Quotes about God
page 39

“God himself does not give answers. He gives himself.”

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

Telling the Truth (1977)
Source: Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale

“That was the message. For me, alone among mortals, the gods send their messenger to tell me to stop whining. That’ll teach me to go hide in a temple.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

“He [Nico] regarded Jason, as if waiting for an attack. 'If the others found out-'
'If the others found out,' Jason said, 'You'd have that many more people to back you up, and to unleash the fury of the gods on anybody who gives you trouble.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

People, Waiting

“It never fails. God will put people in your path that irritate you, especially if you're prone to be irritated.”

Rich Mullins (1955–1997) American christian musician

People

“This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Meniti Bianglala

Life, Peace, Search, Understanding

“I will not waste my life! I will finish my course and finish it well. I will display the Gospel of the grace of God in all I do. I will run my race to the end.” - Paul”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Source: Don't Waste Your Life

Life

“Thought's a luxury. Do you think the peasant sits and thinks of God and Democracy when he gets inside his mud hut at night?”

Graham Greene book The Quiet American

Source: The Quiet American

Democracy, Thinking, Night

“The soul is like an uninhabited world
that comes to life only when
God lays His head
against us.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Life, World, Soul

“May the gods damn you all! (Talon)
The gods don’t damn us, we damn ourselves by our words and deeds. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

“But, in her life, nothing was going to happen. Such was the will of God! The future was a dark corridor, and at the far end the door was bolted.”

Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary

Source: Madame Bovary

Life, Future

“People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Interview With The Vampire (1976)
Source: Interview with the Vampire

People, Evil

“but as God said,
crossing his legs,
I see where I have made plenty of poets
but not so very much
poetry.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“Prayer is a declaration of dependence upon God.”

Philip Yancey (1949) American writer

Dependency

“And what constitutes evil, real evil, is the taking of a single human life. Whether a man would die tomorrow or the day after or eventually… it doesn't matter. Because if God does not exist, then life… every second of it… Is all we have.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

Life, Evil

“the body is wiser than its inhabitants. the body is the soul. the body is god’s messenger.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Soul

“A demon, if you prefer the term; although to be honest, the difference between god and a demon is really only a matter of perspective.”

Joanne Harris book The Gospel of Loki

Source: The Gospel of Loki

“This word: Thou shalt not be overcome, was said full clearly and full mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations that may come. He said not: Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted; but He said: Thou shalt not be overcome. God willeth that we take heed to these words, and that we be ever strong in sure trust, in weal and woe. For He loveth and enjoyeth us, and so willeth He that we love and enjoy Him and mightily trust in Him; and all shall be well.
And soon after, all was close and I saw no more.”

Julian of Norwich book Revelations of Divine Love

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 68
Source: Revelations of Divine Love

Love, Strong, Affliction

“What was God thinking when he created a guy this handsome? He wasn't a gift to womankind, he was a torture device.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: My Double Life

Guy, Thinking

“But secondly you say 'society must exact vengeance, and society must punish'. Wrong on both counts. Vengeance comes from the individual and punishment from God.”

Victor Hugo book The Last Day of a Condemned Man

Source: The Last Day of a Condemned Man

“Contentment… has an internal quietness of heart that gladly submits to God in all circumstances.”

Joni Eareckson Tada (1949) American artist

Source: When God Weeps: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty

Heart

“He had never felt entirely comfortable around Raphael. Raphael seemed to him like Loki or some other trickster God, sometimes working for good and sometimes for evil, but always in his own interests.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Evil

“A Half-Blood of the eldest gods, Shall reach sixteen against all odds
And see the world in endless sleep
The Hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap
A single choice shall end his days
Olympus to preserve or raze.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

World, Soul, Sleep

“Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,-Wait and hope.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Wisdom, Hope, Waiting, Future

“The infinite exists. It is there. If the infinite had nothewould be its limit; it would not be the infinite; in other words, it would not be. But it is. Then it has aThisof the infinite is God.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“The death of God left the angels in a strange position.”

Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) American writer, editor, and professor

Death, Angels

“You can get a thousand no's from people, and only one "yes" from God.”

Tyler Perry (1966) American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, producer, author, and songwriter

Variant: You can get a thousand no's from people, and only one «yes» from God.

People

“My own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, "No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”

Jeffrey R. Holland (1940) Mormon leader

Books

“It is straightforward—and never mind, for now, about plagues and famines: if God existed, and if he cared for humankind, he would never have given us religion.”

Martin Amis (1949) Welsh novelist

"The voice of the lonely crowd" (2002)
Source: The Second Plane: 14 Responses to September 11
Context: The 20th century, with its scores of millions of supernumerary dead, has been called the age of ideology. And the age of ideology, clearly, was a mere hiatus in the age of religion, which shows no sign of expiry. Since it is no longer permissible to disparage any single faith or creed, let us start disparaging all of them. To be clear: an ideology is a belief system with an inadequate basis in reality; a religion is a belief system with no basis in reality whatever. Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful. It is straightforward — and never mind, for now, about plagues and famines: if God existed, and if He cared for humankind, He would never have given us religion.

Religion

“Until man is nothing, God can make nothing of him. - Martin Luther”

Dan Brown book Inferno

Source: Inferno

“It is because people live in the things they possess instead of in their relationship to God that God seems at times to be cruel.”

Grace Livingston Hill (1865–1947) 20th-century novelist

People, Time

“You are as close to God as you choose to be.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

“The Bible tells us to be like God, and then on page after page it describes God as a mass murderer. This may be the single most important key to the political behavior of Western Civilization.”

Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) American author and polymath

Behavior

“God, of your goodness, give me yourself; you are enough for me, and anything less that I could ask for would not do you full honor. And if I ask anything that is less, I shall always lack something, but in you alone I have everything'.”

Julian of Norwich book Revelations of Divine Love

Source: Revelations of Divine Love

“Don't believe in God. Love the world just the way it is.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Love, World, Way

“Teach that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake.”

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

“Oh, gods, you’re mated! I really hope it’s to Aimee. (Bride)
Thankfully so. Otherwise I’d have had to kill me some ho and then beat Fang senseless. (Aimee)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Bad Moon Rising

Hope

“God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.”

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

Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Truth

“If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

Life, Men

“Bear in mind, children, that they listen to you because you are kids—not because you are right. That's how our Father listens to us … We never understand what we're praying, and God, in His mercy, does not answer our prayers according to our understanding, but according to His wisdom.”

Rich Mullins (1955–1997) American christian musician

Lufkin, Texas http://www.kidbrothers.net/words/concert-transcripts/lufkin-texas-jul1997-full.html (July 19, 1997) <br class="br">In Concert

Wisdom, Children, Understanding

“Well, let me leave it at this: if God does exist, He would have a great deal be sad about. And if He doesn’t exist, then that too would make Him quite sad, I imagine. So to answer your question, God must be sad.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Sadness, Imagination, Question

“If America leads a blessed life, then why did God put all of our oil under people who hate us?”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Life, Hate, People

“If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron”

Spider Robinson (1948) Canadian author

God Is An Iron (1977)
Context: "God is an iron," I said. "Did you know that?"
I turned to look at her and she was staring. She laughed experimentally, stopped when I failed to join in. "And I'm a pair of pants with a hole scorched through the ass?"
"If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron. Or else He's the dumbest designer that ever lived."

Personality

“God not only loves the obedient - He enlightens them.”

Henry B. Eyring (1933) American Mormon leader

Love

“God will bless you,' said he, 'you are an angel since you take care of the flowers.'
'No,' she replied. 'I am the devil, but that's all the same to me.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Miserables

Angels, Flowers

“Look behind you: What have you learned?
Look around you: What is happening to others?
Look above you: What does God expect of you?
Look besides you: What resources are available to you?”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Learning

“I don't try to imagine a personal God; it suffices to stand in awe at the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it.”

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

World, Imagination, Sense, Personality

“Prometheus, thief of light, giver of light, bound by the gods, must have been a book.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Books, Light

“You are the only you God made… God made you and broke the mold.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot

“I am God, la de dah.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

Source: The Complete Poems

“In the end what matters is not how good we are but how good God is. Not how much we love Him but how much He loves us. And God loves us whoever we are, whatever we’ve done or failed to do, whatever we believe or can’t.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Love

“Because it’s our duty to God to protect the rest of humanity from evil creatures of the night.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Evil, Night

“It must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

An Apology for the Devil
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIV - Higgledy-Piggledy
Source: The Note Books of Samuel Butler

Books

“where some god pissed a rain of
reason to make things grow
only to die”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“There is in God, some say, a deep but dazzling darkness.”

Madeleine L'Engle A Ring of Endless Light

Source: A Ring of Endless Light

“They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”

Zora Neale Hurston book Their Eyes Were Watching God

Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God

“My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

"On My Friendly Critics"
Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies (1922)
Source: Soliloquies in England & Later Soliloquies

Men, Fashion, Universe

“Is God a man or a woman?
God could be an armadillo. I have no idea.”

Sherman Alexie book Reservation Blues

Source: Reservation Blues

Idea

“Inspiration is God making contact with itself.”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

“You got a God. Don't make no difference if you don' know what he looks like.”

John Steinbeck book The Grapes of Wrath

Source: The Grapes of Wrath

“Mariam always held her breath as she watched him go. She held her breath and, in her head, counted seconds. She pretended that for each second that she didn't breathe God would grant her another day with Jalil.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns

“Ah, the prayers of the millions, how they must fight and destroy each other on their way to the throne of God.”

John Steinbeck book Tortilla Flat

Source: Tortilla Flat

Way, Fight

“Librarians, Dusty, possess a vast store of politeness. These are people who get asked regularly the dumbest questions on God's green earth. These people tolerate every kind of crank and eccentric and mouth-breather there is.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

"Cowboy Librarians" (13 December 1997)
A Prairie Home Companion
Source: Dusty and Lefty: The Lives of the Cowboys

People, Question

“He came for me. I couldn’t believe it.. Into a flying palace full of thousands of armed rakshasas in the middle of a magic jungle.. What was the God damn point of saving him only to watch him throw his life away?
Kate for Curran”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Strikes

Life, Flying

“Men are easy,' he said, fingers tapping on his mahogany desk. 'A man's plumbing is like his mind: simple, very few surprises. You ladies, on the other hand… well, God put a lot of thought into making you.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

Men

“God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but He does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

7 July 1838
1830s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1830s
Source: The Journals of Kierkegaard

“But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Variant: I want God, I want poetry, I want danger, I want freedom, I want sin.
Source: Brave New World

Freedom

“We have never heard the devil's side of the story, God wrote all the book.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

Books

“It does not do to neglect the gods of a place, whoever they may be. In the end, they are all one.”

Mary Stewart Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy

Source: Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy

“I continue to dream and pray about a revival of holiness in our day that moves forth in mission and creates authentic community in which each person can be unleashed through the empowerment of the Spirit to fulfill God's creational intentions.”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Source: How To Pray: The Best of John Wesley on Prayer

Dreams, Communication, Personality

“Some say that we shall never know, and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer's day, and some say, to the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God.”

Thornton Wilder book The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Source: The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Boy, Summer

“In the time of gods and monsters, what is the worth of a man?”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Time

“Time for the likeliest story since Mary told Joseph it was God’s.”

Val McDermid (1955) Scottish crime writer

Time

“When he went back to the fire he knelt and smoothed her hair as she slept and he said if he were God he would have made the world just so and no different.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

World

“Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”

Garth Brooks (1962) American country music artist

Unanswered Prayers, written by Pat Alger, Larry Bastian, and G. Brooks.
Song lyrics, No Fences (1990)
Context: Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs,
That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care.
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

“Pray as if all things depend on God, and work as if all things depend on you.”

Christina Dodd (1957) American writer

Source: Scent of Darkness

Dependency