“It is only the fear of God, can deliver us from the fear of man.”
John Witherspoon (1723–1794) Scottish-American Presbyterian minister and a Founding Father of the United States
From his sermon "Ministerial Character and Duty". Usually misquoted as "It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man."
“It is man's duty to love and to fear God, even without hope of reward or fear of punishment.”
Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed
Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.24
“What is it: is man only a blunder of God, or God only a blunder of man?”
Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols
Wie? ist der Mensch nur ein Fehlgriff Gottes? Oder Gott nur ein Fehlgriff des Menschen?
Maxims and Arrows, 7
Variant: Which? Is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's blunders?
Source: Twilight of the Idols (1888)
“When fear has seized upon the mind, man fears that only which he first began to fear.”
Ubi intravit animos pavor, id solum metuunt, quod primum formidare cœperunt.
Quintus Curtius Rufus Roman historian
IV, 16, 17.
Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis Libri Qui Supersunt, Book IV
“Fear of God is king that dwells only in the heart of a pious one.”
Bishr the Barefoot (769–841) Muslim saint
Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2002), p. 37
Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, lin…
The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (1954) Current President of Egypt
Remarks by el-Sisi during a military conference (28 April 2013) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC93fn9s3-c. <br class="br">2013
“As dreadful as the Manichean god,
Adored through fear, strong only to destroy.”
Source: The Task (1785), Book V, The Winter Morning Walk, Line 444.
“The wise man in the storm prays God not for safety from danger but for deliverance from fear.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838–1894) Bengali writer
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay: From Bankim's novel Krishnakanta's Will. Quoted in Elst, Koenraad (2001). Decolonizing the Hindu mind: Ideological development of Hindu revivalism. New Delhi: Rupa. p. 114-115
