“The real Bible is a sealed book, an apocryphon, a book not to be opened (mentally) until its time has come.”
2:568
"Quotes", Late Notebooks, 1982–1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2002)
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Northrop Frye137
Canadian literary critic and literary theorist 1912–1991Related quotes
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer
Heretics and Heresies (1874)
Context: By this time the whole world should know that the real Bible has not yet been written, but is being written, and that it will never be finished until the race begins its downward march, or ceases to exist.
The real Bible is not the work of inspired men, nor prophets, nor apostles, nor evangelists, nor of Christs. Every man who finds a fact, adds, as it were, a word to this great book. It is not attested by prophecy, by miracles or signs. It makes no appeal to faith, to ignorance, to credulity or fear. It has no punishment for unbelief, and no reward for hypocrisy. It appeals to man in the name of demonstration. It has nothing to conceal. It has no fear of being read, of being contradicted, of being investigated and understood. It does not pretend to be holy, or sacred; it simply claims to be true. It challenges the scrutiny of all, and implores every reader to verify every line for himself. It is incapable of being blasphemed. This book appeals to all the surroundings of man. Each thing that exists testifies of its perfection. The earth, with its heart of fire and crowns of snow; with its forests and plains, its rocks and seas; with its every wave and cloud; with its every leaf and bud and flower, confirms its every word, and the solemn stars, shining in the infinite abysses, are the eternal witnesses of its truth.
“To me, the Bible is a book. Important, no doubt, but a book.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature
Interview to the newspaper "O Globo", 2009.
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union
Why I Am An Agnostic (1929)
Daniel Webster (1782–1852) Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of Sta…
Source: On the Completion of the Bunker Hill Monument (1843), p. 102
“No man understands a deep book until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) American Imagist poet and critic
Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director
From the eighth book, "The Book of the Seducer"
The Pillow Book
Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American journalist
quoted by Tim Rutten in the Los Angeles Times, Saturday, October 7, 2006