Quotes about faith

„Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.“

—  Rainer Maria Rilke, book Letters to a Young Poet

Source: Letters to a Young Poet

„When a population feels alienated from the legal system under which it lives, because that system fails to protect it from real dangers while lending succor and encouragement to every possible kind of wrongdoing, the population may well lose faith in the very idea of law. That is how civilization unravels.“

—  Theodore Dalrymple English doctor and writer 1949

Prison Porn http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_1_sndgs08.html (Winter 2003).
City Journal (1998 - 2008)

„Fascism was born to inspire a faith not of the Right (which at bottom aspires to conserve everything, even injustice) or of the Left (which at bottom aspires to destroy everything, even goodness), but a collective, integral, national faith.“

—  José Antonio Primo de Rivera Spanish noble and politician 1903 - 1936

Stanley G. Payne, Falange: A History of Spanish Fascism (1961), p. 31.

„To trust is a profound commitment, and to trust is to make oneself vulnerable... It’s such an optimistic act, because you’re putting your faith in the hands of someone or something which you expect to remain constant, even if the circumstances change.“

—  Tom Hiddleston English actor, producer and musical performer 1981

„I meet a third man he's an old man he trips in the street he falls and I help him up, walk him to the curb. He shakes my hand says keep the faith, young man. I ask him what he means, he says keep running and don't let them catch you.“

—  James Frey, My Friend Leonard

Source: My Friend Leonard

„Faith cannot be given to man.Faith arises in a man and increases“

—  G. I. Gurdjieff influential spiritual teacher, Armenian philosopher, composer and writer 1866 - 1949

All and Everything: Meetings with Remarkable Men (1963)
Context: Faith cannot be given to man. Faith arises in a man and increases in its action in him not as the result of automatic learning, that is, not from any automatic ascertainment of height, breadth, thickness, form and weight, or from the perception of anything by sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste, but from understanding.
Understanding is the essence obtained from information intentionally learned and from all kinds of experiences personally experienced.

„That God existed before there were human beings on Earth, that He holds the entire world, believers and non-believers, in His omnipotent hand for eternity, and that He will remain enthroned on a level inaccessible to human comprehension long after the Earth and everything that is on it has gone to ruins; those who profess this faith and who, inspired by it, in veneration and complete confidence, feel secure from the dangers of life under protection of the Almighty, only those may number themselves among the truly religious.“

—  Max Planck German theoretical physicist 1858 - 1947

As quoted in God’s Laughter (1992) by Gerhard Staguhn, p. 152

„Even if the things are against his faith and religion, it's not to be said: don't speak and shut up your mouth, for thus there won't be clearing of the religion. Vice Versa, in this case we say: speak as you want.“

—  Judah Loew ben Bezalel Czech rabbi 1512 - 1609

Beer Hagola, Ch. 7
Original: (iw) אף אם הדברים הם נגד אמונתו ודתו, אין לומר אליו: אל תדבר ותסתום דברי פיך, שאם-כן לא יהיה בירור הדת. ואדרבא, דבר כמו זה אומרים תדבר ככל חפצך ~ אר הגולה, ירושלים תשל"א, באר שביעי, קנ-קנא.

„I have to believe much in God because I have lost my faith in man.“

—  José Rizal, book Noli Me Tángere

Source: Noli Me Tángere

„Think of God and not religion, of ecstasy and not mysticism. The difference between the theoretician of faith and the believer is as great as between the psychiatrist and the psychotic.“

—  Emil M. Cioran Romanian philosopher and essayist 1911 - 1995

„Thought is as much a lie as love or faith.“

—  Emil M. Cioran, book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

„It offends reason to believe that a well-established natural law can admit of exceptions. A natural law must hold everywhere and always, or be invalid. I cannot believe, for example, that the universal law of gravitation, which governs the physical world, is ever suspended in any instance or at any point of the universe. Now I consider economic laws comparable to natural laws, and I have just as much faith in the principle of the division of labor as I have in the universal law of gravitation. I believe that while these principles can be disturbed, they admit of no exceptions.“

—  Gustave de Molinari Belgian political economist and classical liberal theorist 1819 - 1912

Source: The Production of Security (1849), p. 25

„Beware most strictly of any outbursts of emotion which may engender needless complications, or any fraternal contention and strike which may create confusion, lead you astray and cause you to lose the confidence of the world.
Let the entire nation continue as one family from generation to generation, ever firm in its faith in the imperishability of its sacred land, and mindful of its heavy burden of responsibility and of the long road before it.“

—  Hirohito, Jewel Voice Broadcast

Gyokuon-hōsō (1945)

„Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church?“

—  John Calvin French Protestant reformer 1509 - 1564

„We Turks are faithful muslims.“

—  Mehmed II Ottoman sultan 1432 - 1481

Source: Halil İnalcık, Devlet-i'Aliyye I.Cilt, Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları

„Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.“

—  Francis of Assisi Catholic saint and founder of the Franciscan Order 1182 - 1226

Widely known as The Prayer of St. Francis, it is not found in Esser's authoritative collection of Francis's writings.
[Fr. Kajetan, Esser, OFM, ed., Opuscula Sancti Patris Francisci Assisiensis, Rome, Grottaferrata, 1978]. Additionally there is no record of this prayer before the twentieth century.
[Fr. Regis J., Armstrong, OFM, Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, New York, Paulist Press, 1982, 10, 0-8091-2446-7]. Dr. Christian Renoux of the University of Orleans in France traces the origin of the prayer to an anonymous 1912 contributor to La Clochette, a publication of the Holy Mass League in Paris. It was not until 1927 that it was attributed to St. Francis.
The Origin of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis, 2013-06-28, Renoux, Christian http://www.franciscan-archive.org/franciscana/peace.html,.
[Christian, Renoux, La prière pour la paix attribuée à saint François: une énigme à résoudre, Paris, Editions franciscaines, 2001, 2-85020-096-4].
Misattributed

„Have faith in creator of this universe believe that he is omnipresent and Supreme power.“

—  Basava a 12th-century Hindu philosopher, statesman, Kannada Bhakti poet of Lingayatism 1134 - 1196

„You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.“

—  Thomas Merton Priest and author 1915 - 1968

„Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.“

—  Alexis De Tocqueville, book Democracy in America

Original text: À côté de ces hommes religieux, j'en découvre d'autres dont les regards sont tournés vers la terre plutôt que vers le ciel ; partisans de la liberté, non seulement parce qu'ils voient en elle l'origine des plus nobles vertus, mais surtout parce qu'ils la considèrent comme la source des plus grands biens, ils désirent sincèrement assurer son empire et faire goûter aux hommes ses bienfaits : je comprends que ceux-là vont se hâter d'appeler la religion à leur aide, car ils doivent savoir qu'on ne peut établir le règne de la liberté sans celui des mœurs, ni fonder les mœurs sans les croyances ; mais ils ont aperçu la religion dans les rangs de leurs adversaires, c'en est assez pour eux : les uns l'attaquent, et les autres n'osent la défendre.
Introduction.
Source: Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)
Context: By the side of these religious men I discern others whose looks are turned to the earth more than to Heaven; they are the partisans of liberty, not only as the source of the noblest virtues, but more especially as the root of all solid advantages; and they sincerely desire to extend its sway, and to impart its blessings to mankind. It is natural that they should hasten to invoke the assistance of religion, for they must know that liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith; but they have seen religion in the ranks of their adversaries, and they inquire no further; some of them attack it openly, and the remainder are afraid to defend it.