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6fb18db There is nothing more important than your eternal salvation. religion god hope truth inspirational salvation important eternity Kirk Cameron
388ee0c Good people are good people; religion has nothing to do with it. religion love Jodi Picoult
b3b9d0c Your religion assumes that people are children and need a boogeyman so they'll behave. You want people to believe in God so they'll obey the law. That's the only means that occurs to you: a strict secular police force, and the threat of punishment by an all-seeing God for whatever the police overlook. You sell human beings short. religion Carl Sagan
1a72914 We choose our next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing, and the next world is the same as this one, all the same limitations and lead weights to overcome. religion thought-provoking Richard Bach
6efa3a5 Actually--and this was where I began to feel seriously uncomfortable--some such divine claim underlay not just 'the occupation' but the whole idea of a separate state for Jews in Palestine. Take away the divine warrant for the Holy Land and where were you, and what were you? Just another land-thief like the Turks or the British, except that in this case you wanted the land without the people. And the original Zionist slogan--'a land without a people for a people without a land'--disclosed its own negation when I saw the densely populated Arab towns dwelling sullenly under Jewish tutelage. You want irony? How about Jews becoming colonizers at just the moment when other Europeans had given up on the idea? irony religion zionism turkey holy-land israeli-palestinian-conflict land europe britain colonialism israel jews palestine Christopher Hitchens
db72469 I held my heart back from positively accepting anything, since I was afraid of another fall, and in this condition of suspense I was being all the more killed. christianity religion inspirational christ St. Augustine of Hippo
798614a There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do. religion Terry Pratchett
cd8fae5 Mephistopheles: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it. Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of God And tasted the eternal joys of heaven, Am not tormented with ten thousand hells In being deprived of everlasting bliss? religion hell Christopher Marlowe
b8ef92f You see, women have been essential to every great move of God. Yes, Moses led the Isaelites out of Egypt, but only after his mother risked her life to save him! Closer to our time, Clara Barton was instrumental in starting the Red Cross. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin put fire into people's heart to end slavery in the United States. Rosa Parks kicked the Civil Rights movement into gear with her quiet act of courage. Eunice Kennedy Shriver created the Special Olympics. Mother Teresa inspired the world by bringing love to countless thought unlovable. And millions of other women quietly change the world every day by bringing the love of God to those around them. women religion spritual Stasi Eldredge
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. man religion god Alice Walker
dd88882 I breathe in. The water will wash my wounds clean. I breathe out. My mother submerged me in water when I was a baby, to give me to God. It has been a long time since I thought about God, but I think about him now. It is only natural. I am glad, suddenly, that I shot Eric in the foot instead of the head. religion dying Veronica Roth
d302876 I ended my first book with the words 'no answer.' I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice? Only words, words; to be led out to battle against other words. fantasy religion inspirational C. S. Lewis
daf1a39 God rewards those who seek Him. Not those who seek doctrine of religion or systems or creeds. Many settle for these lesser passions, but the reward goes to those who settle for nothing less than Jesus himself. And what is the reward? What awaits those who seek Jesus? Nothing short of the heart of Jesus. religion Max Lucado
947f2ff Never doubt God in the darkness what he has given us in the light. spirituality religion god mark-of-the-lion-series voice-in-the-wind Francine Rivers
0a8817f Since Alice had never received any religious instruction, and since she had led a blameless life, she never thought of her awful luck as being anything but accidents in a very busy place. Good for her. fate religion belief luck Kurt Vonnegut
05e2e68 "When the late Pope John Paul II decided to place the woman so strangely known as on the fast track for beatification, and thus to qualify her for eventual sainthood, the Vatican felt obliged to solicit my testimony and I thus spent several hours in a closed hearing room with a priest, a deacon, and a monsignor, no doubt making their day as I told off, as from a rosary, the frightful faults and crimes of the departed fanatic. In the course of this, I discovered that the pope during his tenure had surreptitiously abolished the famous office of "Devil's Advocate," in order to fast-track still more of his many candidates for canonization. I can thus claim to be the only living person to have represented the Devil ." religion beatification canonisation deacons devil-s-advocate fanatacism monsignors mother-teresa pope pope-john-paul-ii priests pro-bono satan testimony sainthood vatican devil Christopher Hitchens
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. worship inspiration religion god hope life love truth verse reverence thankful kingdom Anonymous
3fd6dce Man is manifestly not the measure of all things. This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name. reason religion science skeptic Sam Harris
4277d68 Those who use religion for their own benefit are detestable. We are against such a situation and will not allow it. Those who use religion in such a manner have fooled our people; it is against just such people that we have fought and will continue to fight. religion inspirational fight secularism Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
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. christianity religion god catholicism John Henry Newman
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. jesus faith religion god religious christ Anonymous
0e51e00 The rabbit of Easter. He bring of the chocolate. religion holidays David Sedaris
77c89df "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." religion Douglas Adams
f9be077 "There's an old, frequently-used definition of insanity, which is "performing the same action over and over, expecting different results."... Now, I'm no doctor, but I am on TV. And in my professional opinion, George Bush is a paranoid schizophrenic. ... ...Other symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia are: Do you see things that aren't there? Such as a link between 9/11 and Iraq? Do you - do you feel things that you shouldn't be feeling, like a sense of accomplishment? Do you have trouble organizing words into a coherent sentence? Do you hear voices that aren't really there? Like, oh, I don't know, your imaginary friend, Jesus? Telling you to start a war in the Middle East. religion Bill Maher
3639916 She was a fool, and so am I, and so is anyone who thinks he sees what God is Doing, [writes Bokonon]. religion Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
0f6d314 I couldn't get Him out of my head. Still can't. I spent three solid days thinking about Him. The more He bothered me, the less I coul forget Him. And the more I learned about Him, the less I wanted to leave Him. jesus religion Yann Martel
a0ea6d2 Anyone who says he knows God's intention is showing a lot of very human ego. religion zealotry Michael Crichton
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." worship religion god Robert A. Heinlein
b1c8255 Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar. politics religion inspirational political-parties Abraham Lincoln
d0d5288 A totally nondenominational prayer: Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that I be forgiven for anything I may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which I may be eligible after the destruction of my body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen. prayer funny religion humor agnosticism bureaucracy mythology parody Roger Zelazny
b7409f2 When the telephoned me at home on Valentine's Day 1989 to ask my opinion about the Ayatollah Khomeini's , I felt at once that here was something that completely committed me. It was, if I can phrase it like this, a matter of everything I hated versus everything I loved. In the hate column: dictatorship, religion, stupidity, demagogy, censorship, bullying, and intimidation. In the love column: literature, irony, humor, the individual, and the defense of free expression. Plus, of course, friendship--though I like to think that my reaction would have been the same if I hadn't known Salman at all. To re-state the premise of the argument again: the theocratic head of a foreign despotism offers money in his own name in order to suborn the murder of a civilian citizen of another country, for the offense of writing a work of fiction. No more root-and-branch challenge to the values of the Enlightenment (on the bicentennial of the fall of the Bastille) or to the First Amendment to the Constitution, could be imagined. President George H.W. Bush, when asked to comment, could only say grudgingly that, as far as he could see, no American interests were involved... enlightenment irony literature hate stupidity religion friendship humor love bastille demagogy fatwa first-amendment satanic-verses washington-post united-states-constitution george-hw-bush iran khomeini theocracy intimidation dictatorship united-states rushdie individualism fascism principles bullying free-speech censorship Christopher Hitchens
a0f44c1 They knew how to live with nature and get along with nature. They didn't try too hard to be all men and no animal. That's the mistake we made when Darwin showed up. We embraced him and Huxley and Freud, all smiles. And then we discovered that Darwin and our religions didn't mix. Or at least we didn't think they did. We were fools. We tried to budge Darwin and Huxley and Freud. They wouldn't move very well. So, like idiots, we tried knocking down religion. We succeeded pretty well. We lost our faith and went around wondering what life was for. If art was no more than a frustrated outflinging of desire, if religion was no more than self-delusion, what good was life? Faith had always given us answer to all things. But it all went down the drain with Freud and Darwin. We were and still are lost people. nature faith religion huxley freud darwin lost Ray Bradbury
49b4cc6 Don't tell anyone, but on the pagan day of the sun god Ra, I kneel at the foot of an ancient instrument of torture and consume ritualistic symbols of blood and flesh. ...And if any of you care to join me, come to the Harvard chapel on Sunday, kneel beneath the crucifix, and take Holy Communion. religion organized-religion Dan Brown
e090901 They have not forgotten the Mysteries,' she said, 'they have found them too difficult. They want a God who will care for them, who will not demand that they struggle for enlightenment, but who will accept them just as they are, with all their sins, and take away their sins with repentance. It is not so, it will never be so, but perhaps it is the only way the unenlightened can bear to think of their Gods.' Lancelot smiled bitterly. 'Perhaps a religion which demands that every man must work though lifetime after lifetime for his own salvation is too much for mankind. They want not to wait for God's justice but to see it now. And that is the lure which this new breed of priests has promised them.' Morgaine knew that he spoke truth, and bowed her head in anguish. 'And since their view of a God is what shapes their reality, so it shall be-the Goddess was real while mankind still paid homage to her, and created her form for themselves. Now they will make for themselves the kind of God they think they want-the kind of God they deserve, perhaps.' Well, so it must be, for as man saw reality, so it became. religion salvation Marion Zimmer Bradley
2498e46 While believing strongly, without evidence, is considered a mark of madness or stupidity in any other area of our lives, faith in God still holds immense prestige in our society. Religion is the one area of our discourse where it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about. It is telling that this aura of nobility extends only to those faiths that still have many subscribers. Anyone caught worshipping Poseidon, even at sea, will be thought insane. faith religion belief dogma Sam Harris
9b2b427 God is the color of water. Water doesn't have a color. religion James McBride
38e4f97 "Oh Lord Most High, Creator of the Cosmos, Spinner of Galaxies, Soul of Electromagnetic Waves, Inhaler and Exhaler of Inconceivable Volumes of Vacuum, Spitter of Fire and Rock, Trifler with Millennia -- what could we do for Thee that Thou couldst not do for Thyself one octillion times better? Nothing. What could we do or say that could possibly interest Thee? Nothing. Oh, Mankind, rejoice in the apathy of our Creator, for it makes us free and truthful and dignified at last. No longer can a fool point to a ridiculous accident of good luck and say, 'Somebody up there likes me.' And no longer can a tyrant say, 'God wants this or that to happen, and anyone who doesn't help this or that to happen is against God.' O Lord Most High, what a glorious weapon is Thy Apathy, for we have unsheathed it, have thrust and slashed mightily with it, and the claptrap that has so often enslaved us or driven us into the madhouse lies slain!" -The prayer of the Reverend C. Horner Redwine" religion humility Kurt Vonnegut
ec14c22 Even when God seemed to have abandoned me, he was watching. Even when he seemed indifferent to my suffering, he was watching. And when I was beyond all hope of saving, he gave me rest. Then he gave me a sign to continue my journey. religion Yann Martel
4d73ae9 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. grief loss religion god C.S. Lewis
14c8987 The fact that my continuous and public rejection of Christianity does not worry me in the least should suggest to you just how inadequate I think your reasons for being a Christian are. religion Sam Harris
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. faith religion god atheist Jim Butcher
af3f7c8 Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing. religion inspirational beliefs Flannery O'Connor
14f7114 And here is the point, about myself and my co-thinkers. Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely solely 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. faith reason religion science scepticism belief principles Christopher Hitchens
c31b522 If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect. goodness religion Leo Tolstoy
f08462b I am striving to give back the Divine in myself to the Divine in the All. religion god inspirational last-words Plotinus
336ffed My father chose my name , and my last name was chosen by my ancestors . That's enough, I myself choose my way faith funny relationship death religion god humor life love truth inspirational friend Ali Shariati
7a72ed6 We are the Bibles the world is reading; We are the creeds the world is needing; We are the sermons the world is heeding. religion religious inspirational christian-behavior christian Billy Graham
675a587 Mr. Langdon, I did not ask if you believe what man says about God. I asked if you believed in God. There is a difference. Holy scripture is stories...legends and history of man's quest to understand his own need for meaning. I am not asking you to pass judgment on literature. I am asking if you believe in God. When you lie out under the stars, do you sense the divine? Do you feel in your gut that you are staring up at the work of God's hands? religion Dan Brown
19200fd Religious people fear hell -- Spiritual people have walked thru it. religion Frank Warren
90a4871 "There seem to be only two kinds of people: Those who think that metaphors are facts, and those who know that they are not facts. Those who know they are not facts are what we call "atheists," and those who think they are facts are "religious." Which group really gets the message?" religion metaphors theism mythology Joseph Campbell
e1a7ad9 "Being a vampire is not a curse. It's a disease," Tessa filled in. "But they still can't enter hallowed ground, then? Does that mean they're damned?" "That depends on what you believe," said Jem. "And whether you believe in damnation at all." "But you hunt demons. You must believe in damnation!" "I believe in good and evil," said Jem. "And I believe the soul is eternal. I don't believe in the fiery pit, the pitchforks, or the endless torment. I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness." religion tessa-gray jem-carstairs Cassandra Clare
357e505 There is nothing inhuman, evil, or irrational which does not give some comfort, provided it is shared by a group. religion psychoanalysis evil Erich Fromm
406ba4d "Dwarfs were not a naturally religious species, but in a world where pit props could crack without warning and pockets of fire damp could suddenly explode they'd seen the need for gods as the sort of supernatural equivalent of a hard hat. Besides, when you hit your thumb with an eight-pound hammer it's nice to be able to blaspheme. It takes a very special and strong-minded kind of atheist to jump up and down with their hand clasped under their other armpit and shout, "Oh, random-fluctuations-in-the-space-time-continuum!" or "Aaargh, primitive-and-outmoded-concept on a crutch!" humour funny religion Terry Pratchett
56ac632 "Faith is a fine invention When gentlemen can see, religion science Emily Dickinson
a25278a He who defends with love will be secure; Heaven will save him, and protect him with love. religion god inspirational chivalry Lao Tzu
1f3b738 I find something repulsive about the idea of vicarious redemption. I would not throw my numberless sins onto a scapegoat and expect them to pass from me; we rightly sneer at the barbaric societies that practice this unpleasantness in its literal form. There's no moral value in the vicarious gesture anyway. As Thomas Paine pointed out, you may if you wish take on a another man's debt, or even to take his place in prison. That would be self-sacrificing. But you may not assume his actual crimes as if they were your own; for one thing you did not commit them and might have died rather than do so; for another this impossible action would rob him of individual responsibility. So the whole apparatus of absolution and forgiveness strikes me as positively immoral, while the concept of revealed truth degrades the concept of free intelligence by purportedly relieving us of the hard task of working out the ethical principles for ourselves. responsibility religion scapegoating immorality forgiveness redemption sin Christopher Hitchens
fc375b4 As long as a population can be induced to believe in a supernatural hereafter, it can be oppressed and controlled. People will put up with all sorts of tyranny, poverty, and painful treatment if they're convinced that they'll eventually escape to some resort in the sky where lifeguards are superfluous and the pool never closes. Moreover, the faithful are usually willing to risk their skins in whatever military adventure their government may currently be promoting. war heaven religion military tyranny Tom Robbins
cfedd25 The word desire suggests that there is something we do not have. If we have everything already, then there can be no desire, for there is nothing left to want. I think that what the Buddha may have been trying to tell us is that we have it all, each of us, all the time; therefore, desire is simply unnecessary. religion desire Tom Robbins
6e6ce23 Be a man!... What good is religion if it collapses under calamity? Think of what earthquakes and floods, wars and volcanoes, have done before to men! Did you think that God had exempted [us]? He is not an insurance agent. religion H.G. Wells
0d84296 "I will tell you why we have these extraordinary minds and souls, Miss Whittaker," he continued, as though he had not heard her. "We have them because there is a supreme intelligence in the universe, which wishes for communion with us. This supreme intelligence longs to be known. It calls out to us. It draws us close to its mystery, and grants us these remarkable minds, in order that we try to reach for it. It wants us to find it. It wants union with us, more than anything." universe religion science god intelligence Elizabeth Gilbert
8d32a5d "Wizards don't believe in gods in the same way that most people don't find it necessary to believe in, say, tables. They know they're there, they know they're there for a purpose, they'd probably agree that they have a place in a well-organised universe, but they wouldn't see the point of believing, of going around saying "O great table, without whom we are as naught." Anyway, either the gods are there whether you believe in them or not, or exist only as a function of the belief, so either way you might as well ignore the whole business and, as it were, eat off your knees." religion Terry Pratchett
d7032d9 "And then I stand in front of God's Throne squinting up at His blazing glory and He says, 'You had your opportunities, boy. But did you listen? No. You went on heedlesly reading that garbagey magazine with pictures of naked girls in it. How juvenile! I gave geese more sense than that.' Please, God. I'm only fourteen years old. A teenager. Have mercy. Be loving. jesus religion god Garrison Keillor
44f2dd8 A Paradox, the doughnut hole. Empty space, once, but now they've learned to market even that. A minus quantity; nothing, rendered edible. I wondered if they might be used-metaphorically, of course-to demonstrate the existence of God. Does naming a sphere of nothingness transmute it into being? religion philosophy marketing Margaret Atwood
e534c70 Once you have surrendered yourself, you make yourself receptive. In receiving from God, you are perfected and completed. christianity spirituality religion god perfected-man jesus-christ Fulton J. Sheen
be82c57 Listen, God love everything you love - and a mess of stuff you don't. But more than anything else, God love admiration. You saying God vain? I ast. Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. What it do when it pissed off? I ast. Oh, it make something else. People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back. religion love inspirational Alice Walker
85a913c Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that change you. It is a moral aesthetic, an ethical alchemy. If you behave in a certain way, you will be transformed. The myths and laws of religion are not true because they they conform to some metaphysical, scientific or historical reality but because they are life enhancing. They tell you how human nature functions, but you will not discover their truth unless you apply these myths and doctrines to your own life and put them into practice. religion practice ethics theology Karen Armstrong
1441df7 The trouble with being a god is that you've got no one to pray to. religion Terry Pratchett
85001f7 I didn't want any flowers, I only wanted To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty. How free it is, you have no idea how free---- The peacefulness is so big it dazes you, And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets. It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet. religion peace Sylvia Plath
d532f2b If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why's he constantly repairing and complaining? No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear: The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He's not good at design, he's not good at execution. He'd be out of business, if there was any competition. religion god Carl Sagan
994d9ad salvation is for the feeble, that's what I think. I don't want salvation, I want life, all of life, the miserable as well as the superb. religion Tom Robbins
3db4050 Don't follow a defeated foe. Follow Christ. It is costly. You will be an exile in this age. But you will be free. religion John Piper
d96ba61 I have always thought that if women's hair posed so many problems, God would certainly have made us bald. women religion veil hijab religious-beliefs womanhood hair islam Marjane Satrapi
4ea0ddd fsh`r `ndh fj'@ brGb@ GmD@ l tqwm fy sm` mwsyq~ hy'l@, fy sm` Djyj mTlq wSkhb jmyl wfrH yktnf kl shy wyuGrq wykhnq kl shy, fykhtfy l~ l'bd l'lm wlGrwr wtfh@ lklmt. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
f0aa508 Religion is nothing but institutionalized mysticism. The catch is, mysticism does not lend itself to institutionalization. The moment we attempt to organize mysticism, we destroy its essence. Religion, then, is mysticism in which the mystical has been killed. Or, at least diminished. religion mysticism mystical Tom Robbins
92ebe14 People whose history and future were threatened each day by extinction considered that it was only by divine intervention that they were able to live at all. I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed. poverty wealth religion god i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings maya-angelou belief Maya Angelou
0ee3493 Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend on large crowds. Our Lord Himself stressed the importance of fewness. Narrow is the way and few the number. To fill the Lord's holy temple with an idolatrous crowd clamoring for signs was a folly of everlasting consequence. Our Lord used the whip only once in His life - to drive the crowd away from His church. religion crowds church Chinua Achebe
0888fb0 "down with hell and heaven and all the religious fuss poetry religion E. E. Cummings
4aa1e42 It was no accident, no coincidence, that the seasons came round and round year after year. It was the Lord speaking to us all and showing us over and over again the birth, life, death, and resurrection of his only begotten Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord. It was like a best-loved story being told day after day with each sunrise and sunset, year after year with the seasons, down through the ages since time began. death religion god life inspirational jesus-christ resurrection Francine Rivers
3e0afbc Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe. religion science Carl Sagan
054acb2 Do those people who hold up the Bible as an inspiration to moral rectitude have the slightest notion of what is actually written in it? good religion science Richard Dawkins
ba3dc91 "If you want to teach your children that they are the tools of God, you had better not teach them that they are God's rifles, or we will have to stand firmly opposed to you: your doctrine has no glory, no special rights, no intrinsic and inalienable merit. If you insist on teaching your children false-hoods--that the Earth is flat, that "Man" is not a product of evolution by natural selection--then you must expect, at the very least, that those of us who have freedom of speech will feel free to describe your teachings as the spreading of falsehoods, and will attempt to demonstrate this to your children at our earliest opportunity. Our future well-being--the well-being of all of us on the planet--depends on the education of our descendants." religion science Daniel C. Dennett
81f4aaf "It is also worth noting that one can obtain a Ph.D. in any branch of science for no other purpose than to make cynical use of scientific language in an effort to rationalize the glaring inadequacies of tbe Bible. A handful of Christians appear to have done this; some have even obtained their degrees from reputable universities. No doubt, others will follow in their footsteps. While such people are technically "scientists," they are not behaving like scientists. They simply are not engaged in an honest inquiry into the nature of the universe. And their proclamations about God and the failures of Darwinism do not in the least signify that there is a legitimate scientific controversy about evolution." evolution reason religion science education creationism skepticism Sam Harris
800f84b Faith. Closely followed--in view of the overall shortage of time--by patience. faith death religion life virtues patience Christopher Hitchens
6e4059d The Maker of the universe with stars a hundred thousand light-years apart was interested, furious, and very personal about it if a small boy played baseball on Sunday afternoon. religion humor Sinclair Lewis
c6e2900 Christianity may be good and Satanism evil. Under the Constitution, however, both are neutral. This is an important, but difficult, concept for many law enforcement officers to accept. They are paid to uphold the penal code, not the Ten Commandments ... The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don't like that statement, but few can argue with it. jesus religion god satanism separation-of-church-and-state satan mohammed constitution zealots Carl Sagan
46cfcbc If you don't understand how something works, never mind: just give up and say God did it. You don't know how the nerve impulse works? Good! You don't understand how memories are laid down in the brain? Excellent! Is photosynthesis a bafflingly complex process? Wonderful! Please don't go to work on the problem, just give up, and appeal to God. religion science Richard Dawkins
f0128a0 The danger is that in reaction to abuses and distortions of an idea, we'll reject it completely. And in the process miss out on the good of it, the worth of it, the truth of it. religion organized-religion atheism ideas Rob Bell
20ed16f Michael had once read to her how God had cast a man and woman out of paradise. Yet, for all their human faults and failures. God had shown them the way back in. religion love inspirational Francine Rivers
7838981 It is a simple logic truth that, short of mass emigration into space, with rockets taking off at the rate of several million per second, uncontrolled birth-rates are bound to lead to horribly increased death -rates. It is hard to believe that this simple truth is not understood by those leaders who forbid their followers to use effective contraceptive methods. They express a preference for 'natural' methods of population limitation, and a natural method is exactly what they are going to get. It is called starvation. religion Richard Dawkins
8b125b6 "If only there were a dogma to believe in. Everything is contradictory, everything is tangential; there are no certainties anywhere. Everything can be interpreted one way and then again interpreted in the opposite sense. The whole of world history can be explained as development and progress and can also be seen as nothing but decadence and meaninglessness. Isn't there any truth? Is there no real and valid doctrine?" Joseph Knect said to his Music Master "there is truth, my boy. But the doctrine you desire, absolute perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist. Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend rather, you should long for perfection in yourself. The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived not taught" religion truth Hermann Hesse
b9bd73e I guess if I had to pick a spiritual figurehead to possess the deed to the entirety of Earth, I'd go with Buddha, but only because he wouldn't want it. religion Sarah Vowell
5056c69 Science tells me God must exist. My mind tells me I'll never understand God. My heart tells me I'm not meant to. [Vittoria Vetra] religion science Dan Brown
1ad395b Men are made for happiness, and he who is completely happy has the right to say to himself, 'I am doing God's will on earth. religion Fyodor Dostoyevsky
f04fc79 For the wages of sin is Death, but the gift of God is everlasting Life in Christ Jesus or LORD. religion Anonymous
d1aa285 Jack didn't fully get Jesus. Audrey tried to explain it, and he could repeat it back to her, word for word, but he still didn't comprehend most of it. The best he could gather was that Jesus lived long ago, told people to be nice, and they killed him for it. At the end, he asked who was Jesus' necromancer and if he was in the Bible, then Kaldar couldn't stop laughing and had to sit down. jesus religion humor necromancer joke Ilona Andrews
1bdc5e5 I think I have a very good idea why it is that anti-Semitism is so tenacious and so protean and so enduring. Christianity and Islam, theistic though they may claim to be, are both based on the fetishizing of human primates: Jesus in one case and Mohammed in the other. Neither of these figures can be called exactly historical but both have one thing in common even in their quasi-mythical dimension. Both of them were first encountered by the Jews. And the Jews, ravenous as they were for any sign of the long-sought Messiah, were not taken in by either of these two pretenders, or not in large numbers or not for long. If you meet a devout Christian or a believing Muslim, you are meeting someone who would give everything he owned for a personal, face-to-face meeting with the blessed founder or prophet. But in the visage of the Jew, such ardent believers encounter the very figure who have such a precious moment, and who spurned the opportunity and turned shrugging aside. Do you imagine for a microsecond that such a vile, churlish transgression will ever be ? I myself certainly hope that it will not. The Jews have seen through Jesus and Mohammed. In retrospect, many of them have also seen through the mythical, primitive, and cruel figures of Abraham and Moses. Nearer to our own time, in the bitter combats over the work of Marx and Freud and Einstein, Jewish participants and protagonists have not been the least noticeable. May this always be the case, whenever any human primate sets up, or is set up by others, as a Messiah. myth christianity jesus religion marx moses einstein prophets freud christians muslims muhammad messiah theism atheism islam humans antisemitism jews Christopher Hitchens
9647834 lmwsyq~ blnsb@ lfrnz hy lfn l'kthr qrban mn ljml ldywnysy ldhy yqdWs lnshw@. ymkn lrwy@ 'w llwH@ 'n tdwWkhn wlkn bS`wb@. 'm m` lsmfwny@ lts`@ lbythwvn, 'w m` lswnt@ lmw'lf@ mn alty bynw walt lnqr lbrtwk, 'w m` 'Gny@ llbytlz, fn lnshw@ t`tryn. mn jh@ 'khr~ fn frnz l yfrWq byn lmwsyq~ l`Zym@ wlmwsyq~ lkhfyf@. fhdh ltfryq ybdw lh khbythan wblyan, fhw yHb mwsyq~ lrwk wmwzr `l~ Hd sw. lmwsyq~ blnsb@ lh mHrWr@: dh tHrrh mn lwHd@ wln`zl wmn Gbr lmktbt. wtftH fy dkhl jsdh 'bwban ltkhrj lnfs wttakh~ m` lakhryn. km 'nh yHb lrqS l~ jnb dhlk wysh`r bl's~ l'n sbyn l tshrkh hdh lwl`. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
b21cf65 O God -- please give him back! I shall keep asking You. prayer religion god John Irving
9dd8833 "Nell did not imagine that Constable Moore wanted to get into a detailed discussion of recent events, so she changed the subject. "I think I have finally worked out what you were trying to tell me, years ago, about being intelligent," she said. The Constable brightened all at once. "Pleased to hear it." The Vickys have an elaborate code of morals and conduct. It grew out of the moral squalor of an earlier generation, just as the original Victorians were preceded by the Georgians and the Regency. The old guard believe in that code because they came to it the hard way. They raise their children to believe in that code- but their children believe it for entirely different reasons." They believe it," the Constable said, "because they have been indoctrinated to believe it." Yes. Some of them never challenge it- they grow up to be smallminded people, who can tell you what they believe but not why they believe it. Others become disillusioned by the hypocrisy of the society and rebel- as did Elizabeth Finkle-McGraw." Which path do you intend to take, Nell?" said the Constable, sounding very interested. "Conformity or rebellion?" Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded- they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity." rebellion religion Neal Stephenson
4492263 To a born-again atheist like myself, it is clear that each of us has multiple selves, talents, perceptions. But to the Roman Catholic, unity is all. religion born-again atheist Gore Vidal
deca7f0 Why are those who are notoriously undisciplined and unmoral also most contemptuous of religion and morality? They are trying to solace their own unhappy lives by pulling the happy down to their own abysmal depths. unhappiness christianity morality religion happiness imoral catholicism church discipline Fulton J. Sheen
19d9602 Common sense is no match for the voice of God. religion god mormon Jon Krakauer
13e3019 We can either emphasize those aspects of our traditions, religious or secular, that speak of hatred, exclusion, and suspicion work with those that stress the interdependence and equality of all human beings. The choice is yours. (22) interdependence hatred equality choice religion exclusion inclusion suspicion tradition Karen Armstrong
6e1c779 If desire causes suffering, it may be because we do not desire wisely, or that we are inexpert at obtaining what we desire. Instead of hiding our heads in a prayer cloth and building walls against temptation, why not get better at fulfilling desire? Salvation is for the feeble, that's what I think. I don't want salvation, I want life, all of life, the miserable as well as the superb. If the gods would tax ecstasy, then I shall pay; however, I shall protest their taxes at each opportunity, and if Woden or Shiva or Buddha or that Christian fellow--what's his name?--cannot respect that, then I'll accept their wrath. At least I will have tasted the banquet that they have spread before me on this rich, round planet, rather than recoiling from it like a toothless bunny. I cannot believe that the most delicious things were placed here merely to test us, to tempt us, to make it the more difficult for us to capture the grand prize: the safety of the void. To fashion of life such a petty game is unworthy of both men and gods. suffering prayer religion repression salvation desire Tom Robbins
2894f82 "The unknown," said Faxe's soft voice in the forest, "the unforetold, the unproven, that is what life is based on. Ignorance is the ground of thought. Unproof is the ground of action. If it were proven that there is no God there would be no religion. No Handdara, no Yomesh, no hearthgods, nothing. But also if it were proven that there is a God, there would be no religion. ... Tell me, Genry, what is known? What is sure, unpredictable, inevitable -- the one certain thing you know concerning your future, and mine?" That we shall die." Yes, There's really only one question that can be answered, Genry, and we already know the answer. ... The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next." religion philosophy Ursula K. Le Guin
ec616cf [R]eligion was the race's first (and worst) attempt to make sense of reality. It was the best the species could do at a time when we had no concept of physics, chemistry, biology or medicine. We did not know that we lived on a round planet, let alone that the said planet was in orbit in a minor and obscure solar system, which was also on the edge of an unimaginably vast cosmos that was exploding away from its original source of energy. We did not know that micro-organisms were so powerful and lived in our digestive systems in order to enable us to live, as well as mounting lethal attacks on us as parasites. We did not know of our close kinship with other animals. We believed that sprites, imps, demons, and djinns were hovering in the air about us. We imagined that thunder and lightning were portentous. It has taken us a long time to shrug off this heavy coat of ignorance and fear, and every time we do there are self-interested forces who want to compel us to put it back on again. religion Christopher Hitchens
31266f3 Religion! Is what you hear at church religion? Is that which can bend and turn, and descend and ascend, to fit every crooked phase of selfish, worldly society, religion? Is that religion which is less scrupulous, less generous, less just, less considerate for man, than even my own ungodly, worldly, blinded nature? No! When I look for religion, I must look for something above me, and not something beneath. religion Harriet Beecher Stowe
fd8db8a If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does. christianity death religion god humor hitchens gods atheism atheist Christopher Hitchens
4229800 lwqt lnsny l ysyr fy shkl dy'ry bl ytqdm fy khT mstqym. mn hn, l ymkn llnsn 'n ykwn s`ydan l'n ls`d@ rGb@ fy ltkrr. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
4a76255 All religions are based on obsolete terminology. religion philosophy philosophy-of-religion translation theology Vladimir Nabokov
c9344b3 We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers Deny us for our good; so find we profit By losing of our prayers. religion William Shakespeare
88fd5a1 "This was not the time to say "I don't know." The brothers had begging, hungry looks, like dogs waiting to be fed. They wanted an answer. It would be nice if it was the right answer, but if it couldn't be, then any answer would do, because then we would stop being worried...and then his mind caught alight. That's what the gods are! An answer that will do! Because there's food to be caught and babies to be born and life to be lived and so there is no time for big, complicated, and worrying answers! Please give us a simple answer, so that we don't have to think, because if we think, we might find answers that don't fit the way we want the world to be." religion thinking Terry Pratchett
86d3604 Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves. The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it. prejudice fantasy religion truth Mercedes Lackey
057afaa It is a better world. A place where we ate responsible for our actions, where we can be kind to one another because we want to and becauseit is the right thing to do instead of being frightened into behaving by the threat of divine punishment. religion oromis eragon Christopher Paolini
0eb19c3 The faith is not the problem, Bernadette. The problem is the faithful. faith religion islam Robert Ferrigno
6380a03 We modern human beings are looking at life, trying to make some sense of it; observing a 'reality' that often seems to be unfolding in a foreign tongue--only we've all been issued the wrong librettos. For a text, we're given the Bible. Or the Talmud or the Koran. We're given Time magazine, and Reader's Digest, daily papers, and the six o'clock news; we're given schoolbooks, sitcoms, and revisionist histories; we're given psychological counseling, cults, workshops, advertisements, sales pitches, and authoritative pronouncements by pundits, sold-out scientists, political activists, and heads of state. Unfortunately, none of these translations bears more than a faint resemblance to what is transpiring in the true theater of existence, and most of them are dangerously misleading. We're attempting to comprehend the spiraling intricacies of a magnificently complex tragicomedy with librettos that describe the barrom melodramas or kindergarten skits. And when's the last time you heard anybody bitch about it to the management? reality religion life truth meaning-of-life fact Tom Robbins
508a4ca Men are free when they are obeying some deep, inward voice of religious belief. Obeying from within. Men are free when they belong to a living, organic, believing community, active in fulfilling some unfulfilled, perhaps unrealized purpose. Not when they are escaping to some wild west. The most unfree souls go west, and shout of freedom. escape freedom religion individual west purpose obedience D.H. Lawrence
4a572c2 "Sometimes the crime follows the punishment, which only serves to prove the foresight of the Great God." "That's what my grandmother used to say," said Brutha automatically. "Indeed? I would like to know more about this formidable lady." "She used to give me a thrashing every morning because I would certainly do something to deserve it during the day," said Brutha. "A most complete understanding of the nature of mankind," religion punishment Terry Pratchett
a061c98 There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, I said, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. politics religion Kurt Vonnegut
e0f708f Do you know, the only people I can have a conversation with are the Jews? At least when they quote scripture at you they are not merely repeating something some priest has babbled in their ear. They have the great merit of disagreeing with nearly everything I say. In fact, they disagree with almost everything they say themselves. And most importantly, they don't think that shouting strengthens their argument. faith religion blind-faith discussion judaism doctrine disagreement shouting freedom-of-thought independent-thought jews Iain Pears
ea4a6e7 ymkn khtSr m's@ Hy@ <> lthql. nqwl mthlan n Hmlan qd sqT fwq 'ktfn. fnHml hdh lHml. ntHmlh 'w l ntHmlh wntSr` m`h, wfy lnhy@ m 'n nkhsr wm 'n nrbH. wlkn m ldhy Hdth m` sbyn blDbT? l shy. ftrqt `n rjl l'nh knt rGb@ fy lftrq `nh. hl lHqh b`d dhlk? hl Hwl lntqm? l. fm'sth lyst m's@ lthql nm m's@ lkhf@ wlHml ldhy sqT fwqh lm ykn Hmlan bl kn khf@ lky'n lty l tuTq. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
101da58 knt tsh`r brGb@ jmH@ l'n tqwl lh km tqwl 'tfh lns: <>. wlknh l tstTy` wl t`rf 'n ttlfZ bmthl hdhh lklmt. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
485584c "The Cold Within" Six humans trapped in happenstance In dark and bitter cold, Each one possessed a stick of wood, Or so the story's told. The first woman held hers back For of the faces around the fire, She noticed one was black. The next man looking across the way Saw not one of his church, And couldn't bring himself to give The fire his stick of birch. The third one sat in tattered clothes He gave his coat a hitch, Why should his log be put to use, To warm the idle rich? The rich man just sat back and thought Of the wealth he had in store, And how to keep what he had earned, From the lazy, shiftless poor. The black man's face bespoke revenge As the fire passed from sight, For all he saw in his stick of wood Was a chance to spite the white. The last man of this forlorn group Did naught except for gain, Giving only to those who gave, Was how he played the game. The logs held tight in death's still hands Was proof of human sin, racism religion judgemental James Patrick Kinney
d8fe053 He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him! religion salem-witch-trials the-crucible Arthur Miller
b996fcd With the moon walk, the religious myth that sustained these notions could no longer be held. With our view of earthrise, we could see that the earth and the heavens were no longer divided but that the earth is in the heavens. (105) myth heaven religion moon perspective Joseph Campbell
ac0235e So may the outward shows be least themselves: The world is still deceived with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. virtue religion ornament falsehood law pretense vice William Shakespeare
dccf2ea "Isn't wine prohibited here?" the boy asked. "It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil," said the alchemist. "It's what comes out of their mouths that is." -- religion philosophy Paulo Coelho
949ac47 When...did it become irrational to dislike religion, any religion, even to dislike it vehemently? When did reason get redescribed as unreason? When were the fairy stories of the superstitious placed above criticism, beyond satire? A religion was not a race. It was an idea, and ideas stood (or fell) because they were strong enough (or too weak) to withstand criticism, not because they were shielded from it. Strong ideas welcomed dissent. reason religion dissent rationality satire Salman Rushdie
bb015d7 "Do you believe in God, doctor?" No - but what does that really mean? I'm fumbling in the dark, struggling to make something out. But I've long ceased finding that original." religion Albert Camus
4a5f6e3 But what of faith? What of fidelity and loyalty? Complete trust? Faith is not granted by tangible proof. It comes from the heart and the soul. If a person needs proof of god's existence, then the very notion of spirituality is diminished into sensuality and we have reduced what is holy into what is logical.-Drizzt Do'urden religion god R.A. Salvatore
f7f1a8e Science is opposed to theological dogmas because science is founded on fact. To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine. Nothing enters our minds or determines our actions which is not directly or indirectly a response to stimuli beating upon our sense organs from without. Owing to the similarity of our construction and the sameness of our environment, we respond in like manner to similar stimuli, and from the concordance of our reactions, understanding is born. In the course of ages, mechanisms of infinite complexity are developed, but what we call 'soul' or 'spirit,' is nothing more than the sum of the functionings of the body. When this functioning ceases, the 'soul' or the 'spirit' ceases likewise. I expressed these ideas long before the behaviorists, led by Pavlov in Russia and by Watson in the United States, proclaimed their new psychology. This apparently mechanistic conception is not antagonistic to an ethical conception of life. universe mind nature spirit religion science life behaviorism behaviorists first-cause ivan-pavlov ivan-petrovich-pavlov john-b-watson john-broadus-watson stimuli john-watson pavlov cosmology astronomy watson goal environment determinism ethics theology dogma materialism naturalism consciousness science-and-religion life-after-death physics psychology Nikola Tesla
730db20 The man who counts on the aid of a god deserves the help he doesn't get. religion Glen Cook
ad1d043 He saw that science had become as great a hoax as religion, that nationalism was a farce, patriotism a fraud, education a form of leprosy, and that morals were for cannibals religion science nationalism morals Henry Miller
b98fe3f As obvious as it is, then, Jesus is bigger than any one religion. He didn't come to start a new religion, and he continually disrupted whatever conventions or systems or establishments that existed in his day. He will always transcend whatever cages and labels are created to contain him, especially the one called 'Christianity'. jesus spirituality religion Rob Bell
b367ff1 I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes, - a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, - a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, - and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of the slaveholders find the strongest protection. Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others. slavery religion frederick-douglass Frederick Douglass
0b6f50c When the stars threw down their spears And watered heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? - religion god tyger William Blake
8ade60d There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else (parents in the case of children, God in the case of adults) has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point. [...] Somebody else must be responsible for my well-being, and somebody else must be to blame if I am hurt. Is it a similar infantilism that really lies behind the 'need' for a God? responsibility religion life Richard Dawkins
21ebc44 National identity is the last bastion of the dispossessed. But the meaning of identity is now based on hatred, on hatred for those who are not the same. religion nationalism Umberto Eco
d999998 May you live in such a way that your death is just the beginning of your life. religion Max Lucado
6e352d3 Life is a misery, death an uncertainty. Suppose it steals suddenly upon me, in what state shall I leave this world? When can I learn what I have here neglected to learn? Or is it true that death will cut off and put an end to all care and all feeling? This is something to be inquired into. But no, this cannot be true. It is not for nothing, it is not meaningless that all over the world is displayed the high and towering authority of the Christian faith. Such great and wonderful things would never have been done for us by God, if the life of the soul were to end with the death of the body. Why then do I delay? Why do I not abandon my hopes of this world and devote myself entirely to the search for God and for the happy life? faith religion inspirational confessions christian Augustine of Hippo
545f62d To learn a belief without the belief is to sing a song without the tune. mind spirit religion Ursula K. Le Guin
38328c6 In our loss and fear we craved the acts of religion, the ceremonies that allow us to admit our helplessness, our dependence on the great forces we do not understand. loss religion helplessness Ursula K. Le Guin
35941cb When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us. There are people who see only dullness in the world and that is because their eyes have already been dulled. So much depends on how we look at things. The quality of our looking determines what we come to see. spirituality religion John O'Donohue
361afe6 the first quality of an honest man is contempt for religion, which would have us afraid of the most natural thing in the world, which is death; and would have us hate the one beautiful thing destiny has given us, which is life. death religion life irreligion Umberto Eco
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