Quotes about God
page 41

“God's extraordinary work is most often done by ordinary people in the seeming obscurity of a home and family.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

People, Family, Home

“Man wonders but God decides
When to kill the Prince of Tides.”

Pat Conroy book The Prince of Tides

Source: The Prince of Tides

“Apollo?” I guessed…
He put a finger to his lips. “I’m incognito. Call me Fred.”
A god named Fred?”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“The submission of one's will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God's altar. The many other things we 'give' are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

Personality

“I hold to no God," Roland said. "I hold to the Tower, and won't pray to that.”

Stephen King book The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah

Source: Song of Susannah

“Nor does God whisper through the trees. His voice is not to be mistaken. When men hear it they fall to their knees and their souls are riven and they cry out to Him and there is no fear but only wildness of heart that springs from such longing…”

Cormac McCarthy book The Crossing

Source: The Crossing

Men, Fear, Soul, Spring

“I had a standing agreement with god. I'd agree to believe in him, barely, so long as he let me sleep in on Sundays.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Variant: I had a standing arrangement with God: I'd agree to believe in him—barely—so long as he let me sleep in on Sundays.
Source: Vampire Academy

Sleep

“Thou art god, I am god. All that groks is god.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Art

“A grandchild is God's reward for raising a child.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

“Vampires were always either trying to kill me, or own me. God I hated being popular.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Cerulean Sins

Source: Cerulean Sins

Hate

“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Longfellow's translation of Friedrich von Logau, "Retribution", Sinngedichte III, 2, 24. http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2002/05/21/452.html.

Waiting, Patience

“According to the Bible, God created the heavens and the Earth. It is man’s prerogative - and woman’s - to create their own particular and private hell.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

Source: The Twilight Zone: Complete Stories

Hell

“Your angel cannot protect you against that which neither god nor the devil had made”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Angels

“If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

Beauty, Soul, Strong

“Put your expectations on God, not on people.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

People

“On my life, Magnus, I swear this is the truth: your father is a Norse god. Now, hurry. We're in a twenty- minute parking spot.”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Life, Truth

“Oh for God's sake,' Heather said, 'I wish you two would just go out, fail miserably as a couple, and get it over with.”

Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“That's funny because if anyone actually did prove the existence of God we'd just tell him 'nice proof, Fraa Bly' and start believing in God.”

Neal Stephenson book Anathem

Source: Anathem

“Coincidences are God's way of getting our attention.”

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

Way

“The more God gives you, the more responsible he expects you to be.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

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

“I will deny I ever said this, of course, but the gods need heroes. They always have. Otherwise we would not keep you annoying little brats around."

I feel so wanted. Thanks.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Feeling

“It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what `tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.”

Pat Conroy The Lords of Discipline

Source: The Lords of Discipline

“If a person fears God, she has no reason to fear anything else.”

Beth Moore (1957) American evangelist

Fear, Personality

“Dear God, Tatiana prayed in bed that night, turning to the wall and pulling the white sheet and the thin brown blanket over herself. If You are there somewhere, please teach me how to hide what I never knew how to show.”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Source: The Bronze Horseman

Night

“I love you Clary. More then I ever-- God. More than i probably should. You know that, don't you?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Love

“But God is only a white cold eye, a quarter-moon poised above the smoke, blinking, blinking, as the city is gradually pounded to dust.”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

“They swallow God without thinking, they swallow country without thinking. Soon they forget how to think, they let others think for them.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Thinking, Country, Forgetting

“A father has to be a provider, a teacher, a role model, but most importantly, a distant authority figure who can never be pleased. Otherwise, how will children ever understand the concept of God?”

Stephen Colbert book I Am America (And So Can You!)

Source: I Am America

Children, Understanding, Teachers, Distant

“I guess what I want to learn is how to live in this world and enjoy its delights but also devote myself to God.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

World, Learning

“As the poet said, "Only God can make a tree"— probably because it's so hard to figure out how to get the bark on.”

Woody Allen Without Feathers

"The Early Essays".
Without Feathers (1975)

Tree

“When God wants to drive a person insane, he grants that person's every wish.”

Paulo Coelho book The Valkyries

Source: The Valkyries

Personality

“Evil's just destructive? Then storms are evil, if it's that simple. And we have fire, and there there's hail. Underwriters lump it all under 'Acts of God.”

Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs

Source: The Silence of the Lambs

Evil

“In many cases, our need to wonder about or be told what God wants in a certain situation is nothing short of a clear indication of how little we are engaged in His work.”

Dallas Willard (1935–2013) American philosopher

Source: Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God

“The one place Gods inarguably exist is in our minds where they are real beyond refute, in all their grandeur and monstrosity.”

Alan Moore book From Hell

Source: From Hell

“The god’s expression was calm and content, as if he’d just come home from a lovely evening strolling through the Fields of Punishment, enjoying the screams of the damned.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Love, Home

“I have to come to realize that God does not want to punish us, but rather, to fulfill our lives. God created us, loves us and wants to help us to realize our potential so that we can be useful to others.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence

Love, Help

“I'm not a goddamned faith healer! I don't talk to God! I'm a mechanic and her goddamned engine was broken!
--Joanne”

C.E. Murphy (1973) American writer

Source: Urban Shaman

Faith

“God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas but for scars.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Faith

“He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain, which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful graces of God.”

William Kent Krueger book Ordinary Grace

Source: Ordinary Grace

Wisdom, Pain, Sleep, Suffering

“Stop!' I cried imploringly to my god-like mind.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces

“For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God's will, to be what God wants us to be.”

Thomas Merton book No Man Is an Island

Source: No Man Is an Island

“You may have married her, but she is mine. Do you think I shall let you take her? She may be ten times your wife, but, by God, you shall never have her.”

Georgette Heyer book Devil's Cub

Source: Devil's Cub

Thinking, Time

“We are Morgensterns," he added, a dark ache in his voice. " The bright stars of morning. The children of Lucifer, the most beautiful of all God's angels. We are so much lovelier when we fall." He paused. "Look at me, Clary. Look at me.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Children, Beauty, Angels, Star

“A foe to God was never true friend to man”

Edward Young (1683–1765) English poet

“Hazel blinked. “Two gods had a horse for a kid?”
“Long story.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

Horse

“I'm putting you in Dink Meeker's toon. From now on, as far as you're concerned, Dink Meeker is God."
"Then who are you?"
"The personnel officer who hired God.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

“There is no God.
But it does not matter.
Man is enough.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

“There is no joy in the soul that has forgotten what God prizes.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

Soul, Joy

“I wonder why no one called the police about the rocket launcher? God knows my neighbors usually report it if I so much as fart in my backyard. (Bubba)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

“Never forget that God is your friend. And like all friends, He longs to hear what's been happening in your life. Good or bad, whether it's been full of sorrow or anger, or even when you're questioning why terrible things have to happen.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

Life, Question, Anger, Forgetting

“Gods, how I’ve missed you. (Stryker)
I hate you with every beat of my heart. (Zephyra)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: One Silent Night

Hate, Heart

“Oh God, Frankie, I breathe in rhythm with that man. You think that's not my flesh and blood after all these years?”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

Thinking

“The day before me is fraught with God knows what horrors.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces

“God cannot take sides; for He is in all of us. We are all a part of Him, and when we try to destroy Him, we destroy ourselves.”

Sidney Sheldon book The Sands of Time

Source: The Sands of Time

Parting

“I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.”

Lou Holtz (1937) American college football coach, professional football coach, television sports announcer

“Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?—how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Source: Recipe for Salad, p. 383
Source: A memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith

World, Tea

“When the heart is open, it's easier for the mind to be turned toward God.”

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

Heart

“God always offers us a second chance in life.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Life, Chance

“Almighty God, I am sorry I am now an atheist, but have You read Nietzsche?”

John Fante book Ask the Dust

Source: Ask the Dust

Reading

“Becuse God loves us, but the devil takes an interest.”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

Love

“My God, these folks don't know how to love — that's why they love so easily.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Letter to Blanche Jennings (8 May 1909), The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, ed. James T. Boulton, Vol. 1 (1979), pp. 127

Love

“Rev. Pat Robertson says that if more states legalize gay marriage, God will destroy America. He did say that afterwards, gays will come in and do a beautiful renovation.”

Conan O'Brien (1963) American television show host and comedian

Marriage, Beauty

“Him and God are supposed to be at war with each other. But if God hates sin and Satan punishes the sinners, aren’t they working the same side of the street? Aren’t the judge and the executioner on the same team?”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: Horns

Hate, War

“Their position seems to be that their God is so great he doesn't even have to exist.”

Carl Sagan book Contact

Source: Contact

“He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

“What could a child know of the darkness of God's plan? Or how flesh is so frail it is hardly more than a dream”

Cormac McCarthy book Suttree

page 154
Source: Suttree (1979)
Context: Pale manchild were there last agonies? Were you in terror, did you know? Could you feel the claw that claimed you? And who is this fool kneeling over your bones, choked with bitterness? And what could a child know of the darkness of God's plan? Or how flesh is so frail it is hardly more than a dream.

Dreams

“Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Home, Forgetting

“He had always loved God. In his darkest hours he cried out, "God did not create us to abandon us.”

Irving Stone book The Agony and the Ecstasy

Source: The Agony and the Ecstasy

Love

“If you alter or obscure the Biblical portrait of God in order to attract converts, you don't get converts to God, you get converts to an illusion. This is not evangelism, but deception.”

John Piper (1946) American writer

“You're screening your calls?"
"Why not? It saves me from conversations with idiots."
"Is that an insult?" His voice dropped into a deep growl.
"You're not an idiot," I told him. "You're just a deadly psychopath with a god complex.(…)”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Strikes

“Ritie, don't worry 'cause you ain't pretty. Plenty pretty women I seen digging ditches or worse. You smart. I swear to God, I rather you have a good mind than a cute behind.”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Women

“There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.”

Brother Lawrence (1614–1691) French Christian monk

Life, World

“Man is a being of varied, manifold and inconstant nature. And woman, by God, is a match for him.”

Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001) British writer

Source: The Disorderly Knights

Nature

“We lay on our backs looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when he made life so sad and disinclined.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Source: On the Road: the Original Scroll

Life, Sadness

“War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god.”

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

The judge
Blood Meridian (1985)
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

War, Game

“Consumerism is the worship of the god of quantity; advertising is its liturgy. Advertising is schooling in false longing.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong

School, Falseness

“God knows there certainly ought to be a window around here somewhere, for all of us.”

Richard Yates book Eleven Kinds of Loneliness

Source: Eleven Kinds of Loneliness

“God is the same everywhere.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

“Those people cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them because they see and covet what He has not given them. All of our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 9, A Boat.
Context: I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that He has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.

People, Spring, Appearance