Ritual will always mean throwing away something: destroying our corn or wine upon the altar of our gods.

Being brought up very religious, I have a fear of people that look to idol gods.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.

I definitely think, generally, rap is misogynistic.

To the man who reads ‚Scouting for Boys‘ superficially, there is a disappointing lack of religion in the book. But to him who tries it in practice, the basic religion underlying it soon becomes apparent.

I was raised a Catholic on both sides of the family. I went to a Catholic grade school and thought everybody in the country was Catholic, because that’s all I ever was associated with.

I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another.

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.

To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

If you grow up in a very strong religion like Catholicism you certainly cultivate in yourself a certain taste for the intensity of ideas.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

I think the self-burning itself on practice of non-violence. These people, you see, they easily use bomb explosive, more casualty people. But they didn’t do that. Only sacrifice their own life. So this also is part of practice of non-violence.

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.

I believe the scripture says that being gay is a sin.

I feel that there are a few things in the world without cultural barriers.

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

About the idea of a clash between cultures, between civilisations, I don’t believe in it. It’s something some political leaders tried to use, and that the media tried and are still trying to sell us, in order to simplify the world and their work.

In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.

My connection with Brazil is so abstract. My blood and my way of thinking is Brazilian, but that’s it. I don’t tend to go back to the past, and although I have an apartment there, I rarely visit. When I move, I really move.

I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.

A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‚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?‘ We must always consider the person.

I didn’t want to submit to the army and then, on the day of judgment, have God say to me, ‚Why did you do that?‘ This life is a trial, and you realize that what you do is going to be written down for Judgment Day.

I serve God.

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.

Hip-hop is ever changing but you’ll always have the pack. And you’ll always have those people who are separated from the pack.

I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm – not all – that religion used to fill.

Jesus 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.

Honolulu is a melting pot.

I separated from the Southern Baptists when they adopted the discriminatory attitude towards women, because I believe what Paul taught in Galatians that there is no distinction in God’s eyes between men and women, slaves and masters, Jews and non-Jews – everybody is created equally in the eyes of God.

Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.

I hate the rock music tradition. I can’t bear it!

My belief as a Christian is when we receive Christ as salvation, that that gives us a guarantee for Heaven.

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

Science is increasingly answering questions that used to be the province of religion.

With compassion you can die for other people, like the mother who can die for her child. You have the courage to say it because you are not afraid of losing anything, because you know that understanding and love is the foundation of happiness. But if you have fear of losing your status, your position, you will not have the courage to do it.

Indeed, the Lord has not forgotten! He has blessed us and others throughout the world with the Book of Mormon.

The martyr sacrifices themselves entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for they make the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, the narrow narrower.

When it all got taken away, I was becoming a young man. So I had to sacrifice to leave my family… Sleeping in my car, getting an apartment for a month and getting evicted the next month. Staying in the $25, $50 hotels.

Civilization is the making of civil persons.

A lot of churches have not moved with the times.

Christ was God in human flesh, and He proved it by rising from the dead.

Every child that isn’t born, but is unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of Jesus Christ, has the face of the Lord.

I don’t think I’ve ever been an agnostic. I’ve always thought there’s a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there’s a world to come.

I am a Catholic because I choose to be a Catholic. And then I go to the Mass because I choose. It is out of my free will.

The just is close to the people’s heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

Becoming a ‚Sir‘ is slightly uncomfortable at first, although it is a considerable honor. It is amazing how quickly you become accustomed to it.

I’m the proof – you can’t throw away tradition.

Religion is the recognition of all our duties as divine commands.

Religious organizations exist to foster the interests of persons subscribing to the same religious faith. Not so of for-profit corporations. Workers who sustain the operations of those corporations commonly are not drawn from one religious community.

I was baptized by my father when I was 4 years old.

It is hard to be an individual in Japan.

I’m trying to throw a big broad net to try to get people interested in God and believe that He’s for them and has a purpose.

I love tattoos. And mine symbolise who I really am. I have a Samurai on my left arm. At a subconscious level, I connect to this warrior and model myself on his discipline, skills and honour. There is also a tribal tattoo and a Chinese symbol of faith. I have seen a lot of people getting tattoos just because it’s a trend.

When my dad founded our church, he used either a globe or a map of the world behind him. It was symbolic of what Christ said: to go forth and preach hope to the world. We believe in the cross, but we just continued with the globe.

Every church is a stone on the grave of a god-man: it does not want him to rise up again under any circumstances.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.