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Secular Quotes

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Secular Quotes

“If the many and the One be indeed the same Reality, then it is not all modes of worship alone, but equally all modes of work, all modes of struggle, all modes of creation, which are paths of realization. No distinction, henceforth, between sacred and secular. To labour is to pray. To conquer is to renounce. Life is itself religion. To have and to hold is as stern a trust as to quit and to avoid.”

IfsRealityLife IsStrugglePathCreationPrayingWorshipSacredQuittingRealizationConquerDistinctionLabourSecularRenounce
Book:Swamiji and His Message
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“Zionism is an abominable, racist and colonial movement. Like all colonial and apartheid systems, it's in the interest of all that it be swept away. My hope is to see it replaced, without any bloodshed, with a democratic, secular and lay state – for example on the borders of historic Palestine – and where Palestinians and Israelis could live under equal rights of citizenship without ethnic and religious discrimination. It's a wish that I hope will soon become a reality.”

StatesRealityWishInterestReligiousRightsExampleMovementEqualLaysDemocraticDiscriminationBordersRacistPalestinianSecularReplacedCitizenshipPalestineHistoricEqual RightsApartheidBloodshedZionismSwept Away
Author:Vittorio Arrigoni
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“If psychoanalysis was late 19th century secular Judaism’s way of finding spiritual meaning in a post-religious world, and retail is the late 20th century’s way of finding spiritual meaning in a post-religious world, what does it mean that I’m impersonating the father of psychoanalysis in a store window to commemorate a religious holiday?”

IfsWorldWayMeanDoeSpiritualFatherReligiousCenturyFindingsLateWindowStoresPostsHolidaySecular20th CenturyJudaismPsychoanalysis19th CenturyRetailReligious Holiday
Author:David Rakoff
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“They [Bishops] shall also banish from churches all those kinds of music, in which, whether by the organ, or in the singing, there is mixed up any thing lascivious or impure; as also all secular actions; vain and therefore profane conversations, all walking about, noise, and clamour, that so the house of God may be seen to be, and may be called, truly a house of prayer.”

KindMayActionHouseChurchPrayerWalkingConversationSingingNoiseVainOrgansSecularBishopsProfaneHouse Of GodClamour
Author:Pope Pius IV
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“There is nothing more difficult to outgrow than anxieties that have become useful to us, whether as explanations for a life that never quite finds its true force or direction, or as fuel for ambition, or as a kind of reflexive secular religion that, paradoxically, unites us with others in a shared sense of complete isolation: you feel at home in the world only by never feeling at home in the world.”

WorldFeelsKindFeelingsHomeForceDifficultAnxietyAmbitionExplanationIsolationFuelSecularNever Quit
Author:Christian Wiman
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“The sad reality is that there are no purely domestic issues in Israel. Issues that would be dealt with by municipalities in other countries - such as how to deal with a dangerous bridge or how to resolve conflicts between religious and secular bus riders - become major international issues when they occur in Israel.”

CountryRealityWould BeReligiousDealsIssuesDangerousConflictMajorsInternationalIsraelBridgesResolveBusOther CountriesSecularRidersMunicipalitySad Reality
Author:Alan Dershowitz
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“Whether one sees the world as God's creation or as a secular mystery that science is on the way to figuring out, there is no denying the beauty and majesty of everything from mountain ranges, deserts, and rain forests to the exquisite details in the design of an ordinary mosquito.”

WorldWayMysteryDesignCreationMountainSelf ImprovementOrdinaryRainDetailsImprovementForestsDesertRangeSecularMajestyExquisiteMosquitoesGod's CreationMountain Ranges
Book:Spirituality for the Skeptic: The Thoughtful Love of Life
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“We're stuck. We're stuck between the East and the West. Between the past and the future. On the one hand there are the secular modernists, so proud of the regime they constructed, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the army and half of the state on their side. On the other hand there are the conventional traditionalist, so infatuated with the Ottoman past, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the general public and the remaining half of the state on their side.”

StatesHandsPastSidesHalfProudArmyWestCriticalBreatheEastStuckRegimesConventionalSecularGeneral PublicInfatuatedOttomans
Author:Elif Safak
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“In a society where rationality has ruled so long, the church frequently fails to see that in forsaking the weekly pursuit of the transcendent, we have given up the only ground that was uniquely ours in this world. In attempting to make the church something that can attract and add value to secular mind-sets, we have turned our backs on our one true proposition - transcendence.”

WorldMindLongValuesGivenChurchFailingThis WorldAddPursuitSecularRationalityPropositionsAttemptingTranscendenceGiven UpTranscendentMind Set
Book:Vertical Church: What Every Heart Longs for. What Every Church Can Be.
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“What nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland.”

ForceGoalCommonDemocracyModernMilitarySuicideTerroristTerritorySecularStrategicHomelandTerrorist AttacksMilitary Force
Book:Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism
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“Much of human progress has been in defiance of religion or of the apparent natural order. The defiance of religious and secular authority has led to democracy, human rights, and the protection of the environment. Humanists make no apologies for this. Humanists twist no biblical doctrine to justify such actions.”

HumansHas BeensActionOrderNaturalReligiousDemocracyEnvironmentRightsProgressAuthorityHuman RightsProtectionDoctrineJustifyApologyBiblicalSecularTwistsDefianceHuman ProgressNatural Order
Author:Fred Edwords
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“You say, 'Well, I love secular music.' Let me just share something with you: I don't care. I'm not going to go there; this is what I'm going to tell you: It doesn't matter to me whether it's secular or Christian. My question is, what's being said in those words? Because if what's being said in those words contradicts the will of God, you're violating His will, and you're loving it.”

IfsWellsSaidMatterCareChristianShareLet MeDon't CareGods WillI Don't CareSecularSecular Music
Author:Paul Washer
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“The loss of the religious understanding of the human condition—that Man is a fallen creature for whom virtue is necessary but never fully attainable—is a loss, not a gain, in true sophistication. The secular substitute—the belief in the perfection of life on earth by the endless extension of a choice of pleasures—is not merely callow by comparison but much less realistic in its understanding of human nature.”

MenHumansEarthChoicesBeliefUnderstandingReligiousLossPleasureVirtueConditionsHuman NatureCreaturesGainsPerfectionEndlessFallenComparisonSubstitutesRealisticHuman ConditionSecularExtensionsSophistication
Book:Our Culture, What's Left of it: The Mandarins and the Masses
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“When the Chinese government tells its citizens that they can worship in a certain building on a certain day, but once they leave that building they must bow to the secular orthodoxy of the state, you have a cynical lie at work. They’ve substituted a toothless ‘freedom of worship’ for ‘freedom of religion’.”

StatesGovernmentLyingCertainBuildingCitizensWorshipChineseCynicalBowsSecularOrthodoxyFreedom Of ReligionToothlessChinese Government
Author:Eric Metaxas
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“Environmentalists and secular humanists insist that humans will destroy the planet. Corporate capitalists and many religious fundamentalists have no regard for wildlife and nature. Ultimately, this dualistic battle is based on false premises. In fact, this planet is more powerful than the human species.”

HumansFactsReligiousPowerfulPlanetsBattleRegardSpeciesCorporateCapitalistSecularPremisesWildlifeEnvironmentalistHuman SpeciesWildlife And Nature
Author:Zeena Schreck
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“But when we reduce sex to a function, we also invoke the idea of dysfunction. We are no longer talking about the art of sex; rather, we are talking about the mechanics of sex. Science has replaced religion as the authority; and science is a more formidable arbiter. Medicine knows how to scare even those who scoff at religion. Compared with a diagnosis, what's a mere sin? We used to moralize; today we normalize, and performance anxiety is the secular version of our old religious guilt.”

KnowsArtIdeasTodayUsedSexReligiousSinTalkingKnow HowAuthorityAnxietyPerformancesFunctionMedicineGuiltMereVersionsScareSecularReplacedMechanicDiagnosisFormidableInvokeDysfunctionArbiterPerformance Anxiety
Author:Esther Perel
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