I think there’s a lot of similarity between what people try to do with religion with what they want from art. In fact, I very specifically think that they are same thing. Not that religion and art are the same, but that they both tap into the same need we have for surrender.
Brian EnoIf any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say that it is in one word – prayer. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.
Charles SpurgeonThe difference between Socrates and Jesus? The great conscious and the immeasurably great unconscious.
Thomas CarlyleWhat the world requires of the Christians is that they should continue to be Christians.
Albert CamusA little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.
Francis BaconThe Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.
Martin LutherIt 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.
Mahatma GandhiI hope I would not be so arrogant as to doubt anyone’s religion or belief.
Anthony HopkinsReligion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.
Edmund BurkeI cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
Friedrich NietzscheIn this world filled with challenges, we do need help from time to time. Religion, eternal truth, and our missionaries are vital parts of that help.
Russell M. NelsonTo believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
VoltaireI don’t believe in God but I’m very interested in her.
Arthur C. ClarkeThat God does not exist, I cannot deny, That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.
Jean-Paul SartreA strong argument for the religion of Christ is this – that offences against Charity are about the only ones which men on their death-beds can be made – not to understand – but to feel – as crime.
Edgar Allan PoeI always tell people that religious institutions and political institutions should be separate. So while I’m telling people this, I myself continue with them combined. Hypocrisy!
Dalai LamaUnless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed.
EpictetusIt’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Barack ObamaI believe many people feel like God is mad at them.
Joyce MeyerI care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
Abraham LincolnThe Bible is a sanctum; the world, sputum.
Franz KafkaI always say that people should not rush to change religions. There is real value in finding the spiritual resources you need in your home religion.
Dalai LamaI tell you the solemn truth, that the doctrine of the Trinity is not so difficult to accept for a working proposition as any one of the axioms of physics.
Henry AdamsSpiritual worldliness kills! It kills the soul! It kills the Church!
Pope FrancisConversion is not my intention. Changing religion is not easy. You may develop some kind of confusion or difficulties.
Dalai LamaIf you are part of a religion that very strongly insists that you believe then to decide not to do that is quite a big hurdle to jump over. You never forget the thought process you went through. It becomes part of your whole intellectual picture.
Brian EnoGod doesn’t dwell in the wooden, stony or earthen idols. His abode is in our feelings, our thoughts.
ChanakyaI was always respectful of people who were deeply religious because I always felt that if they gave themselves to it, then it had to be important to them. But if you can go through life without it, that’s OK, too. It’s whatever suits you.
Clint EastwoodAs a member of the Church, you have made sacred covenants with the Lord.
Russell M. NelsonJesus never said a word about homosexuality. In all of his teachings about multiple things – he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.
Jimmy CarterGod is a concept by which we measure our pain.
John LennonReligion and ritual can be vehicles for entering stillness. It says in Psalm 46:10, ‚Be still, and know that I am God.‘ But they are still just vehicles. The Buddha called his teaching a raft: You don’t need to carry it around with you after you’ve crossed the river.
Eckhart TolleI do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.
Baruch SpinozaThe United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam.
Barack ObamaI’m working at trying to be a Christian, and that’s serious business. It’s like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy – it’s serious business.
Maya AngelouI am a Christian, and the Bible teaches me to forgive.
Mr. TOnly God who made us can touch us and change us and save us from ourselves.
Billy GrahamTruly, there is a Christian note which makes the whole World vibrate, like an immense gong, in the divine Christ. This note is unique and universal, and in it alone consists the Gospel.
Pierre Teilhard de ChardinIf a man reaches the heart of his own religion, he has reached the heart of the others, too. There is only one God, and there are many paths to him.
Mahatma GandhiI think being an atheist is something you are, not something you do.
Christopher HitchensI’ve always believed in God. I also think that’s the sort of thing that either comes as part of the equipment, the capacity to believe, or at some point in your life, when you’re in a position where you actually need help from a power greater than yourself, you simply make an agreement.
Stephen KingMan is not born to atheism. He is born to believe.
Billy GrahamNo sinner is ever saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon.
Mark TwainWhen men do not have healthy notions of the Divinity, false ideas supplant them, just as in bad times one uses counterfeit money when there is no good money.
VoltaireJust in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.
Bill GatesI believe the scripture says that being gay is a sin.
Joel OsteenThat I am not a member of any Christian church is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures, and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular.
Abraham LincolnAt the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.
Booker T. WashingtonReligion, born of the earth’s need for the disclosing of a god, is related to and co-extensive with not the individual man, but the whole of mankind.
Pierre Teilhard de ChardinIt is well known that the Soviet Union closely regulates all organizations and movements, including religion.
Billy GrahamThere are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‚Thy will be done,‘ and those to whom God says, ‚All right, then, have it your way.‘
C. S. LewisMy religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray.
Mahatma GandhiReligion is the recognition of all our duties as divine commands.
Immanuel KantA tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
AristotleThere must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, it must not scream or curse.
William JamesWe must show our Christian colors if we are to be true to Jesus Christ.
C. S. LewisI’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.
Paul AusterI am radically, insanely, nutty in love with Jesus!
Joyce MeyerWell, we can’t say any more than we can say there is no god, there is no afterlife. We can only say there is no persuasive evidence for or argument for it.
Christopher HitchensReligion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
Karl Marx