Quotes about God
page 34

Cassandra Clare photo
Elizabeth Gilbert photo
Jorge Luis Borges photo

“It also occurred to him that throughout history, humankind has told two stories: the story of a lost ship sailing the Mediterranean seas in quest of a beloved isle, and the story of a god who allows himself to be crucified on Golgotha.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Source: Collected Fictions

Rick Riordan photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Rick Riordan photo
Philip Yancey photo
Bill Cosby photo
Sue Monk Kidd photo

“People in general would rather die than forgive. It'shard. If God said in plain language. "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.”

Variant: People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It'shard. If God said in plain language, "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.
Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Garrison Keillor photo

“God writes a lot of comedy, Donna; the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Happy to be Here (1983), p. 259
Source: Happy to Be Here

Stephen King photo

“Is there a cookie at the end of this lecture?… I got a cookie after all… Dear god, the cookie was poisoned.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Rises

Oswald Chambers photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Attributed to Bonhoeffer on the Internet, and supposedly from Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy http://books.google.com/books?id=aG0q3X8TVpsC&pg=PA486#v=onepage (2010) by Eric Metaxas; however, there is no actual reference in that book. However, in advertising the book Metaxas does state on his site that the quote is from Bonhoeffer. http://ericmetaxas.com/books/bonhoeffer-pastor-martyr-prophet-spy/ First attributed to Bonhoeffer in Explorations 12:1 (1998), p. 3, as referenced by James Cone (2004) Theology's Great Sin: Silence in the Face of White Supremacy, Black Theology, 2:2, 139-152, footnote 1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/blth.2.2.139.36027
Compare "Not to Act, is to Act!" by Francis W. McPeek http://www.ergo-sum.net/pics/McPeek.jpg, The Missionary Herald at Home and Abroad, v.141-142 (1945-1946), "Missionary herald, 1945 - Congregational churches," pp.34-35 (We must realize that church inaction is a form of political action, and it is altogether negative. “Not to act, is to act.”)
Misattributed

Mitch Albom photo

“There is a reason God limits our days.'
'Why?'
'To make each one precious.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Variant: There is a reason God limits man's days.
Source: The Time Keeper

Cormac McCarthy photo

“If God meant to interfere in the degeneracy of mankind would he not have done so by now? Wolves cull themselves, man. What other creatures could? And is the race of man not more predacious yet?”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Blood Meridian (1985)
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Context: And the answer, said the judge. If God meant to interfere in the degeneracy of mankind would he not have done so by now? Wolves cull themselves, man. What other creature could? And is the race of man not more predacious yet? The way of the world is to bloom and to flower and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the onset of night. His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day. He loves games? Let him play for stakes. This you see here, these ruins wondered at by tribes of savages, do you not think that this will be again? Aye. And again. With other people, with other sons.

Georgette Heyer photo
Anne Lamott photo

“If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Philip Yancey photo
David Sedaris photo
Chuck Palahniuk photo
Albert Einstein photo
Albert Einstein photo

“Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
John Piper photo
Elie Wiesel photo
Tom Robbins photo

“Solace? That's why God made fermented beverages and the blues.”

Source: Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Augusten Burroughs photo
Oswald Chambers photo

“Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do; He reveals to you Who He is.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

Source: My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year

“Oh my God, can you see me? I thought I was wearing my invisibility cloak.”

Cate Tiernan (1961) American novelist

Source: Darkness Falls

Brian Jacques photo

“Imagination is a gift given to us from God and each one of us use it differently.”

Brian Jacques (1939–2011) British fiction writer known for Redwall animal fantasy novels
Charlie Higson photo

“Writing is a bit like being a god”

Charlie Higson (1958) British actor, writer and singer
Margaret Mitchell photo

“We are not meant to die merely in order to be dead. God could not want that for the creatures to whom He has given the breath of life. We die in order to live.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Source: Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

Helen Keller photo

“There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Source: Light in my Darkness

Joyce Meyer photo
Tom Robbins photo

“I mean that gods do not limit men. Men limit men.”

Source: Jitterbug Perfume

Marilynne Robinson photo
Louis-ferdinand Céline photo
Bill Hicks photo
Victor Hugo photo

“God knows better than we do what we need.”

Source: Les Misérables

Walter de la Mare photo

“God has mercifully ordered that the human brain works slowly; first the blow, hours afterwards the bruise.”

Walter de la Mare (1873–1956) English poet and fiction writer

Source: The Return

Rick Riordan photo
James Patterson photo
Mark Helprin photo
Diana Gabaldon photo
Rick Riordan photo
Eric Metaxas photo

“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.”

Eric Metaxas (1963) American journalist

Source: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

Joyce Meyer photo

“God wants you to be delivered from what you have done and from what has been done to you - Both are equally imporant to Him.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Beauty for Ashes: Receiving Emotional Healing

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Libba Bray photo
Alexandre Dumas photo

“And now, farewell to kindness, humanity and gratitude… I have substituted myself for Providence in rewarding the good; may the God of vengeance now yield me His place to punish the wicked.”

Chapter 30 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo/Chapter_30
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo (1845–1846)

Orson Welles photo

“I try to be a Christian…I don't pray really, because I don't want to bore God.”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

Quoted in interview by Merv Griffin, from Frank Brady, Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles, Charles Scribner's Sons: New York, NY (1989), page 576.

Deb Caletti photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Sarah Dessen photo
Rick Warren photo
Cormac McCarthy photo
Abraham Joshua Heschel photo
Cassandra Clare photo

“With God on your side, what does luck matter?”

Source: Clockwork Angel

Rick Riordan photo
Alexandre Dumas photo

“God is merciful to all, as he has been to you; he is first a father, then a judge.”

Variant: God is full of mercy for everyone, as He has been towards you. He is a father before He is a judge.
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Albert Einstein photo

“The religion of the future will be cosmic religion. It will transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Misattributed
Variant: The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.
These two statements are very similar, widely quoted, and seem to paraphrase some ideas in the essay "Religion and Science" (see below), but neither of the two specific quotes above been properly sourced. Notable Einstein scholars such as John Stachel and Thomas J. McFarlane (author of Buddha and Einstein: The Parallel Sayings) know of this statement but have not found any source for it. Any information on any definite original sources for these is welcome.
This quote does not actually appear in Albert Einstein: The Human Side as is sometimes claimed.
Only two sources from before 1970 can be found on Google Books. The first is The Theosophist: Volume 86 which seems to cover the years 1964 http://books.google.com/books?id=7pLjAAAAMAAJ&q=1964#search_anchor and 1965 http://books.google.com/books?id=7pLjAAAAMAAJ&q=1965#search_anchor. The quote appears attributed to Einstein on p. 255 http://books.google.com/books?id=7pLjAAAAMAAJ&q=%22natural+and+spiritual%22#search_anchor, with the wording given as "The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description." An identical quote appears on p. 284 http://books.google.com/books?id=YpsfAQAAIAAJ&q=%22dogmas+and+theology%22#search_anchor of The Maha Bodhi: Volume 72 published by the Maha Bodhi Society of India, which seems to contain issues from throughout 1964 http://books.google.com/books?id=YpsfAQAAIAAJ&q=%22volume+72%22#search_anchor.
A number of phrases in the quote are similar to phrases in Einstein's "Religion and Science". Comparing the version of the quote in The Theosophist to the version of "Religion and Science" published in 1930, "a cosmic religion" in the first resembles "the cosmic religious sense" in the second; "transcend a personal God" resembles "does not involve an anthropomorphic idea of God"; "covering both the natural and the spiritual" resembles "revealed in nature and in the world of thought"; "the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity" resembles "experience the totality of existence as a unity full of significance"; and "Buddhism answers this description" resembles "The cosmic element is much stronger in Buddhism". These phrases appear in the same order in both cases, and the ones from "Religion and Science" are all from a single paragraph of the essay.
Context: Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.

Miguel de Unamuno photo
Tom Waits photo
Lily Tomlin photo

“Why is it when we talk to God we're said to be praying — but when God talks to us, we're said to be schizophrenic?”

Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer

Contributions of Jane Wagner

Hunter S. Thompson photo

“Pray to God, but row away from the rocks.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Variant: Call on God, but row away from the rocks.

Stephen King photo

“We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.”

Variant: We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.
Source: The Green Mile (1996)

Rick Warren photo

“The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Philip Pullman photo
Rick Riordan photo