Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

That old law about ‚an eye for an eye‘ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

What we have found in this country, and maybe we’re more aware of it now, is one problem that we’ve had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?

I don’t use Twitter for bad.

The poorest people are the sweetest people.

Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?… It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.

I love to go to the zoo. But not on Sunday. I don’t like to see the people making fun of the animals, when it should be the other way around.

We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse.

Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor.

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

Doing well is the result of doing good. That’s what capitalism is all about.

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world… to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

Violence is both unavoidable and unjustifiable.

Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.

God doesn’t dwell in the wooden, stony or earthen idols. His abode is in our feelings, our thoughts.

Here’s the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don’t find it anywhere else.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

I glory in the distinguishing grace of God and will not, by the grace of God, step one inch from my principles or think of adhering to the present fashionable sort of religion.

God tells us not to judge one another, no matter what anyone’s sexual preferences are or if they’re black, brown or purple.

The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin.

I am a nuclear physicist by training and a deeply committed Christian. I don’t have any doubt in my own mind about God who created the entire universe. But I don’t adhere to passages that so and so was created 4,000 years before Christ, and things of that kind.

Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.

I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace.

My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.

The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair.

It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions.

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all – the apathy of human beings.

There is still much debate about whether torture has been effective in eliciting information – the assumption being, apparently, that if it is effective, then it may be justified.

Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

Integrity has no need of rules.

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

To terrify children with the image of hell… to consider women an inferior creation. Is that good for the world?

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.

When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them, one is free of fear.

The proper study of mankind is woman.

The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

There is no scriptural basis for segregation.

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

I hope I would not be so arrogant as to doubt anyone’s religion or belief.

I’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.

You can wipe out your opponents. But if you do it unjustly you become eligible for being wiped out yourself.

Life is about conduct and how we conduct ourselves. But two wrongs never make a right.

You notice how liberals keep saying, ‚If only Islam would have a Reformation‘ – it can’t have one. It says it can’t. It’s extremely dangerous in that way.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

A President’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.

The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!

Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith.

I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.

I don’t believe in God but I’m very interested in her.

There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.

Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Freedom is not enough.