Quotes about God
page 60

Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi photo

“If you follow a religion but are devoid of the Love of God, then those that do not follow a religion but have the love of God are better.”

Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi (1941–2001) Pakistani Sufi spiritual leader, poet, author

An introduction to this book
The Religion of God (2000)

Joseph Lewis photo

“Man's inhumanity to man will continue as long as man loves God more than he loves his fellow man.”

Joseph Lewis (1889–1968) American activist

An Atheist Manifesto

James Hudson Taylor photo

“If God try our faith it is to show His faithfulness, and we shall lose the blessing by appeals etc.”

James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) Missionary in China

(A.J. Broomhall. Hudson Taylor and China’s Open Century, Book Five: Refiner’s Fire. London: Hodder and Stoughton and Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1985, 407).

Walter Rauschenbusch photo

“The fundamental purpose of Jesus was the establishment of the kingdom of God, which involved a thorough regeneration and reconstitution of social life.”

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) United States Baptist theologian

Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Ch.4 Why Has Christianity Never Undertaken the Work of Social Reconstruction?, p. 143

R. Scott Bakker photo
Homér photo

“If any man obeys the gods, they listen to him also.”

I. 218 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

N.T. Wright photo
Richard Pryor photo

“I went through every phone book in Africa, and I didn't find one god damned Pryor!”

Richard Pryor (1940–2005) American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer, and MC

On trying to find his roots. Live At The Sunset Strip (1982)

Thomas Carlyle photo
Bono photo

“Playing that music delivered me from the pressures of my life. I played with my eyes closed and found that my backaches ceased and my headaches would go. The response to that rhythm was "My God, this makes me feel good." I never really remembered having that much fun with it before or thought about jazz making me feel good. But, at 46, it suddenly dawned on me that my body had priorities that my mind didn't allow, and I decided to (play Latin/jazz)✱ for myself and started having a helluva fine time.”

Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

As quoted in "He Arranges, Composes, Performs: Fischer: A Renaissance Man Of Music" http://articles.latimes.com/1987-05-14/entertainment/ca-8949_1_clare-fischer.
<center><sup>✱</sup> The parenthetical addition is Zan Stewart's; exactly what it's replacing – whether simply filling a space, or replacing an unintelligible word or two – is not revealed.</center>

Julian of Norwich photo
Norman Schwarzkopf photo

“I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is to arrange the meeting.”

Norman Schwarzkopf (1934–2012) United States Army general

As quoted in I Fail to Miss Your Point (2007) by Jim O'Bryon, p. 409

Abraham Joshua Heschel photo

“We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

As quoted in SQ : Connecting with Our Spiritual Intelligence (2000) by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, p. 15

Harrison Birtwistle photo
Charles Webster Leadbeater photo
Henry Adams photo

“An artist must be man, woman and demi-god.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

Mr. Wharton in Ch. IV
Esther: A Novel (1884)

Thomas Arnold photo

“The distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these other, men are found seeking after God, while Christianity is God seeking after man.”

Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) English headmaster of Rugby School

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 133.

Frederick II of Prussia photo

“Neither antiquity nor any other nation has imagined a more atrocious and blasphemous absurdity than that of eating God. — This is how Christians treat the autocrat of the universe.”

Frederick II of Prussia (1712–1786) king of Prussia

Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great (New York: Brentano's, 1927), trans. Richard Aldington, letter 215 from Frederick to Voltaire (1776-03-19)

“Don't tell God they were only little globs of tissue. They were real live persons, being formed in their mother; s womb.”

Jack T. Chick (1924–2016) Christian comics writer

Chick tracts, " Who Murdered Clarice? http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1009/1009_01.asp" (2000)

David Gerrold photo
Nicholas Murray Butler photo
Thomas Bradwardine photo
Maurice Merleau-Ponty photo
Percy Bysshe Shelley photo
John Updike photo

“Hard to believe God is always listening, never gets bored.”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

Shane Claiborne photo

“I guess God can use the mafia, but I would like God to use the church.”

Source: The Irresistible Revolution (2006), p. 63

Abdul Sattar Edhi photo

“Empty words and long praises do not impress God. Show Him your faith by your deeds.”

Abdul Sattar Edhi (1928–2016) Pakistani philanthropist, social activist, ascetic and humanitarian

quote published by the Editor, The Kooza Communications International ( July 10, 2016 http://thekooza.com/10-famous-quotes-by-abdul-sattar-edhi/). Retrieved on July 21, 2016

James MacDonald photo
Paul of Tarsus photo
John Wesley photo

“As to the word itself, it is generally allowed to be of Greek extraction. But whence the Greek word, enthousiasmos, is derived, none has yet been able to show. Some have endeavoured to derive it from en theoi, in God; because all enthusiasm has reference to him. … It is not improbable, that one reason why this uncouth word has been retained in so many languages was, because men were not better agreed concerning the meaning than concerning the derivation of it. They therefore adopted the Greek word, because they did not understand it: they did not translate it into their own tongues, because they knew not how to translate it; it having been always a word of a loose, uncertain sense, to which no determinate meaning was affixed.
It is not, therefore, at all surprising, that it is so variously taken at this day; different persons understanding it in different senses, quite inconsistent with each other. Some take it in a good sense, for a divine impulse or impression, superior to all the natural faculties, and suspending, for the time, either in whole or in part, both the reason and the outward senses. In this meaning of the word, both the Prophets of old, and the Apostles, were proper enthusiasts; being, at divers times, so filled with the Spirit, and so influenced by Him who dwelt in their hearts, that the exercise of their own reason, their senses, and all their natural faculties, being suspended, they were wholly actuated by the power of God, and “spake” only “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
Others take the word in an indifferent sense, such as is neither morally good nor evil: thus they speak of the enthusiasm of the poets; of Homer and Virgil in particular. And this a late eminent writer extends so far as to assert, there is no man excellent in his profession, whatsoever it be, who has not in his temper a strong tincture of enthusiasm. By enthusiasm these appear to understand, all uncommon vigour of thought, a peculiar fervour of spirit, a vivacity and strength not to be found in common men; elevating the soul to greater and higher things than cool reason could have attained.
But neither of these is the sense wherein the word “enthusiasm” is most usually understood. The generality of men, if no farther agreed, at least agree thus far concerning it, that it is something evil: and this is plainly the sentiment of all those who call the religion of the heart “enthusiasm.” Accordingly, I shall take it in the following pages, as an evil; a misfortune, if not a fault. As to the nature of enthusiasm, it is, undoubtedly a disorder of the mind; and such a disorder as greatly hinders the exercise of reason. Nay, sometimes it wholly sets it aside: it not only dims but shuts the eyes of the understanding. It may, therefore, well be accounted a species of madness; of madness rather than of folly: seeing a fool is properly one who draws wrong conclusions from right premisses; whereas a madman draws right conclusions, but from wrong premisses. And so does an enthusiast suppose his premisses true, and his conclusions would necessarily follow. But here lies his mistake: his premisses are false. He imagines himself to be what he is not: and therefore, setting out wrong, the farther he goes, the more he wanders out of the way.”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Sermon 37 "The Nature of Enthusiasm"
Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)

Bill Hybels photo
Julian of Norwich photo
Kent Hovind photo
Sepp Dietrich photo
Jeffrey T. Kuhner photo

“The pope understands this eternal truth: Societies cannot endure for long without a belief in God and a submission to His will. We are ignoring him at our peril.”

Jeffrey T. Kuhner (1969) American journalist

Real Conservative Vision http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/01/a-real-conservative-vision/A,Washington Times, 2009-8-9.

Robert Anton Wilson photo
Glenn Beck photo

“The 'I', the 'self' of the child of God, is born in the midst of the ruins of repented idolatry.”

James Alison (1959) Christian theologian, priest

Source: Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay (2001), " Theology amidst the stones and dust http://girardianlectionary.net/res/alison_elijah.htm", p. 40.

Kent Hovind photo
Kurien Kunnumpuram photo

“Mission of the Church is to collaborate with God in his work for the wholeness of the human person, the human community and the cosmos according to the pattern revealed in Jesus Christ.”

Kurien Kunnumpuram (1931–2018) Indian theologian

Kunnumpuram, K. (2009) Towards the Fullness of Life: Reflections on the Daily Living of the Faith. Mumbai: St Pauls
On the Church

William Morley Punshon photo
N. K. Jemisin photo
John Bartholomew Gough photo

“If the Bible is God's word, and we believe it, let us handle it with reverence.”

John Bartholomew Gough (1817–1886) Anglo-American temperance orator

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 37.

James Thomas Fields photo

“Is n’t God upon the ocean
Just the same as on the land?”

James Thomas Fields (1817–1881) American writer and publisher

The Tempest, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Karel Čapek photo

“Great god of the Ants, thou hast granted victory to thy servants. I appoint thee honorary Colonel.”

Pictures from the Insects' Life (1922), as translated in 'And so ad infinitum (The Life of the Insects) : An Entomological Review in Three Acts, a Prologue and an Epilogue (1936) co-written with his brother Josef Čapek, p. 60; also known as The Insect Play

Zisi photo
Jonathan Edwards photo

“Some that oppose this doctrine indeed say, that the apostle sometimes means that it is by faith, i. e. a hearty embracing the gospel in its first act only, or without any preceding holy life, that persons are admitted into a justified state; but, say they, it is by a persevering obedience that they are continued in a justified state, and it is by this that they are finally justified. But this is the same thing as to say, that a man on his first embracing the gospel is conditionally justified and pardoned. To pardon sin, is to free the sinner from the punishment of it, or from that eternal misery that is due to it; and therefore if a person is pardoned, or freed from this misery, on his first embracing the gospel, and yet not finally freed, but his actual freedom still depends on some condition yet to be performed, it is inconceivable how he can be pardoned otherwise than conditionally; that is, he is not properly actually pardoned, and freed from punishment, but only he has God’s promise that he shall be pardoned on future conditions. God promises him, that now, if he perseveres in obedience, he shall be finally pardoned, or actually freed from hell; which is to make just nothing at all of the apostle’s great doctrine of justification by faith alone. Such a conditional pardon is no pardon or justification at all, any more than all mankind have, whether they embrace the gospel or no; for they all have a promise of final justification on conditions of future sincere obedience, as much as he that embraces the gospel.”

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) Christian preacher, philosopher, and theologian

Justification By Faith Alone (1738)

William Lane Craig photo
Matthew Simpson photo

“Wherever public worship has been established and regularly aintained, idolatry has vanished from the face of the earth. There is not now a temple to a heathen god where the word of God is read.”

Matthew Simpson (1811–1884) American bishop and academic

Matthew Simpson reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 34.

Tanith Lee photo
Stafford Cripps photo
Carl Sagan photo
John D. Rockefeller photo

“I was early taught to work as well as play,
My life has been one long, happy holiday;
Full of work and full of play —
I dropped the worry on the way —
And God was good to me every day.”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist

Verses written on his eighty-sixth birthday (8 July 1925) http://www.anbhf.org/pdf/lee.pdf

Harun Yahya photo
Charles Stross photo
Hermann Adler photo

“The object of education is not merely to enable our children to gain their daily bread and to acquire pleasant means of recreation, but that they should know God and serve Him with earnestness and devotion.”

Hermann Adler (1839–1911) Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1891 to 1911

Source: Quoted in Joseph H. Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs (One-volume edition), p. 78-9

John Calvin photo
Kent Hovind photo
Teresa of Ávila photo

“Reflect upon the providence and wisdom of God in all created things and praise Him in them all.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

Maxim 35, p. 258
Maxims for Her Nuns (1963)

Sun Myung Moon photo

“If you convey God's words to someone only with the intention to utilize him in some way, you will never be able to establish the standard of the "Way." Give what you have to others with your sincere heart.”

Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) Korean religious leader

The Way of God's Will Chapter 3-3 Witnessing http://www.unification.org/ucbooks/WofGW/wogw3-03.htm Translated 1980.

“Ray: Oh God, I'm in trouble…How many young people have I enticed into the gay lifestyle? I'm facing God, covered with the responsibility of ruining their lives.”

Jack T. Chick (1924–2016) Christian comics writer

Chick tracts, " Sin City http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/5003/5003_01.asp" (2001)

Nick Cave photo

“O the same God that abandon'd her,
Has in turn abandon'd me,
Deep in the Desert of Despair,
I wait at the Well of Misery.”

Nick Cave (1957) Australian musician

Song lyrics, From Her to Eternity (1984), Well of Misery

Osama bin Laden photo
Hermann Hesse photo
Orson Pratt photo
Peter Greenaway photo
Pope Benedict XVI photo

“Our Christian conviction is that Christ is also the messiah of Israel. Certainly it is in the hands of God how and when the unification of Jews and Christians into the people of God will take place.”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

God and the World, published October 2000, as reported by National Catholic Reporter
2000

Sidney Lanier photo

“Music means harmony, harmony means love. Love means God.”

Sidney Lanier (1842–1881) American musician, poet

Tiger Lilies a novel, Hurd & Houghton , New York 1867

Charles Taze Russell photo
George Boardman the Younger photo

“Work is God's ordinance as truly as prayer.”

George Boardman the Younger (1828–1903) American theologian

Reported Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), edited by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 368.

Julius Streicher photo

“Can't you feel that the German people has carried for seven years from one station of pain to another a huge cross? Can't you feel that it is persecuted, hounded and whipped bloody like the Nazarene? If you cannot feel that it is gasping under the weight of the cross which was burdened on it and that it walks on its way to Golgatha -- then you're not worth that God the Lord will again let the sun of his mercy shine upon you. …
Help us so that in this decisive hour the German people will be freed from the weight of the cross of the yoke of Jewry! Help us, so that a mighty man who's been gifted by God can give us back our freedom and that it will again be a proud people in a German country! Take care that Germany is freed from the chains she has been bound with for seven years. Put an end to this slavery! Our people shall again be great, proud and beautiful!”

Julius Streicher (1885–1946) German politician

Fühlt Ihr denn nicht, dass das deutsche Volk sieben Jahre lang von einer Leidensstation zur anderen ein Riesenkreuz geschleppt hat? Fühlt Ihr nicht, dass es gejagt, gehetzt und blutig gepeitscht worden ist wie jener Nazarener? Wenn Ihr nicht fühlt, dass unser Volk sich keuchend unter der Last des Kreuzes, das man ihm auflud, auf dem Weg nach Golgatha schleppt, dann seid Ihr nicht wert, dass unser Herrgott Euch noch einmal mit seiner Gnadensonne bescheint. ...
Helft in dieser entscheidungsvollen Stunde mit, dass das deutsche Volk von der Kreuzeslast des jüdischen Joches befreit wird! Helft mit, dass ein starker, von Gott begnadeter Mann ihm die Freiheit schenkt und dass es wieder ein stolzes Volk in deutschen Landen wird! Sorgt, dass Deutschland von der Kette, die es sieben Jahre lange tragen musste, frei wird. Deshalb heraus aus der Sklaverei! Unser Volk muss wieder groß, stolz und schön werden!
03/07/1932, speech in the convention center (Kongresshalle) in Nuremberg ("Kampf dem Weltfeind", Stürmer publishing house, Nuremberg, 1938)

“It would be another day ruled by this world’s new gods: gold and power.”

Nick Drake (poet) (1961) British writer

Source: The Rahotep series, Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011), Ch. 1

Bill Hicks photo
Karl Barth photo

“The world’s a theatre, the earth a stage
Which God and Nature do with actors fill.”

Thomas Heywood (1574–1641) English playwright, actor, and author

Apology for Actors, (1612). Compare: "The world's a stage on which all parts are played", Thomas Middleton, A Game of Chess (1624), Act v. Sc. 1.; "All the world ’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players", Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7.

Arthur C. Clarke photo
Báb photo
Howard Bloom photo
James Russell Lowell photo

“God makes sech nights, all white an' still,
Fur'z you can look or listen,
Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill,
All silence an' all glisten.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

The Courtin' , st. 1.
The Biglow Papers (1848–1866), Series II (1866)

Patti Smith photo

“He spared the child and spoiled the rod
I have not sold myself to God!”

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

Babelogue, from Easter (1978)
Lyrics

Richard III of England photo

“Right trusty and well beloved, we greet you well, and where, by your letters of supplication to us delivered by your servant John Brackenbury, we understand that, by reason of your great charges that ye have had and sustained, as well in the defence of this realm against the Scots as otherwise, your worshipful city remaineth greatly in poverty, for the which ye desire us to be good mean unto the King’s Grace for an ease of such charges as ye yearly bear and pay unto His Highness, we let you wit that for such great matters and businesses as we now have to do for the weal and usefulness of the realm, we as yet ne can have convenient leisure to accomplish this your business, but be assured that for your kind and loving dispositions to us at all times showed, which we ne can forget, we in goodly haste shall so endeavour us for your ease in this behalf as that ye shall verily understand we be your especial good and loving lord, as your said servant shall show you, to whom it will like you herein to give further credence; and for the diligent service which he hath done to our singular pleasure unto us at this time, we pray you to give unto him laud and thanks, and God keep you.”

Richard III of England (1452–1485) English monarch

Letter to the city fathers of York in April or early May 1483 as Lord Protector for his nephew, Edward V, reprinted in Richard the Third (1956) http://books.google.com/books?id=dNm0JgAACAAJ&dq=Paul+Murray+Kendall+Richard+the+Third&ei=TZHDR8zXKZKIiQHf2NCpCA

David Mamet photo
Oliver Cromwell photo

“This is a righteous judgement of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood.”

Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) English military and political leader

After the Siege of Drogheda, where Cromwell had forbid his soldiers "to spare any that were in arms in the town" (1649)

John F. Kennedy photo
Sun Myung Moon photo
Ovadia Yosef photo
George W. Bush photo