A collection of quotes on the topic of faith.
Related topicsTotal 4355 quotes faith, filter:
— Jerry Coyne, book Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible
Source: Faith vs. Fact (2015), p. 29
— James Legge missionary in China 1815 - 1897
Bk. 1, Ch. 8 (p. 7)
Translations, The Confucian Analects
— Leslie Weatherhead English theologian 1893 - 1976
Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.227 [ellipsis added]
— George Eliot English novelist, journalist and translator 1819 - 1880
Thiis was published without credit in The Best Loved Poems of the American People (1936) with the title "Friendship", and since that time has sometimes been misattributed http://www.geonius.com/eliot/quotes.html to Eliot; it is actually an adaptation of lines by Dinah Craik, in A Life for a Life (1859):
Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
Misattributed
— Bob Marley Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician 1945 - 1981
— Adolf Hitler Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party 1889 - 1945
Speech from the Sixth Nazi Party Congress, Nuremberg; September 8th, 1934 https://web.archive.org/web/20150605015000/http://campbellmgold.com/archive_esoteric/hitler_closing_speech_triumph_of_the_will.pdf.
Video footage of this quotation can be found in the film Triumph of the Will
1930s
Context: It shall always be only a fraction of the people who stand out as truly active fighters, and more is expected from them than from the millions of their fellow countrymen. For them, the mere pledge of "I believe" is not enough, but rather the oath: "I fight!"
— Franz Kafka author 1883 - 1924
Letter to Oskar Pollak http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001062.php (27 January 1904)
Variant translations:
If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it? Good God, we also would be happy if we had no books and such books that make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. What we must have are those books that come on us like ill fortune, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.
What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than we love ourselves, that make us feel as though we had been banished to the woods, far from any human presence, like a suicide. A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.
A book should be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us.
A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.
A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.
Variant: A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
Context: I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?... we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
— Elie Wiesel, book Night
Source: Night (1960)
Context: "Don't be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve."
I exploded:
"What do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet?"
His cold eyes stared at me. At last, he said wearily:
"I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people."
— Frederick Buechner Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian 1926
Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (1973)
Context: If you don't have doubts you're either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.
— James Hamilton Scottish minister and a prolific author of religious tracts 1814 - 1867
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 88.
— Kurt Cobain American musician and artist 1967 - 1994
As quoted in Rolling Stone (1993-01-27).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print
— René Lévesque Quebec politician 1922 - 1987
Concession speech, 1980 Quebec referendum, http://en.wikipedia.org/upload/b/ba/Rene_Levesque%2C_Si_je_vous_ai_bien_compris.wav ( http://archives.radio-canada.ca/politique/provincial_territorial/clips/4212/
— Kurt Cobain American musician and artist 1967 - 1994
— Al Capone American gangster 1899 - 1947
— Mikhail Bulgakov, book The Master and Margarita
Book Two in 'Margarita', P/V, opening lines of Book Two
Variant: Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar’s vile tongue be cut out!
Source: The Master and Margarita (1967)
— Mark Twain American author and humorist 1835 - 1910
Variant: If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
