All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.

Sincere Christians can disagree about the details of Scripture and theology – absolutely.

Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.

Nothing is further than earth from heaven, and nothing is nearer than heaven to earth.

In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.

We are eternal beings – spirit children of heavenly parents.

Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.

If you have God on your side, everything becomes clear.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values – that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

For me, the real earth is that chosen part of the universe, still almost universally dispersed and in course of gradual segregation, but which is little by little taking on body and form in Christ.

In spiritual things, it is God who performs all things for you. Rest in Him, then.

In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don’t baptize the children of single mothers because they weren’t conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today’s hypocrites. Those who clericalize the church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation.

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.

Do not let circumstances control you. You change your circumstances.

Spiritual worldliness kills! It kills the soul! It kills the Church!

Don’t say I hate institutionalised religion – rather than saying I hate those things, which I do not, what I’m saying is that perhaps there is a way of opening more doors, rather than closing so many.

Religion is the opium of the masses.

We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.

Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.

Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it and had his being there. Alone in all history, he estimated the greatness of man.

I don’t think Romney is wacky at all, but religion makes intelligent people say and do wacky things, believe and affirm crazy things. Left on his own, Romney would never have said something like the Garden Of Eden was in Missouri, and will be again.

It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

Faith is easy; I think people complicate it.

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

Our personal intelligence is everlasting and divine.

I don’t let my religious world get too complicated.

I don’t believe in the school of hard knocks, although I’ve had them. All that stuff about whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is so not true. Do you know what makes you stronger? When people treat you and your art with dignity.

God’s mercy and grace give me hope – for myself, and for our world.

Music is something no one can control.

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

Knowledge is power.

If God dropped acid, would he see people?

Women deeply want men who are competent and powerful. And I don’t mean power in that they can exert tyrannical control over others. That’s not power. That’s just corruption.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

Man is supposed to be the maker of his destiny. It is only partly true. He can make his destiny, only in so far as he is allowed by the Great Power.

I believe that God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom.

I do not believe any of the statistical claims that are made about public opinion. I don’t see why anybody does.

I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man.

The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.

That God does not exist, I cannot deny, That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.

It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.

All our actions, as well as our thoughts and words, should praise Him who always blesses us.

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.

I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else – God is in this person’s life. You can – you must – try to seek God in every human life.

It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down. Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosopher’s or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself, and that is why you must know yourself – Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self.

Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man should himself lend a hand.

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.

My mom is very religious – Catholic – and from a young age they brought me to the church.

The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

I don’t think that the total creation took place in six days as we now measure time. If we can confirm, say, the Big Bang theory, that doesn’t at all cause me to question my faith that God created the Big Bang.