Quotes about God
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“You have told me, O God, to believe in hell. But you have forbidden me to think… of any man as damned.”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

“I used to tell your mother she looked like Sophia Lauren." He looks at me, frowning, and then it registers.
"Oh God, some guy's using that line on you, isn't he?"
"Not just 'some guy'." I tell him. "The guy.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

Guy

“Adam hid in the Garden of Eden. Moses tried to substitute his brother. Jonah jumped a boat and was swallowed by a whale… Man likes to run from God. It's a tradition.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: Have a Little Faith: a True Story

“God, he suddenly understood, was love in its purest form, and in these last months with his children, he had felt His touch as surely as he had heard the music spilling from Ronnie's hands.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

Love, Children, Music

“God loves people because of who God is, not because of who we are.”

Philip Yancey book What's So Amazing About Grace?

Source: What's So Amazing About Grace?

Love, People

“What deity in the realms of dementia, what rabid god decocted out of the smoking lobes of hydrophobia could have devised a keeping place for souls so poor as is this flesh. This mawky worm-bent tabernacle.”

Cormac McCarthy book Suttree

page 130
Source: Suttree (1979)
Context: Put away these frozenjawed primates and their annals of ways beset and ultimate dark. What deity in the realms of dementia, what rabid god decocted out of the smoking lobes of hydrophobia could have devised a keeping place for souls so poor as in this flesh. This mawky wormbent tabernacle.

Soul

“That’s when this warm feeling buzzes through you and you smile to yourself, knowing God’s watching you, knowing that He knows you’re trying to be strong to please Him.”

Randa Abdel-Fattah (1979) contemporary Australian writer of novels for young adults

Source: Does My Head Look Big In This?

Smile, Feeling, Strong

“… surely there is something in madness, even the demoniac, which Satan flees, aghast at his own handiwork, and which God looks on in pity..”

William Faulkner book Absalom, Absalom!

Source: Absalom, Absalom!

Madness

“You belong neither to God nor the state nor me. You belong to yourself and no one else.”

Oriana Fallaci book Letter to a Child Never Born

Source: Letter to a Child Never Born

“I tell you in truth: all men are Prophets or else God does not exist.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 1
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

Men, Truth

“God is silent. Now if only man would shut up.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

“Einstein was wrong! I"M the speed of like CRACKING through shivery rainbows and GOD the sky whirls and withers like a melting RAINBOW!”

Grant Morrison (1960) writer

Source: Batman: Arkham Asylum - A Serious House on Serious Earth

Speed

“We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of a mortal body. And that's why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Love, Feeling, Joy

“I'm not worried about tomorrow, because God is there already, waiting for me.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra

Waiting

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief' is the best any of us can do really, but thank God it is enough.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Source: The Magnificent Defeat (1966)

Help

“Dear God, let me be damned a little longer, a little while.”

William Faulkner book Light in August

Source: Light in August

“Human understanding is fallible, and we see through a glass, darkly. Any religion is a shadow of God. But the shadows of God are not God.”

Margaret Atwood book The Year of the Flood

Source: The Year of the Flood

Religion, Understanding

“Killing one person makes you a murderer. Killing a million people makes you a king. Killing them all makes you God.”

Frank E. Peretti book House

Source: House

People, Personality

“When you're thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.”

Ken Follett book The Pillars of the Earth

Source: The Pillars of the Earth

Thinking

“It's another sin. Worse than all the other ones, which are immediate, violent and hot… It's the eighth deadly sin. The one God left out, Hope.”

Jennifer Donnelly A Northern Light

Source: A Northern Light

Hope

“We were restless for ages… After a while I heard an owl hooting and calmed myself by thinking of it flying over the dark fields – and then I remembered it would be pouncing on mice. I love owls, but I wish God had made them vegetarian.”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Love, Age, Thinking, Flying

“Having the courage to take the steps we always wanted to take is the only way of showing that we trust in God.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

Way, Courage

“Wow," Thalia muttered. "Apollo is hot."
"He's the sun god," I said.
"That's not what I meant.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Sun

“Doing the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about His plans.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Time

“God, of thy goodness, give me Thyself;
for Thou art enough for me,
and I can ask for nothing less
that can be full honor to Thee.
And if I ask anything that is less,
ever Shall I be in want,
for only in Thee have I all.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The First Revelation, Chapter 5
Context: Also our Lord God shewed that it is full great pleasance to Him that a helpless soul come to Him simply and plainly and homely. For this is the natural yearnings of the soul, by the touching of the Holy Ghost (as by the understanding that I have in this Shewing): God, of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself: for Thou art enough to me, and I may nothing ask that is less that may be full worship to Thee; and if I ask anything that is less, ever me wanteth, — but only in Thee I have all.
And these words are full lovely to the soul, and full near touch they the will of God and His Goodness. For His Goodness comprehendeth all His creatures and all His blessed works, and overpasseth without end. For He is the endlessness, and He hath made us only to Himself, and restored us by His blessed Passion, and keepeth us in His blessed love; and all this of His Goodness.

Art

“God,” I moaned. “Do they use that stuff as rocket fuel?”
“No one made you keep drinking it.”
“Hey, don’t get preachy. Besides, I had to be polite.”
“Sure,” she said.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Drink

“God knows I am not too hippy. Perhaps because I am too much around the hip and I fear fads for, like anybody else, I like something that tends to last.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: The Uncollected Columns

Fear

“Is it sad that my first thought happened to be: Thank God I'm off the treadmill.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Alice in Zombieland

Sadness

“Only the hopeless love God.”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

Love

“A true friend is a gift from God. Since God doesn't exist, guess what? Neither do true friends.”

Scott Dikkers (1965) American comic writer

Source: You Are Worthless: Depressing Nuggets of Wisdom Sure to Ruin Your Day

“Rache! Glad you're… Tink loves a duck!" he said, wings clattering. "It stinks of sex in here. God, woman. I leave you alone for one night, and you're humping the ghost." - Jenks to Rachel”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Black Magic Sanction

Love, Sex, Night

“The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

“Frey was the god of spring and summer! read the caption. He was the god of wealth, abundance, and fertility. His twin sister, Freya, the goddess of love, was very pretty! She had cats!”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Love, Spring, Cats, Sister

“Thus, when you wake up in the morning, called by God to be a self again, if you want to know who you are, watch your feet. Because where your feet take you, that is who you are.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Source: The Alphabet of Grace (1970)

“Why would Roman gods want to date Chinese Canadians?”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

“People who believe in politics are like people who believe in God: they are sucking wind through bent straws.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

People

“Good God, Rachel, cant you go five minutes… sweet sticky hell on a stick!' the demon exclaimed, his thoughts reeling from anger to concern as he realized I was hopped up on something.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Black Magic Sanction

Hell, Anger

“You must carry on my spirit. It can no longer be carried by a god. It must be taken up by all of you. - Pan”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

“I want to be justice, love and the wrath of God all in one.”

Marjane Satrapi (1969) Artist

Source: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Love, Justice

“He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.”

John Bunyan (1628–1688) English Christian writer and preacher

“God only allows us to see such things when he wants something to change”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Change

“Because you cannot see him, God is everywhere.”

Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972) Japanese author, Nobel Prize winner

As quoted by John Cheever in Home Before Dark: A Personal Memoir of John Cheever by His Daughter (1985) by Susan Cheever

“And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible question, and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him is the real death, that to die with him the only life?”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Source: The Magnificent Defeat (1966)

Life, Death, Truth, Star

“We are not called by God to do extraordinary things, but to do ordinary things with extraordinary love.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

Love

“No one could really hate a saint, could they? They can't really hate God either. When they want to Hate Him and His saints they have to find something like themselves and pretends it's God and hate that.”

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer

Source: Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred And Profane Memories Of Captain Charles Ryder

Hate

“Come on, let's get you a drink. How's your love life, anyway?

Oh God. Why can't married people understand that this is no longer a polite question to ask? We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, "How's your marriage going? Still have sex?”

Helen Fielding book Bridget Jones's Diary

Source: Bridget Jones's Diary

Love, Life, Marriage, People

“Happy moments, PRAISE GOD
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD
Painful moments, TRUST GOD
Every moment, THANK GOD”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Pain, Happiness

“Forgiveness is God's greatest gift”

Dan Brown book The Da Vinci Code

Source: The Da Vinci Code

Forgiveness

“This much is certain, that we have no theological right to set any sort of limits to the loving-kindness of God which has appeared in Jesus Christ. Our theological duty is to see and understand it as being still greater than we had seen before.”

Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Protestant theologian

Source: The Humanity of God

Love, Understanding, Appearance, Christ

“God, I hate rogue necromancers," said Magnus. "Why can't they just follow the rules?"
"Probably because the biggest rule is 'no necromancy'?" Emma suggested”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Hate

“When God allows something to be taken from you, He replaces it with something better.”

Janette Oke (1935) Canadian writer

Source: A Searching Heart

“I said to the almond tree: "Speak to me of God."
and the almond tree blossomed.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book Report to Greco

The Fratricides (1964)
Source: Report to Greco

Tree

“I make mistakes. That's what I do. I
speak without thinking, I act without
knowing. I drink so much that I can
barely walk… I'm a fantastic lover
though, and an amazing friend. God
knows I mean well.”

Candace Bushnell (1958) American author

Lovers, Drink, Thinking

“Good God. I don’t believe St. Vincent and the word ‘celibacy’ have ever been mentioned in the same sentence before.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Devil in Winter

“Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul.”

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) German late baroque era composer

Music, Soul

“We all wanted what we wanted, and when the Lord fulfilled HIS purpose rather than ours, we struck out against him. In anger. In disappointment. Yet, it is God's will that prevails.”

Francine Rivers book An Echo in the Darkness

Source: An Echo in the Darkness

Disappointment, Anger

“How often we expect big things from God without preparing for big things from him”

Beth Moore (1957) American evangelist

“Bloody Machiavellian English Intelligence Officer playing God”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Intelligence

“He wondered if what he had taken for the richness of silence was really the poverty of never being heard […]. How could he have forgotten what he had always known: there is no match for the silence of God.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Silence

“Then realization had dawned. "Oh, my God, you're the one who hurt Davis, the boy I was with. You saw us together, and you threw him down a gully. He broke both of his legs!"

"He lived?" Gaze narrowing, Lothaire had murmured, "Not for much Longer.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Lothaire

Boy, Hurt

“You assume that it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

“Finally, by the sea, where God is everywhere, I gradually calmed.”

Patti Smith (1946) American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist

Sea

“God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

2010s
Context: Does it mean, if you don’t understand something, and the community of physicists don’t understand it, that means God did it? Is that how you want to play this game? Because if it is, here’s a list of things in the past that the physicists at the time didn’t understand [and now we do understand] [... ]. If that’s how you want to invoke your evidence for God, then God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that’s getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on - so just be ready for that to happen, if that’s how you want to come at the problem.

Time

“You see gods have great power, but only humans have creativity, the power to change history rather than simply repeat it. Humans can… how do you moderns say it… think outside the cup.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

History, Thinking, Change

“You can’t conceive, my child, nor can I or anyone the … appalling … strangeness of the mercy of God.”

Graham Greene book Brighton Rock

Source: Brighton Rock (1938)

“You can't save everyone, though God knows you try.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting—a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Though attributed to Emerson in Edwards' A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), p. 37, this quote originates in Politics for the People (1848) by Charles Kingsley.
Misattributed

Beauty, Flowers

“Thank God even crazy dreams come true”

Carrie Underwood (1983) American country music singer

Dreams

“If the average man is made in God's image, then such a man as Beethoven oris plainly superior to God….”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Source: In Defense Of Women

“What other people label or might try to call failure, I have learned is just God's way of pointing you in a new direction.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Oprah's commencement speech at Howard University (12 May 2007) http://www.graduationwisdom.com/speeches/0024-winfrey.htm

People, Way, Failure, Learning

“It's not so much that I like him as a person God, but as a boy he's very handsome.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

Source: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

Boy, Personality

“Memories are small prayers to God, if we believed in that sort of thing.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Memory

“We must meditate on what God has done in our life instead of what we are still waiting on Him to do.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Life, Waiting

“Your favorite volhv showed up half an hour ago, complaining about his lack of sleep and stupid gods. He says he brought his Batman belt.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Gunmetal Magic

Stupidity, Sleep

“God will forgive me. It's his job." Heine said this on his deathbed (1856). Hilarious. He must have thought that up years before and counted the seconds to use it.”

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic

Forgiveness

“Your being born makes your parents God. You owe them your life, and they can control you. Then puberty makes you Satan, just because you want something better.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Life, Parent

“And If only I could, I'd make a deal with God…”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“My sense of god is my sense of wonder about the universe.”

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

Sense, Universe

“Faith is not believing in my own unshakable belief. Faith is believing an unshakable God when everything in me trembles and quakes.”

Beth Moore (1957) American evangelist

Source: Praying God's Word: Breaking Free From Spiritual Strongholds

Faith

“Rain falls on everyone, lightning strikes some. What cannot be changed is best forgotten. God made the world, and He saw that it was good. Not fair. Not happy. Not perfect. Good.”

Mary Doria Russell Children of God

Source: Children of God

Happiness, World, Change, Perfection

“The woman who creates and sustains a home, and under whose hands children grow up to be strong and pure men and women, is a creator second only to God.”

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885) Novelist, poet, writer, activist

Women, Men, Children, Home

“I wonder how Admat can be everywhere. Is he in my sandal? Or is he my sandal itself? Why would a god bother to be a sandal? Does he wear shoes or sandals himself, invisible ones?”

Gail Carson Levine (1947) American writer

Source: Ever

Shoe

“What is essential, therefore, is not that you no longer believe, but that God continues to believe in you.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Of Love and Other Demons

Source: Of Love and Other Demons

“Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

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

“The Rudderless World is not shaped by vague metaphysical Forces. It is not God who kills the Children. Not Fate that butchers them or Destiny that feeds them to the Dogs…. It´s us. Only us.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

Fate, Children, World, Dogs

“Sure, he had a wife and fifty-four kids, but he looked like a college freshman. A yummy college freshman majoring in Oh-my-god-I-gotta-get-me-some-of-that.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: A Fistful of Charms

“I wandered the earth a mercenary, daring the gods to kill me but surviving because part of me was already dead.”

Barry Eisler book A Clean Kill in Tokyo

Source: A Clean Kill in Tokyo

Parting, Dead

“The only basis of peace is the cessation of the conflict of two wills: my will vs God’s.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Peace

“I wish to God,” said Gideon with mild exasperation, “that you’d talk—just once—in prose like other people.”

Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001) British writer

Source: The Game of Kings

People

“Like anybody, I would like to have a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Life

“You would have made a fine warrior, you know that?"

I am one. Death is my enemy."

Yeah, it is, isn't it." God, it made such sense that he'd bonded with her. She was a fighter… like him. "Your scalpel's your dagger."

Yup.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Unbound

Source: Lover Unbound

Death, Sense

“Old God sure was in a good mood when he made this place.”

Hunter S. Thompson The Rum Diary

Source: The Rum Diary

Mood

“I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws.”

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

Source: Attributed in posthumous publications, Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 132
Variant transcription from "Death of a Genius" in Life Magazine: "I cannot accept any concept of God based on the fear of life or the fear of death, or blind faith. I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him I would be a liar."
Context: About God, I cannot accept any concept based on the authority of the Church. As long as I can remember, I have resented mass indoctrination. I do not believe in the fear of life, in the fear of death, in blind faith. I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him, I would be a liar. I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws.

Law, Thinking, Universe, Evil

“God isn't chocolate, he's the encounter between chocolate and the palate capable of appreciating it.”

Amélie Nothomb (1967) Belgian francophone writer

“God, how we get our fingers in each other's clay. That's friendship, each playing the potter to see what shapes we can make of each other.”

Ray Bradbury book Something Wicked This Way Comes

Source: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Friendship

“Golf… is the infallible test. The man who can go into a patch of rough alone, with the knowledge that only God is watching him, and play his ball where it lies, is the man who will serve you faithfully and well.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Knowledge

“If we assume that man actually does resemble God, then we are forced into the impossible theory that God is a coward, an idiot and a bounder.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Variant: If we assume that man actually does resemble God, then we are forced into the impossible theory that God is a coward, an idiot and a bounder.