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum!]”

Author:Lucretius

“When religion doth with virtue join, it makes a hero like an angel shine.”

Religion Virtue Hero Angel Shining

Author:Edmund Waller

“If we traverse the world, it is possible to find cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without wealth, without coin, without schools and theatres; but a city without a temple, or that practiseth not worship, prayer, and the like, no one ever saw.”

Ifs World School Religion Wealth Prayer Cities Saws Wall Kings Worship Letters Theatre Temples Coins Traverse

Author:Plutarch

“It is not the church we want, but the sacrifice; not the emotion of admiration, but the act of adoration; not the gift, but the giving.”

Want Giving Religion Church Emotion Sacrifice Admiration Adoration

Book:¬The Seven Lamps of Architecture

Source: ¬The Seven Lamps of Architecture

“Humanity and Immortality consist neither in reason, nor in love; not in the body, nor in the animation of the heart of it, nor in the thoughts and stirrings of the brain of it;--but in the dedication of them all to Him who will raise them up at the last day.”

Heart Reason Body Lasts Religion Humanity Brain Raises Immortality Dedication Animation Stirring Last Day

Book:The Stones of Venice

Source: The Stones of Venice

“True religion has a universal quality. It does not find fault with other religions. False religions will find fault with other religions; they will say that theirs is the only valid religion and their prophet is the only saviour. But a true religion will feel that all the prophets are saviours of mankind.”

Feels Doe Religion Quality Mankind Universal Faults Prophet Saviour True Religion

Book:Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy

Source: Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy

“Many people make their own God; and he is much what the French may mean when they talk of le bon Dieu,--very indulgent, rather weak, near at hand when we want anything, but far away out of sight when we have a mind to do wrong. Such a God is as much an idol as if he were an image of stone.”

People Ifs Want Mind May Mean Hands Religion Stones Weak Sight Idols Far Away

Book:Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers: From the Fifth London Ed

Source: Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers: From the Fifth London Ed

“Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.”

“The language of religion can alone suit every situation and every mode of feeling.”

Feelings Religion Language Situation Suits

Author:Madame de Stael

“[On religion:] Wasn't it invented by man for a kind of solace? It's as though he had said, 'I'll make me a nice comfortable garment to shut out the heat and the cold,' and then it ends by becoming a strait-jacket.”

Men Kind Said Ends Religion Nice Cold Becoming Comfortable Heat Jackets Garments Solace

Author:Agnes Sligh Turnbull

“Religion--that voice of the deepest human experience.”

Humans Religion Voice Human Experience

Book:Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism

Source: Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism

“Religion is fire which example keeps alive, and which goes out if not communicated.”

Ifs Religion Fire Alive Example

Book:Pensées of Joubert

Source: Pensées of Joubert

“Religion is neither a theology nor a theosophy; it is more than that, it is a discipline, a law, a yoke, an indissoluble engagement.”

Law Religion Discipline Theology Engagement Yoke

Book:Pensées of Joubert

Source: Pensées of Joubert

“Religion is the only metaphysic that the multitude can understand and adopt.”

Religion Multitudes

Book:Some of the

Source: Some of the

“Religion must be loved as a kind of country and nursing-mother. It was religion that nourished our virtues, that showed us heaven, that taught us to walk in the path of duty.”

Kind Country Mother Religion Heaven Walks Virtue Path Taught Duty Nursing Taught Us

Book:Pensées of Joubert

Source: Pensées of Joubert

“Which is more misshapen,--religion without virtue, or virtue without religion?”

Religion Virtue

Author:Joseph Joubert

“Without fear of contradiction, I can safely say that every step in progress that woman has made she has been assailed by ecclesiastics, that her most vigilant unwearied opponents have always been the clergy.”

Has Beens Made I Can Religion Steps Progress Opponents Contradiction Every Step Clergy Vigilant

Author:Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“Religious superstitions more than all other influences put together cripple & enslave woman, but so long as women themselves do not see it & hug their chains, we have a great educational work to do.”

Long Together Religion Religious Influence Educational Chains Sexism Superstitions Hug Cripples Great Educational

Author:Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“I have been into many of the ancient cathedrals - grand, wonderful, mysterious. But I always leave them with a feeling of indignation because of the generations of human beings who have struggled in poverty to build these altars to the unknown god.”

Humans Has Beens Feelings Religion Women Human Beings Poverty Wonderful Generations Ancient Mysterious Altars Cathedrals Indignation

Book:Elizabeth Cady Stanton as Revealed in Her Letters, Diary and Reminiscences

Source: Elizabeth Cady Stanton as Revealed in Her Letters, Diary and Reminiscences

“You may go over the world and you will find that every form of religion which has breathed upon this earth has degraded woman.”

World May Earth Form Religion

Book:The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: When clowns make laws for queens, 1880-1887

Source: The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: When clowns make laws for queens, 1880-1887

“religion, like beauty, cannot be experienced in cold blood.”

Religion Blood Cold

Book:Mixed Pasture: Twelve Essays and Addresses

Source: Mixed Pasture: Twelve Essays and Addresses

“The world of religion is no longer a concrete fact proposed for our acceptance and adoration. It is an unfathomable universe which engulfs us, and which lives its own majestic uncomprehended life: and we discover that our careful maps and cherished definitions bear little relation to its unmeasured reality.”

World Littles Facts Reality Religion Universe Acceptance Bears Relation Definitions Careful Maps Concrete Adoration Majestic Unfathomable

Author:Evelyn Underhill

“Religion gives a dignity to distress.”

Giving Religion Dignity Distress

Book:Meditations and contemplations: to which is prefixed the life of the author

Source: Meditations and contemplations: to which is prefixed the life of the author

“The Puritan did not stop to think; he recognized God in his soul, and acted.”

Thinking Soul Religion Puritan

Book:Speeches, Lectures, and Letters, Second Series

Source: Speeches, Lectures, and Letters, Second Series

“Organized religious institutions are in for a huge transformation, for the simple reason that people have become genuinely religious in spite of them.”

People Reason Religion Religious Simple Huge Transformation Institutions Organized Spite

Book:Illuminata: Thoughts, Prayers, Rites of Passage

Source: Illuminata: Thoughts, Prayers, Rites of Passage

“Irish Catholicism is very much founded on the stone of fear and of punishment.”

Religion Stones Punishment Catholicism

Author:Edna O'Brien

“Sincerity is the indispensable ground of all conscientiousness, and by consequence of all heartfelt religion.”

Religion Consequence Sincerity Indispensable Heartfelt Conscientiousness

Author:Immanuel Kant

“The mysteries of the faith are not to [be] explained rashly to anyone. Usually in fact, they cannot be understood by everyone but only by those who are qualified to understand them with informed intelligence. The depth of the divine Scriptures is such that not only the illiterate and uninitiated have difficulty understanding them, but also the educated and the gifted.”

Facts Religion Understanding Mystery Atheism Divine Understood Difficulty Depth Scripture Educated Gifted Qualified Illiterate

Author:Pope Innocent III

“Without God there would be no freedom to believe what you want.”

Want Believe Would Be Religion Atheism What You Want Without God

Author:Roy Moore

“The doctrine of the double motion of the earth about its axis and about the sun is false, and entirely contrary to Holy Scripture.”

Earth Religion Sun Atheism Holy Contrary Scripture Doctrine Holy Scriptures Axes

Author:Pope Paul V

“If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good.”

Ifs Needs Littles Religion Culture Atheism Encounters Doing Good

Author:Pope Francis

“I am absolutely convinced that religion is the main source of hatred in this world.”

World Religion Atheism This World Source Hatred Convinced

Author:Christopher Hitchens

“We shouldn't even need the word 'atheism'. If people didn't invent ridiculous imaginary gods, rational people wouldn't have to deny them.”

People Ifs Needs Religion Atheism Deny Ridiculous Rational Imaginary

Author:Ricky Gervais

“Free thought means fearless thought. It is not deterred by legal penalties, nor by spiritual consequences. Dissent from the Bible does not alarm the true investigator, who takes truth for authority not authority for truth. The thinker who is really free, is independent; he is under no dread; he yields to no menace; he is not dismayed by law, nor custom, nor pulpits, nor society-whose opinion appals so many. He who has the manly passion of free thought, has no fear of anything, save the fear of error.”

Source: English Secularism: A Confession of Belief

“One People, one Reign, one Leader.”

People Religion Leader Atheism Reign

Author:Adolf Hitler

“Inculcating the various competing - competing, note - falsehoods of the major faiths into small children is a form of child abuse, and a scandal.”

Children Form Religion Atheism Majors Abuse Notes Various Child Abuse Falsehood Competing Scandal Small Child

Book:Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness

Source: Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness

“Creationists argue that natural selection is only a negative process, and therefore cannot create anything. Chopra argues that skepticism is only a negative process, and therefore does not lead to knowledge. Both are wrong for the same reasons. They ignore the generation of diversity and new ideas upon which natural selection and skepticism acts. Weeding out the unfit is critical to both - natural selection allows evolution to proceed, and skepticism allows science to advance.”

Doe Ideas Reason Religion Process Natural Generations Atheism Evolution Diversity Negative Critical Arguing Weed Skepticism New Ideas Selection Natural Selection

Author:Steven Novella

“Relativity. Gravity. Quantum. Electrodynamics. Evolution. Each of these theories is true, whether or not you believe in them.”

Believe Religion Atheism Theory Evolution Gravity Quantum Relativity

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Thermodynamics, correctly interpreted, does not just allow Darwinian evolution; it favors it.”

Doe Religion Atheism Evolution Favors Thermodynamics

Author:Ludwig Boltzmann

“An alliance or coalition between Government and religion cannot be too carefully guarded against......Every new and successful example therefore of a PERFECT SEPARATION between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance........religion and government will exist in greater purity, without (rather) than with the aid of government.”

Matter Government Religion Perfect Successful Greater Example Importance Aids Separation Purity Alliances Coalitions Guarded Religion And Government

Author:James Madison

“...Freedom arises from the multiplicity of sects, which prevades America and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.”

America Religion Religious Liberty Security Majority Arise Variety Sects Multiplicity Religious Liberty

Book:The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates' Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution

Source: The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates' Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution

“Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offense against God, not against man:To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered.”

Ifs Men Mind Believe Religion Divine Equal Evidence Accounts Embrace Deny Convinced Offense

Book:Religious Freedom. A memorial and remonstrance drawn by ... J. Madison, late President of the United States, ... against the general assessment in

Source: Religious Freedom. A memorial and remonstrance drawn by ... J. Madison, late President of the United States, ... against the general assessment in

“...several of the first presidents, including Jefferson and Madison, generally refused to issue public prayers, despite importunings to do so. Under pressure, Madison relented in the War Of 1812, but held to his belief that chaplains shouldn't be appointed to the military or be allowed to open Congress.”

Firsts War Religion Belief President Prayer Issues Military Pressure Including Congress Despite Under Pressure Madison Chaplains War Of 1812

Author:James Madison

“No distinction seems to be more obvious than that between spiritual and temporal matters. Yet whenever they have been made objects of Legislation, they have clashed and contended with each other, till one or the other has gained the supremacy.”

Has Beens Made Matter Seems Spiritual Religion Objects Obvious Distinction Legislation Supremacy

Author:James Madison