 |
 | ""Sir," Saint-Savin replied, "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. We should rather
aspire to a heaven where only the planets live in eternal bliss, receiving
neither rewards nor condemnations, but enjoying merely their own eternal
motion in the arms of the void."" | |
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Umberto Eco
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| "A cult is a religion with no political power." | |
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Tom Wolfe
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| "A little skill in antiquity inclines a man to Popery: but depth in
that study brings him about again to our religion." | |
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Thomas Fuller
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| "All religions are founded on the fear of many and the cleverness of
few." | |
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Stendhal
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| "All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness
of the few." | |
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Marie Henri Beyle
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| "All religions must be tolerated...for...every man must get to heaven
in his own way." | |
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Frederick II the Great
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| "An anecdote is related of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621-1683),
who, in speaking of religion, said, "People differ in their discourse and
profession about these matters, but men of sense are really but of one
religion." To the inquiry of "What religion?" the Earl said, "Men of sense
never tell it."" | |
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Gilbert Burnet
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| "Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind
of a child, cannot be a true system." | |
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Thomas Paine
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| "As lyke as one pease is to another." | |
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John Lyly
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| "Cruel persecutions and intolerance are not accidents, but grow out
of the very essence of religion, namely, its absolute claims." | |
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Morris R[aphael] Cohen
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| "Even the Savior of the world, the Only Begotten Son of God, was
obliged to come to earth and to take upon himself an earthly tabernacle.
He experienced joy and sorrow, happiness and grief, lasting satisfaction
and frequent disappointments. As Paul has written, "Though he were a Son
yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made
perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey
him." Hebrews 5:8-9" | |
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Alma P. Burton
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| "Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to
choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice. If he abdicates
his power, he abdicates the status of man, and the grinding chaos of the
irrational is what he achieves as his sphere of existence ? by his own
choice." | |
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Ayn Rand
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| "God is for men and religion is for women." | |
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Joseph Conrad
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| "He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not
possess them, needs religion." | |
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Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
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| "I could not say that I believe. I know! I have had the experience of
being gripped by something that is stronger than myself, something that
people call God." | |
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Carl Gustav Jung
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| "I have not been able to find a single useful institution which has
not been founded either by an intensely religious man or by the son of a
praying father or a praying mother. I have made the statement before the
chambers of commerce of all the largest cities of the country and have
asked them to bring forward a case that is an exception to this rule. Thus
far, I have not heard of a single one." | |
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Roger Ward Babson
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| "I worship the quicksand he walks in." | |
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Art Buchwald
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|
| "I would have made a good Pope." | |
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Richard Milhouse Nixon
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| "Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality." | |
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Jules de Gaultier
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| "In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different
professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have
ever practiced, and both by precept and example inculcated on
mankind." | |
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Samuel Adams
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| "In religion as in friendship, they who profess most are ever the
least sincere." | |
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Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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|
| "In speaking of religion, said, "People differ in their discourse and
profession about these matters, but men of sense are really but of one
religion." To the inquiry of "What religion?" the Earl said, "Men of sense
never tell it."" | |
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Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper
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|
| "Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, and yet he will
be making gods by dozens. different translation Man is certainly crazy. He
could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen." | |
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Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
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|
| "Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, And yet he will
be making gods by dozens." | |
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Michel de Montaigne
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|
| "Many have quarreled about religion that never practice it." | |
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Benjamin Franklin
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| "Matters of religion should never be matters of controversy. We
neither argue with a lover about his taste, nor condemn him, if we are
just, for knowing so human a passion." | |
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George Santayana
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| "Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for
it; anything but - live for it." | |
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Charles Caleb Colton
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|
| "Much of what has been called religion has an unconscious attitude of
hostility toward life. True religion must teach that life is filled with
joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty.
All men must see that the teaching of religion by rule and rote is largely
a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it
without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you
this is something you"ve always known." | |
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Frank Patrick Herbert
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|
| "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable
superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able
toperceive with our frail and feeble mind. That deeply emotional
conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is
revealed in the incomprehensible Universe, forms my idea of God." | |
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Albert Einstein
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|
| "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." | |
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The Dalai Lama
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|
| "No doubt soaring cathedrals, stirring music, moving stories and
parables, help a bit. But by far the most important variable determining
your religion is the accident of birth." | |
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Richard Dawkins
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|
| "One man"s theology is another man"s belly laugh." | |
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Robert Anson Heinlein
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| "One man?s religion is another man?s belly laugh." | |
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Isaac Asimov
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| "One religion is as true as another." | |
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Robert Burton
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|
| "One?s religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is
Success." | |
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Sir James Matthew Barrie
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|
| "Pray, v.: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled on behalf
of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy." | |
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Ambrose Bierce
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| "Priests are no more necessary to religion than politicians to
patriotism." | |
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John H. Holmes
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| "Randomness scares people. Religion is a way to explain
randomness." | |
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Fran Lebowitz
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| "Religion ... is a man?s total reaction upon life." | |
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William James
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|
| "Religion consists of a set of things which the average man thinks he
believes and wishes he was certain." | |
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Mark Twain
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|
| "Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from its
readiness to fit in with our instinctual wishful impulses." | |
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Sigmund Freud
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| "Religion is love; in no case is it logic." | |
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Beatrice Potter Webb
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|
| "Religion is the fashionable substitute for belief." | |
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Oscar Wilde
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| "Religion is the last refuge of human savagery." | |
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Alfred North Whitehead
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|
| "Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it
trains people as to how they shall think." | |
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Arthur Shopenhauer
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| "Religion, which should most distinguish us from beasts, and ought
most peculiarly to elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is
that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than
beasts themselves." | |
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John Locke
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|
| "Superstition is the religion of feeble minds." | |
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Edmund Burke
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|
| "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has
been found difficult; and left untried." | |
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Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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|
| "The Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas
because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was
founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped
ashore on Plymouth Rock?" | |
|
|
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| "The future of religion is connected with the possibility of
developing a faith in the possibilities of human experience and human
relationships that will create a vital sense of the solidarity of human
interests and inspire action to make that sense a reality." | |
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John Dewey
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|
| "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are
injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there
are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my
leg." | |
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Thomas Jefferson
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| "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord
is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" | |
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The Bible
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|
| "The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never
worshipped anything but himself." | |
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Sir Richard Francis Burton
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|
| "The open-minded see the truth in different things: the narrow-minded
see only the differences." | |
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Unknown
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|
| "The religions we call false were once true." | |
|
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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|
| "THEOSOPHY, n. An ancient faith having all the certitude of religion
and all the mystery of science." | |
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Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
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|
| "There is more religion in men"s science, than there is science in
their religion." | |
|
Henry David Thoreau
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|
| "There is not even enough religion in the world to destroy the
world"s religions." | |
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Friedrich Nietzsche
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|
| "There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of
it." | |
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George Bernard Shaw
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|
| "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make
us love one another." | |
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Jonathan Swift
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|
| "We must repsect the other fellow"s religion, but only in the sense
and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful
and his children are smart." | |
|
Henry Louis Mencken
|
|
| "We, all of us, are being called to do something unprecedented. We
are being called to think about "everything that is," for we now know that
everything is interrelated and that the well-being of each is connected to
the well-being of the whole. This suggests a "planetary agenda" for all
the religions, all the various fields of expertise." | |
|
Sally McFague
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|
| "What the church should be telling the worker is that the first
demand religion makes on him is that he should be a good workman. If he is
a carpenter he should be a competent carpenter. Church by all means on
Sundays ? but what is the use of church if at the very center of life a
man defrauds his neighbor and insults God by poor craftsmanship." | |
|
General Dwight David Eisenhower
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|
| "When is a question of money, everybody is of the same
religion." | |
|
Francois Voltaire
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|
| "Whenever a man talks loudly against religion,?always suspect that it
is not his reason, but his passions which have got the better of his
creed." | |
|
Laurence Sterne
|
|
| "Where it is a duty to worship the sun it is pretty sure to be a
crime to examine the laws of heat." | |
|
John, Lord Morley
|
|
| "Where life is colorful and varied, religion can be austere or
unimportant. Where life is appallingly monotonous, religion must be
emotional, dramatic and intense. Without the curry, boiled rice can be
very dull." | |
|
C. Northcote Parkinson
|
|
| "You do not believe, you only believe that you believe." | |
|
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
|