6236c7d
|
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.
|
|
god
heart
humanity
inspirational
prayer
religion
souls
weakness
|
Mahatma Gandhi |
59e9aea
|
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
|
|
god
hope
love
|
Anonymous |
486c7b8
|
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
|
|
god
life
music
|
kurt vonnegut |
ebb763c
|
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
|
|
god
jesus
|
C.S. Lewis |
9df0084
|
Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that are gods.
|
|
atheism
cats
dogs
food
god
pets
religion
shelter
water
|
Christopher Hitchens |
63d5ea7
|
Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)... There are just some kind of men who - who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.
|
|
god
hatred
judgement
religion
|
Harper Lee |
cdbc1b2
|
I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: "Go down again - I dwell among the people.
|
|
god
inspirational
love
|
John Henry Newman |
645dc06
|
God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who .
|
|
gaiman
god
humor
|
Terry Pratchett |
c6f04b9
|
Parents are like God because you wanna know they're out there, and you want them to think well of you, but you really only call when you need something.
|
|
god
parents
|
Chuck Palahniuk |
9e3e075
|
Sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves.
|
|
faith
god
inspirational
love
|
Joni Eareckson Tada |
4e98adf
|
Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.
|
|
christianity
desire
god
heart
jesus
longing
peace
religion
rest
restlessness
|
Augustine of Hippo |
7a9fa2f
|
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
|
|
christianity
god
organized-religion
religion
yahweh
|
Richard Dawkins |
c8d3bf4
|
I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
|
|
god
purple
religion
|
alice walker |
14b9047
|
"She glared at me like she was about to punch me, but then she did something that surprised me even more. She kissed me.
|
|
god
gods
greek
kiss
|
Rick Riordan |
27c9f5d
|
Above all else, guard your heart for it affects everything else you do.
|
|
god
inspirational
religion
bible
|
Anonymous |
ff0f6ab
|
The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go God's love for us does not.
|
|
god
inspirational
love
|
C.S. Lewis |
884b602
|
And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
|
|
god
human
inspirational
mere-christianity
religious
slavery
c-s-lewis
|
C.S. Lewis |
663920a
|
I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist.
|
|
god
religion
|
Albert Camus |
68ca579
|
"Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist,'" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." "But," says Man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED." "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. "Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing."
|
|
god
h2g2
hitchhiker-s-guide
logic
man
rationalism
|
Douglas Adams |
87cf9c5
|
Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship--be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles--is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, cliches, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.
|
|
god
idols
worship
|
David Foster Wallace |
e1d2979
|
Because God is never cruel, there is a reason for all things. We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one.
|
|
god
loss
purpose
understanding
|
Dean Koontz |
d5213d3
|
If there were such a thing as terminal literalism, you'd have died in childhood.
|
|
god
jace-wayland
life
mortal-instruments
|
Cassandra Clare |
96c8332
|
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.
|
|
god
religion
|
Robert M. Pirsig |
4c54acf
|
What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.
|
|
catholicism
christian-living
christianity
gift
god
inspirational
philosophy
spirituality
|
Hans Urs von Balthasar |
ec20756
|
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
|
|
beaver
god
|
C.S. Lewis |
cadc701
|
Whether or not you believe in God, you must believe this: when we as a species abandon our trust in a power greater than us, we abandon our sense of accountability. Faiths... all faiths... are admonitions that there is something we cannot understand, something to which we are accountable. With faith we are accountable to each other, to ourselves, and to a higher truth. Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed. The church consists of a brotherhood of imperfect, simple souls wanting only to be a voice of compassion in a world spinning out of control.
|
|
god
religion
science
|
Dan Brown |
2531315
|
It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty life is unfinished.
|
|
christianity
church
expectations
god
happiness
lovers
marriage
philosophy
relationship-with-god
relationships
religion
spirituality
unhappy-marriage
|
Fulton J. Sheen |
2b9246b
|
25 And the Lord spake unto the Angel that guarded the eastern gate, saying 'Where is the flaming sword that was given unto thee?' 26 And the Angel said, 'I had it here only a moment ago, I must have put it down some where, forget my own head next.' 27 And the Lord did not ask him again.
|
|
god
heaven
humor
|
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett |
6e7d9b6
|
Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, "God, I love you" and looked to the sky and really meant it. "I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other." To the children and the innocent it's all the same.
|
|
god
inspirational
love
spiritual
|
Jack Kerouac |
bc221ad
|
The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God.
|
|
faith
god
jesus
spirituality
|
Rob Bell |
d485cb9
|
Why is there ever this perverse cruelty in humankind, that makes us hurt most those we love best?
|
|
god
human
hurt
love
pain
|
Jacqueline Carey |
c8a3011
|
You are someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that in my view is a serious illness. God chose you to be different. Why are you disappointing God with this kind of attitude?
|
|
god
life
|
Paulo Coelho |
9361756
|
The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive.
|
|
god
religion
|
Sam Harris |
541101c
|
"How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, "This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?" Instead they say, "No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way." A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths."
|
|
cosmology
epistemology
god
organized-religion
religion
science
|
Carl Sagan |
d6f62b6
|
From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.
|
|
extremism
fanaticism
god
inhumanity
justification
religion
zealotry
|
Salman Rushdie |
e2cada5
|
Sometimes you can see things happen right in front of your eyes and still jump to the wrong conclusions.
|
|
inspirational
religion
god
|
Jodi Picoult |
d98c582
|
It doesn't matter if a million people tell you what you can't do, or if ten million tell you no. If you get one yes from God that's all you need.
|
|
god
inspirational
motivational
|
Tyler Perry |
e3851cb
|
If you think God's there, He is. If you don't, He isn't. And if that's what God's like, I wouldn't worry about it.
|
|
god
religion
|
Haruki Murakami |
3f737a6
|
"May the peace of God be with you," she says, her voice low, "even in the midst of trouble." "Why would it?" I say softly, so no one else can hear. "After all I've done..." "It isn't about you," she says. "It is a gift. You cannot earn it, or it ceases to be a gift."
|
|
god
peace
|
Veronica Roth |
0ab6b31
|
About once or twice every month I engage in public debates with those whose pressing need it is to woo and to win the approval of supernatural beings. Very often, when I give my view that there is no supernatural dimension, and certainly not one that is only or especially available to the faithful, and that the natural world is wonderful enough--and even miraculous enough if you insist--I attract pitying looks and anxious questions. How, in that case, I am asked, do I find meaning and purpose in life? How does a mere and gross materialist, with no expectation of a life to come, decide what, if anything, is worth caring about? Depending on my mood, I sometimes but not always refrain from pointing out what a breathtakingly insulting and patronizing question this is. (It is on a par with the equally subtle inquiry: Since you don't believe in our god, what stops you from stealing and lying and raping and killing to your heart's content?) Just as the answer to the latter question is: self-respect and the desire for the respect of others--while in the meantime it is precisely those who think they have divine permission who are truly capable of any atrocity--so the answer to the first question falls into two parts. A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless' except if the person living it is also an existentialist and elects to call it so. It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one's everyday life as if this were so. Whereas if one sought to define meaninglessness and futility, the idea that a human life should be expended in the guilty, fearful, self-obsessed propitiation of supernatural nonentities... but there, there. Enough.
|
|
atheism
debate
ethics
existence
existentialism
faith
god
life
materialism
meaning-of-life
morality
naturalism
religion
respect
secular-ethics
self-respect
supernaturalism
|
Christopher Hitchens |
a5e9742
|
For you will certainly carry out God's purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John.
|
|
god
john
judas
|
C.S. Lewis |
4b94df1
|
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
|
|
atheist
evidence
god
noremorse
science
|
Christopher Hitchens |
0c1282c
|
Anything under God's control is never out of control.
|
|
god
hope
inspirational
jesus
relationship
|
Charles Swindoll |
bdb5fdf
|
I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
|
|
art
god
inspirational
nature
|
Frank Lloyd Wright |
ada07a2
|
It's funny how, in this journey of life, even though we may begin at different times and places, our paths cross with others so that we may share our love, compassion, observations, and hope. This is a design of God that I appreciate and cherish.
|
|
appreciation
compassion
god
hope
inspirational
journey
life
motivational
observation
|
Steve Maraboli |
e80079e
|
You must accept the reality of other people. You think that reality is up for negotiation, that we think it's whatever you say it is. You must accept that we are as real as you are; you must accept that you are not God.
|
|
inspirational
reality
god
|
J.K. Rowling |
522c637
|
Do your best and let God do the rest.
|
|
best
god
inspirational
|
Ben Carson |
d4fa6cf
|
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
|
|
god
son
|
Cormac McCarthy |
4e9db66
|
Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely soley upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.
|
|
atheist
god
noremorse
science
|
Christopher Hitchens |
d2caa38
|
When I was a little girl, everything in the world fell into either of these two categories: wrong or right. Black or white. Now that I am an adult, I have put childish things aside and now I know that some things fall into wrong and some things fall into right. Some things are categorized as black and some things are categorized as white. But most things in the world aren't either! Most things in the world aren't black, aren't white, aren't wrong, aren't right, but most of everything is just different. And now I know that there's nothing wrong with different, and that we can let things be different, we don't have to try and make them black or white, we can just let them be grey. And when I was a child, I thought that God was the God who only saw black and white. Now that I am no longer a child, I can see, that God is the God who can see the black and the white and the grey, too, and He dances on the grey! Grey is okay.
|
|
black-and-white
childish
childishness
differences
different
god
grey
greyness
growing
growth
inspirational
inspirational-life
inspirational-quotes
learning
life
life-and-living
life-lessons
living
living-life
right-and-wrong
wrong-and-right
|
C. JoyBell C. |
5ce9c0e
|
I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. (Psalms 116:1-2 NIV)
|
|
cry
god
jesus-christ
life
live
love
mercy
truth
voice
|
Anonymous |
7a18a65
|
Experts in ancient Greek culture say that people back then didn't see their thoughts as belonging to them. When ancient Greeks had a thought, it occurred to them as a god or goddess giving an order. Apollo was telling them to be brave. Athena was telling them to fall in love. Now people hear a commercial for sour cream potato chips and rush out to buy, but now they call this free will. At least the ancient Greeks were being honest.
|
|
consumerism
free-will
god
goddess
greek
p20
|
Chuck Palahniuk |
ed27bd8
|
When God is going to do something wonderful, He or She always starts with a hardship; when God is going to do something amazing, He or She starts with an impossibility.
|
|
god
|
Anne Lamott |
4895c55
|
The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals.
|
|
atheist
god
noremorse
|
Christopher Hitchens |
f76bd31
|
When your will is God's will, you will have your will.
|
|
god
inspirational
|
Charles Spurgeon |
820dd37
|
If there was a God. I would spit in his face for subjecting me to this. If there was a Devil, I would sell my sould to make it end. If there was something Higher that controlled out f***ing fates, I would tell it to take my fate and shove it up its fucking ass. Shove it hard and far, you motherf***er. Please end. Please end. Please end.
|
|
devil
fates
god
pain
|
James Frey |
c5a4471
|
Sometimes I arrive just when God's ready to have somone click the shutter.
|
|
god
inspirational
photography
timing
|
Ansel Adams |
746f4bb
|
Give me the Love that leads the wa
|
|
god
inspirational
love
prayer
|
Amy Carmichael |
52de61c
|
I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him.
|
|
god
inspirational
prayer
religion
|
Ravi Zacharias |
e2a60b7
|
"Our tendency in the midst of suffering is to turn on God. To get angry and bitter and shake our fist at the sky and say, "God, you don't know what it's like! You don't understand! You have no idea what I'm going through. You don't have a clue how much this hurts."
|
|
cross
crucifixtion
god
hurt
jesus
suffering
|
Rob Bell |
48f9b31
|
In a very real sense not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do his work, to bear his glory. If we are qualified, we tend to think that we have done the job ourselves. If we are forced to accept our evident lack of qualification, then there's no danger that we will confuse God's work with our own, or God's glory with our own.
|
|
god
humility
weakness
work
|
Madeleine L'Engle |
240b7c0
|
Sometimes I go to God and say, "God, if Thou dost never answer another prayer while I live on this earth, I will still worship Thee as long as I live and in the ages to come for what Thou hast done already. God's already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn't pay Him for what He's done for me.
|
|
a-w-tozer
ages
done
earth
god
inspirational
life
millenniums
million
pay
prayer
the-truth
truth
worship
|
A.W. Tozer |
c2751af
|
I have no duty to be anyone's Friend and no man in the world has a duty to be mine. No claims, no shadow of necessity. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.
|
|
beauty
friendship
god
love
|
C.S. Lewis |
1f1d9b7
|
People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil... Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.
|
|
devil
god
good
religion
|
Anne Rice |
608cee6
|
To be the father of growing daughters is to understand something of what Yeats evokes with his imperishable phrase 'terrible beauty.' Nothing can make one so happily exhilarated or so frightened: it's a solid lesson in the limitations of self to realize that your heart is running around inside someone else's body. It also makes me quite astonishingly calm at the thought of death: I know whom I would die to protect and I also understand that nobody but a lugubrious serf can possibly wish for a father who never goes away.
|
|
daughters
death
fatherhood
fathers
god
mortality
religion
yeats
|
Christopher Hitchens |
29e11ed
|
I think that I shall never se
|
|
god
inspirational
poem
poems
rain
tree
|
Joyce Kilmer |
750c12e
|
Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.
|
|
god
happiness
inspirational
mormonism
religion
virtue
|
Joseph Smith |
e8b9dd5
|
We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.
|
|
god
inspiring
islam
quranic
|
Anonymous |
266d03b
|
There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything.
|
|
extremism
fanaticism
god
inhumanity
justification
religion
|
Margaret Atwood |
e01207e
|
Be a light unto the world, and hurt it not. Seek to build not destroy. Bring My people home. How? By your shining example. Seek only Godliness. Speak only in truthfulness. Act only in love. Live the Law of Love now and forever more. Give everything require nothing. Avoid the mundane. Do not accept the unacceptable. Teach all who seek to learn of Me. Make every moment of your life an outpouring of love. Use every moment to think the highest thought, say the highest word, do the highest deed. In this, glorify your Holy Self, and thus too, glorify Me. Bring peace to the Earth by bringing peace to all those whose lives you touch. Be peace. Feel and express in every moment your Divine Connection with the All, and with every person, place, and thing. Embrace every circumstance, own every fault, share every joy, contemplate every mystery, walk in every man's shoes, forgive every offense (including your own), heal every heart, honor every person's truth, adore every person's God, protect every person's rights, preserve every person's dignity, promote every person's interests, provide every person's needs, presume every person's holiness, present every person's greatest gifts, produce every person's blessing, pronounce every person's future secure in the assured love of God. Be a living, breathing example of the Highest Truth that resides within you. Speak humbly of yourself, lest someone mistake your Highest Truth for boast. Speak softly, lest someone think you are merely calling for attention. Speak gently, that all might know of Love. Speak openly, lest someone think you have something to hide. Speak candidly, so you cannot be mistaken. Speak often, so that your word may truly go forth. Speak respectfully, that no one be dishonored. Speak lovingly, that every syllable may heal. Speak of Me with every utterance. Make of your life a gift. Remember always, you are the gift! Be a gift to everyone who enters your life, and to everyone whose life you enter. Be careful not to enter another's life if you cannot be a gift. (You can always be a gift, because you always are the gift--yet sometimes you don't let yourself know that.) When someone enters your life unexpectedly, look for the gift that person has come to receive from you...I HAVE SENT YOU NOTHING BUT ANGELS.
|
|
god
inspirational
love
peace
speak
truth
world
|
Neale Donald Walsch |
8a6e22d
|
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
|
|
god
inspirational
truth
bible
|
Anonymous |
3005700
|
Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.
|
|
god
inspirational
prayer
religion
|
Mahatma Gandhi |
d8835a2
|
Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand.
|
|
god
grief
religion
|
C.S. Lewis |
484a874
|
And if these mountains had eyes, they would wake to find two strangers in their fences, standing in admiration as a breathing red pours its tinge upon earth's shore. These mountains, which have seen untold sunrises, long to thunder praise but stand reverent, silent so that man's weak praise should be given God's attention.
|
|
god
inspirational
mountains
nature
praise
beauty
|
Donald Miller |
5a5f366
|
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
|
|
faith
god
jesus-christ
|
Anonymous |
3a3e1e0
|
The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.
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|
god
knowledge
meaning
purpose
religion
truth
|
Carl Sagan |
84e08cb
|
Just because you can explain it doesn't mean it's not still a miracle.
|
|
god
miracle
|
Terry Pratchett |
41dedd0
|
The world takes us to a silver screen on which flickering images of passion and romance play, and as we watch, the world says, "This is love." God takes us to the foot of a tree on which a naked and bloodied man hangs and says, "This is love.
|
|
christ
christian
cross
god
inspirational
jesus
love
passion
romance
world
|
Joshua Harris |
b38d04e
|
It is said that God has created man in his own image. But it may be that humankind has created God in the image of humankind.
|
|
creationism
god
inspirational
|
Thich Nhat Hanh |
d1ee74f
|
It's all God's will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.
|
|
god
|
Leo Tolstoy |
4de2b16
|
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone one who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
|
|
faith
god
love
philosophy
truth
|
Anonymous |
3921ba8
|
And people who believe in God think God has put human beings on earth because they think human beings are the best animal, but human beings are just an animal and they will evolve into another animal, and that animal will be cleverer and it will put human beings into a zoo, like we put chimpanzees and gorillas into a zoo. Or human beings will all catch a disease and die out or they will make too much pollution and kill themselves, and then there will only be insects in the world and they will be the best animal.
|
|
evolution
god
|
Mark Haddon |
2d7ee33
|
There are powers far beyond us, plans far beyond what we could have ever thought of, visions far more vast than what we can ever see on our own with our own eyes, there are horizons long gone beyond our own horizons. This is courage- to throw away what is our own that is limited and to thrust ourselves into the hands of these higher powers- God and Destiny.To do this is to abide in the realm of the eternal, to walk in the path of the everlasting to follow in the footprints of God and demi-gods. The hardest part for man is the letting go. For some reason, he thinks himself big enough to know and to see what's good for him. But in the letting go........is found freedom. In the letting go........ is found the flight!
|
|
belief
destiny
flying
flying-spirit
footprints
god
inspiration
inspirational
inspirational-life
inspirational-quotes
letting-go
life
living
meaning-of-life
truth
|
C. JoyBell C. |
406620f
|
I tell of hearts and souls and dances... Butterflies and second chances; Desperate ones and dreamers bound, Seeking life from barren ground, Who suffer on in earthly fate The bitter pain of agony hate, Might but they stop and here forgive Would break the bonds to breathe and live And find that God in goodness brings A chance for change, the hope of wings To rest in Him, and self to die And so become a butterfly.
|
|
god
second-chances
|
Karen Kingsbury |
c347137
|
"What is sin? It is the glory of God not honored. The holiness of God not reverenced. The greatness of God not admired. The power of God not praised. The truth of God not sought. The wisdom of God not esteemed. The beauty of God not treasured. The goodness of God not savored. The faithfulness of God not trusted. The commandments of God not obeyed. The justice of God not respected. The wrath of God not feared. The grace of God not cherished. The presence of God not prized.
|
|
god
sin
what-is-sin
|
John Piper |
0632d69
|
Day after day, day after day
|
|
curse
faith
god
inspirational
revenge
|
Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
c633c15
|
there's nothing to discuss there's nothing to remember there's nothing to forget it's sad and it's not sad seems the most sensible thing a person can do is sit with drink in hand as the walls wave their goodbye smiles one comes through it all with a certain amount of efficiency and bravery then leaves some accept the possibility of God to help them get through others take it staight on and to these I drink tonight.
|
|
bukowski
death
forget
forgetting
god
goodbye
goodbyes
help
independence
life
love
poem
poetry
sad
sadness
|
Charles Bukowski |
47b4649
|
Every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith--acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove. Every religion describes God through metaphor, allegory, and exaggeration, from the early Egyptians through modern Sunday school. Metaphors are a way to help our minds process the unprocessible. The problems arise when we begin to believe literally in our own metaphors. Should we wave a flag and tell the Buddhists that we have proof the Buddha did not come from a lotus blossom? Or that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin birth? Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.
|
|
dan-brown
god
religion
|
Dan Brown |
a273cb3
|
You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. (Matthew 5:14, The Message)
|
|
god
life
light
|
Anonymous |
c78e5c2
|
These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy...walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, 'Business as usual.' But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.
|
|
god
hypocrisy
religion
|
Yann Martel |
22bad56
|
There is no justice in love, no proportion in it, and there need not be, because in any specific instance it is only a glimpse or parable of an embracing, incomprehensible reality. It makes no sense at all because it is the eternal breaking in on the temporal. So how could it subordinate itself to cause or consequence?
|
|
god
love
|
Marilynne Robinson |
86ed420
|
The event of falling in love is of such a nature that we are right to reject as intolerable the idea that it should be transitory. In one high bound it has overleaped the massive of our selfhood; it has made appetite itself altruistic, tossed personal happiness aside as a triviality and planted the interests of another in the centre of our being. Spontaneously and without effort we have fulfilled the law (towards one person) by loving our neighbour as ourselves. It is an image, a foretaste, of what we must become to all if Love Himself rules in us without a rival. It is even (well used) a preparation for that.
|
|
god
love
selflessness
|
C.S. Lewis |
66fec3c
|
Here I am going to say something which may come as a bit of a shock. God doesn't necessarily want us to be happy. He wants us to be lovable. Worthy of love. Able to be loved by Him. We don't start off being all that lovable, if we're honest. What makes people hard to love? Isn't it what is commonly called selfishness? Selfish people are hard to love because so little love comes out of them.
|
|
god
happy
love
selfish
selfishness
|
William Nicholson |
9446fd9
|
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
|
|
faith
god
grace
|
Anonymous |
aca7297
|
There was only one guy in the whole Bible Jesus ever personally promised a place with him in Paradise. Not Peter, not Paul, not any of those guys. He was a convicted thief, being executed. So don't knock the guys on death row. Maybe they know something you don't.
|
|
criminals
god
good-and-bad
good-and-evil
heaven
idealism
jesus
life-lessons
prejudice
prejudices
religion
|
Neil Gaiman |
b3e94ca
|
I think you have every right to cherry-pick when it comes to moving your spirit and finding peace in God. You take whatever works from wherever you can find it, and you keep moving toward the light.
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|
god
religion
|
Elizabeth Gilbert |
2be5afd
|
Rabe'a al-Adiwiyah, a great woman saint of Sufism, was seen running through the streets of her hometown, Basra, carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When someone asked her what she was doing, she answered, 'I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven or fear of hell, but because He is God.
|
|
god
heaven
hell
|
John Green |
21ef52d
|
We're called to be faithful, to take those first difficult steps--and to leave the results up to God.
|
|
faithful
god
hope
inspirational
results
truth
|
Alex Harris |
6cf9c55
|
"Once upon a time there was a young prince who believed in all things but three. He did not believe in princesses, he did not believe in islands, he did not believe in God. His father, the king, told him that such things did not exist. As there were no princesses or islands in his father's domains, and no sign of God, the young prince believed his father. But then, one day, the prince ran away from his palace. He came to the next land. There, to his astonishment, from every coast he saw islands, and on these islands, strange and troubling creatures whom he dared not name. As he was searching for a boat, a man in full evening dress approached him along the shore. Are those real islands?' asked the young prince. Of course they are real islands,' said the man in evening dress. And those strange and troubling creatures?' They are all genuine and authentic princesses.' Then God must exist!' cried the prince. I am God,' replied the man in full evening dress, with a bow. The young prince returned home as quickly as he could. So you are back,' said the father, the king. I have seen islands, I have seen princesses, I have seen God,' said the prince reproachfully. The king was unmoved. Neither real islands, nor real princesses, I have seen God,' said the prince reproachfully. The king was unmoved. Neither real islands, nor real princesses, nor a real God exist.' I saw them!' Tell me how God was dressed.' God was in full evening dress.' Were the sleeves of his coat rolled back?' The prince remembered that they had been. The king smiled. That is the uniform of a magician. You have been deceived.' At this, the prince returned to the next land, and went to the same shore, where once again he came upon the man in full evening dress. My father the king has told me who you are,' said the young prince indignantly. 'You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician.' The man on the shore smiled. It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father's kingdom there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father's spell, so you cannot see them.' The prince pensively returned home. When he saw his father, he looked him in the eyes. Father, is it true that you are not a real king, but only a magician?' The king smiled, and rolled back his sleeves. Yes, my son, I am only a magician.' Then the man on the shore was God.' The man on the shore was another magician.' I must know the real truth, the truth beyond magic.' There is no truth beyond magic,' said the king. The prince was full of sadness. He said, 'I will kill myself.' The king by magic caused death to appear. Death stood in the door and beckoned to the prince. The prince shuddered. He remembered the beautiful but unreal islands and the unreal but beautiful princesses.
|
|
death
god
life
magic
philosophy
suicide
|
John Fowles |
2739ae9
|
"The soul is like an uninhabited world that comes to life only when
|
|
god
joy
life
spirituality
|
St. Thomas Aquinas |
8647ad5
|
" This was a brave statement but innocently absurd. No one will ever understand Auschwitz. What I might have set down with more accuracy would have been: Auschwitz itself remains inexplicable. The most profound statement yet made about Auschwitz was not a statement at all, but a response. The query: "At Auschwitz, tell me, where was God?" And the answer: "Where was man?"
|
|
evil
god
humanity
man
understanding
|
William Styron |
9bb5509
|
But for me the sweetest contact with God has no form. I close my eyes, look within, and enter a deep soft silence. The infinity of God's creation embraces me.
|
|
god
religion
|
Michael Jackson |
4778864
|
God is whispering in your heart, in the whole existence, just tune your ears.
|
|
god
inspirational
mediation
meditations
motivational
silence
spiritual
spiritual-growth
spirituality
|
Amit Ray |
2a476b6
|
God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours.
|
|
god
inspirational
|
David Livingstone |
a13a626
|
I have met some highly intelligent believers, but history has no record to say that [s]he knew or understood the mind of god. Yet this is precisely the qualification which the godly must claim--so modestly and so humbly--to possess. It is time to withdraw our 'respect' from such fantastic claims, all of them aimed at the exertion of power over other humans in the real and material world.
|
|
atheism
belief
fantasy
god
humility
inspirational
modesty
power
religion
respect
arrogance
|
Christopher Hitchens |
912fae7
|
Defeat is for the valiant. Only they will know the honour of losing and the joy of winning I am not here to tell you that defeat is a part of life: we all know that. Only the defeated know Love. Because it is in the realm of love that we fight our first battles - and generally lose. I am here to tell you that there are people who have never been defeated. They are the ones who never fought. They managed to avoid scars, humiliations, feelings of helplessness, as well as those moments when even warriors doubt the existence of God.'' Manuscript Found In Accra - Paulo Coelho
|
|
defeat
denial
doubt
god
helplessness
honour
humiliation
life
love
scar
valiant
victory
|
Paulo Coelho |
cb03685
|
Life is sufferin
|
|
god
humility
inspirational
love
suffering
true
|
Jordan B. Peterson |
ba650d0
|
The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument.
|
|
god
human
life
spiritual
|
Anonymous |
54870a4
|
If you want to be reminded of the love of the Lord, just watch the sunrise.
|
|
earth
god
lord
religion
sunrise
world
|
Jeannette Walls |
a9ba67a
|
"Far better it is for you to say: "I am a sinner," than to say: "I have no need of religion." The empty can be filled, but the self-intoxicated have no room for God."
|
|
catholicism
christianity
god
religion
sinners
|
Fulton J. Sheen |
e8d20b6
|
"God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing - or should we say "seeing"? there are no tenses in God - the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath's sake, hitched up. If I may dare the biological image, God is a "host" who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and "take advantage of" Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves." --
|
|
christ
cross
god
love
|
C.S. Lewis |
99cf389
|
In the heartfelt mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will visit us, to shine on those sitting in darkness, in the shadow of death, to guide our feet to the way of peace.
|
|
darkness
god
light
mercy
peace
wisdom
|
Anonymous |
6d2f3da
|
I could not believe in a God that would challenge faith like this.
|
|
faith
god
|
Jonathan Safran Foer |
6fb18db
|
There is nothing more important than your eternal salvation.
|
|
eternity
god
hope
important
inspirational
religion
salvation
truth
|
Kirk Cameron |
c49b48d
|
It's not about finding ways to avoid God's judgment and feeling like a failure if you don't do everything perfectly. It's about fully experiencing God's love and letting it perfect you. It's not about being somebody you are not. It's about becoming who you really are.
|
|
god-s-love
inspirational
love
god
|
Stormie Omartian |
710cbd3
|
The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night.
|
|
fasting
god
nibbling
|
John Piper |
d17cf81
|
For , literally translated, 'Since it must be so,' of all the good-bys I have heard is the most beautiful. Unlike the and , it does not try to cheat itself by any bravado 'Till we meet again,' any sedative to postpone the pain of separation. It does not evade the issue like the sturdy blinking . is a father's . It is - 'Go out in the world and do well, my son.' It is encouragement and admonition. It is hope and faith. But it passes over the significance of the moment; of parting it says nothing. It hides its emotion. It says too little. While ('God be with you') and say too much. They try to bridge the distance, almost to deny it. is a prayer, a ringing cry. 'You must not go - I cannot bear to have you go! But you shall not go alone, unwatched. God will be with you. God's hand will over you' and even - underneath, hidden, but it is there, incorrigible - 'I will be with you; I will watch you - always.' It is a mother's . But says neither too much nor too little. It is a simple acceptance of fact. All understanding of life lies in its limits. All emotion, smoldering, is banked up behind it. But it says nothing. It is really the unspoken good-by, the pressure of a hand, 'Sayonara.
|
|
emotion
english
farewell
father
french
german
god
goodbyes
japanese
mother
spanish
|
Anne Morrow Lindbergh |
06ae62a
|
My son, do not forget my teaching, But let your heart keep my commandments; For length of days and years of life And peace they will add to you. Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute In the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
|
|
god
kindness
peace
trust
truth
|
Anonymous |
dfc6496
|
Did God ever cry over his lost angel, I wonder?
|
|
god
lucifer
rebel-angels
|
Libba Bray |
3a77a92
|
Choices will continually be necessary and -- let us not forget -- possible. Obedience to God is always possible. It is a deadly error to fall into the notion that when feelings are extremely strong we can do nothing but act on them.
|
|
emotions
feelings
god
obedience
possible
|
Elisabeth Elliot |
f5098c8
|
Every day God invites us on the same kind of adventure. It's not a trip where He sends us a rigid itinerary, He simply invites us. God asks what it is He's made us to love, what it is that captures our attention, what feeds that deep indescribable need of our souls to experience the richness of the world He made. And then, leaning over us, He whispers, "Let's go do that together.
|
|
adventure
dare
god
inspirational
|
Bob Goff |
26889eb
|
Man corrupt everything, say Shug. He on your box of grits, in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere. Soon as you think he everywhere, you think he God. But he ain't. Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost, say Shug. Conjure up the flowers, wind, water, a big rock.
|
|
god
man
religion
|
Alice Walker |
ca24fe4
|
Work is a blessing. God has so arranged the world that work is necessary, and He gives us hands and strength to do it. The enjoyment of leisure would be nothing if we had only leisure. It is the joy of work well done that enables us to enjoy rest, just as it is the experiences of hunger and thirst that make food and drink such pleasures.
|
|
christian
fun
god
inspirational
jesus
leisure
rest
work
blessing
|
Elisabeth Elliot |
b30bf1f
|
We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and He saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love.
|
|
christ
christianity
cross
excess-love
god
inspirational
jesus
jesus-shock
love
philosophy
salvation
saved
saved-souls
sin
spirituality
the-cross
theology
|
Peter Kreeft |
947f2ff
|
Never doubt God in the darkness what he has given us in the light.
|
|
god
mark-of-the-lion-series
religion
spirituality
voice-in-the-wind
|
Francine Rivers |
051cc1b
|
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
|
|
creation
god
science
scripture
truth
|
Anonymous |
ebdc978
|
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
|
|
god
hope
inspiration
kingdom
life
love
religion
reverence
thankful
truth
verse
worship
|
Anonymous |
562c5df
|
I know how much you grieve over those who are under your care: those you try to help and fail, those you cannot help. Have faith in God and remember that He will is His own way and in His own time complete what we so poorly attempt. Often we do not achieve for others the good that we intend but achieve something, something that goes on from our effort. Good is an overflow. Where we generously and sincerely intend it, we are engaged in a work of creation which may be mysterious even to ourselves - and because it is mysterious we may be afraid of it. But this should not make us draw back. God can always show us, if we will, a higher and a better way; and we can only learn to love by loving. Remember that all our failures are ultimately failures in love. Imperfect love must not be condemned and rejected but made perfect. The way is always forward, never back.
|
|
god
grief
love
|
Iris Murdoch |
e1f49e3
|
The world looks like something God had just imaged for his own pleasure, doesn't it?
|
|
god
pleasure
|
L.M. Montgomery |
b496bf2
|
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
|
|
christ
faith
god
jesus
religion
religious
|
Anonymous |
b0784bf
|
"God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.
|
|
catholicism
christianity
god
religion
|
John Henry Newman |
f55a7de
|
She has man's brain--a brain that a man should have were he much gifted--and woman's heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me when He made that so good combination.
|
|
brains
combination
gifted
giftedness
god
heart
intelligence
man
mankind
mind
purpose
woman
women
|
Bram Stoker |
5c71daf
|
If pinpointing God's presence were really that simple, then he supposed the beaches would be more crowded in the mornings. They would be filled with people on their own quests, instead of people jogging or walking their dogs or fishing in the surf.
|
|
god
nicholas-sparks
steve-miller
the-last-song
|
Nicholas Sparks |
fce8996
|
Why would an all-powerful creator decide to plant his carefully crafted species on islands and continents in exactly the appropriate pattern to suggest, irresistibly, that they had evolved and dispersed from the site of their evolution?
|
|
atheist
creator
evolution
god
noremorse
pg270
|
Richard Dawkins |
e720716
|
We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most human, is still soaked with the sense of exile.
|
|
god
redemption
|
J.R.R. Tolkien |
4af8bfe
|
"If God existed (a question concerning which Jubal maintained a meticulous intellectual neutrality) and if He desired to be worshiped (a proposition which Jubal found inherently improbable but conceivably possible in the dim light of his own ignorance), then (stipulating affirmatively both the above) it nevertheless seemed wildly unlikely to Jubal to the point of reductio ad absurdum that a God potent to shape galaxies would be titillated and swayed by the whoop-te-do nonsense the Fosterites offered Him as "worship."
|
|
god
religion
worship
|
Robert A. Heinlein |
d246386
|
Don't you think it's rather nice to think that we're in a book that God's writing? If I were writing a book, I might make mistakes. But God knows how to make the story end just right--in the way that's best for us.
|
|
christian
god
life
mistakes
nesbit
railway
reading
story
writing
|
E. Nesbit |
2f6223c
|
It is said that men may not be the dreams of the god, but rather that the gods are the dreams of men.
|
|
dreams
god
gods
|
Carl Sagan |
af5cced
|
I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.
|
|
christianity
god
nature
trinity
|
Anne Lamott |
1af5700
|
Why do humans exist? A major part of the answer: because Pikaia Gracilens survived the Burgess decimation.
|
|
atheist
god
noremorse
science
|
Christopher Hitchens |
801b153
|
I wouldn't burden any decent system of faith by participating in it... I'm not agnostic. Just nonpartisan. Theological Switzerland, that's me.
|
|
atheist
faith
god
religion
|
Jim Butcher |
4d73ae9
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When you are happy, so happy you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be -- or so it feels-- welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence.
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god
grief
loss
religion
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C.S. Lewis |
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There's a lot of pride involved in my refusal to believe in god.
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belief
god
pride
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Orhan Pamuk |
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God hides the fires of hell within paradise.
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god
hell
irony
paradise
paulo-coelho
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Paulo Coelho |