We should pass the U.N.’s Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. At least it will clearly establish whom you view as a terrorist and whom you don’t. We need to delink terrorism from religion – to isolate terrorists who use this interchange of arguments between terrorism and religion.

If you have religious faith, very good, you can add on secular ethics, then religious belief, add on it, very good. But even those people who have no interest about religion, okay, it’s not religion, but you can train through education.

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

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.

A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it’s not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It’s more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.

I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.

I did once seriously think of embracing the Christian faith. The gentle figure of Christ, so full of forgiveness that he taught his followers not to retaliate when abused or struck, but to turn the other cheek – I thought it was a beautiful example of the perfect man.

I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.

People are finding it harder and harder to relate to foreign policy.

Mormonism is a little different, but I still see them as brothers in Christ.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be… The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.

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

We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

The fault lines are shifting from the boundaries of nations into the web of our societies and the streets of our cities. And, terrorism and extremism are a global force that are larger than their changing names, groups, territories and targets.

A war is a horrible thing, but it’s also a unifier of countries.

My mother always used to say, ‚Well, if you had been born a little girl growing up in Egypt, you would go to church or go to worship Allah, but surely if those people are worshipping a God, it must be the same God‘ – that’s what she always said. The same God with different names.

In the Bible, we first encounter God when he sides with a bunch of slaves against a powerful Pharaoh, an act of grace freely given.

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.

Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.

More understand China, then more people will have interest in China and more people will come to China to visit us because I am a tourist ambassador.

By respect for life we become religious in a way that is elementary, profound and alive.

If 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.

I think, for years, people have been pushed down by religion, and I don’t say that disrespectfully, but they’ve been shown a God that you can’t measure up to.

What is the one country in the Middle East that has not been attacked by ISIS? One. That is Iran. That is more than happenstance, I’m sure.

We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.

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.

Such is the feebleness of humanity, such is its perversity, that doubtless it is better for it to be subject to all possible superstitions, as long as they are not murderous, than to live without religion.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

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

In a country with millions of people and cars going everywhere, the enemy is going to get a car bomb out there once in awhile.

I don’t think it is so difficult to solve the problems between Cuba and the United States; it all depends on whether there is a dialogue, a discussion, or if the prejudices and hatred of people like the extremists and terrorists from the Cuban community, who try to impose their policies, prevail.

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.

Conversion is not my intention. Changing religion is not easy. You may develop some kind of confusion or difficulties.

In Romania, American forces have found a devoted NATO ally.

As I approached my 95th birthday, I was burdened to write a book that addressed the epidemic of ‚easy believism.‘ There is a mindset today that if people believe in God and do good works, they are going to Heaven.

I’m just hoping that people understand that Islam is peace and not violence.

Now if there is one thing that we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage somebody else’s affairs.

When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that’s my religion.

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.

Sometimes we look at gay being a bigger sin than being proud or not telling the truth. I don’t think God categorizes sins.

God always wants us to be growing.

I don’t know which will go first – rock ‚n‘ roll or Christianity.

In this quest to seek and find God in all things, there is still an area of uncertainty. There must be. If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good.

If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.

I 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.

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

Men do not accept their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and worship those whom they have tortured to death.

The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.

Everybody’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s a really easy way: stop participating in it.

I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know.

Japan is an important ally of ours. Japan and the United States of the Western industrialized capacity, 60 percent of the GNP, two countries. That’s a statement in and of itself.

Just take terrorism, for example. We have a team of more than 200 people working on counterterrorism. I mean, that’s pretty intense. That’s not like what people think about what Facebook is.

Foe means enemy. Now, will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That’s part of the normal diplomatic relations.

As strong as the United States is, we can’t deal with terrorism alone.

I believed what my father taught me about the separation of church and state, so when I was President I never invited Billy Graham to have services in the White House because I didn’t think that was appropriate. He was injured a little bit, until I explained it to him.

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

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