Quotes about God
page 63

George W. Bush photo

“Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled. This confrontation is willed by God who wants this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a new age begins.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Former French president Jacques Chirac claimed in late 2009 that Bush made these statements to him at some point prior the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 while "appealing to him as a Christian" and attempting to convince him to have France join the invasion. The Independent, 2 January 2010 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/richard-ingrams/richard-ingramsrsquos-week-blair-must-be-quizzed-over-bushs-biblical-crusade-1855418.html
Attributed, Private/attributed

Pope Pius II photo
Gerald Durrell photo
Henry David Thoreau photo

“Some old poet's grand imagination is imposed on us as adamantine everlasting truth, and God's own word! Pythagoras says, truly enough, "A true assertion respecting God, is an assertion of God"; but we may well doubt if there is any example of this in literature.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/7cncd10.txt (1849), Sunday

Joseph Conrad photo

“He feared neither God, nor devil, nor man, nor wind, nor sea, nor his own conscience. And I believe he hated everybody and everything. But I think he was afraid to die. I believe I am the only man who ever stood up to him.”

Referring to Mr. Burns. Compare to Heart of Darkness' manager: "He was becoming confidential now, but I fancy my unresponsive attitude must have exasperated him at last, for he judged it necessary to inform me he feared neither God nor devil, let alone any mere man. I said I could see that very well..."
The Shadow Line (1915)

Christopher Gérard photo
Michael Moore photo

“I stopped reading the comics page a long time ago. It seems that whoever is in charge of what to put on that page is given an edict that states: “For God’s sake, try to be as bland as possible and by no means offend any one!” Thus, whenever something like Doonesbury would come along, it would be continually censored and, if lucky, eventually banished to the editorial pages. The message was clear: Keep it simple, keep it cute, and don’t be challenging, outrageous or political.
And keep it white!
It’s odd that considering all the black ink that goes into making the comics section (and color on Sundays) that you rarely see any black faces on that page. Well, maybe it’s not so odd after all, considering the makeup of most newsrooms in our country. It is even more stunning when you consider that in many of our large cities like New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago where the white population is barely a third of the overall citizenry, the comics pages seem to be one of the last vestiges of the belief that white faces are just…well, you know…so much more happy and friendly and funny!
Of course, the real funnies are on the front pages of most papers these days. That’s where you can see a lot of black faces. The media loves to cover black people on the front page. After all, when you live in a society that will lock up 30 percent of all black men at some time in their lives and send more of them to prison than to college, chances are a fair number of those black faces will end up in the newspaper.
Oops, there I go playing the race card. You see, in America these days, we aren’t supposed to talk about race. We have been told to pretend that things have gotten better, that the old days of segregation and cross burnings are long gone, and that no one needs to talk about race again because, hey, we fixed that problem.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, the “whites only” signs are down, but they have just been replaced by invisible ones that, if you are black, you see hanging in front of the home loan department of the local bank, across the entrance of the ritzy suburban or on the doors of the U. S. Senate”

Michael Moore (1954) American filmmaker, author, social critic, and liberal activist

100 percent Caucasian and going strong!
Foreword to "The Boondocks Treasury: a Right to be Hostile" by Aaron McGruder, (2003).
2003

Alex Jones photo
T. B. Joshua photo

“Nobody is too good or too bad to qualify for God’s grace.”

T. B. Joshua (1963) Nigerian Christian leader

On his poverty-stricken background - "Rare Pictures Of TB Joshua's Early Life Surface" http://zambianeye.com/archives/34213 Zambian Eye (June 25 2015)

Allen West (politician) photo
Dejan Stojanovic photo

“Long ago an uncalled rain fell
And a called-upon God stayed equally distant.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

"Prayer," p. 47
The Shape (2000), Sequence: “Pit of the Stone”

Hermann Rauschning photo
Freeman Dyson photo
Clive Staples Lewis photo
William Penn photo

“Children, Fear God; that is to say, have an holy awe upon your minds to avoid that which is evil, and a strict care to embrace and do that which is good.”

William Penn (1644–1718) English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania

Advice to his children (1699)

Ursula K. Le Guin photo

“They can keep their God, they can keep their Light. I want the world back. I want questions, not the answer. I want my own life back, and my own death!”

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer

“The Field of Vision” p. 243 (originally published in Galaxy, October 1973)
Short fiction, The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975)

John Calvin photo

“It is a very important consideration that we are consecrated and dedicated to God; it means that we may think, speak, meditate, or do anything only with a view to his glory.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Page 26.
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life (1551)

Aron Ra photo
Taliesin photo
John Godfrey Saxe photo

“T is wise to learn; 't is God-like to create.”

John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) American poet

"The Library".

Harry Turtledove photo
Mumtaz (actress) photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose.”

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

Intellect
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Paramahansa Yogananda photo
Pope John Paul II photo

“every individual is made in the image of God, insofar as he or she is a rational and free creature capable of knowing God and loving him.”

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint

Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, 15 August 1988
Source: www.vatican.va http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_15081988_mulieris-dignitatem_en.html

Thomas Carlyle photo
Rudyard Kipling photo
John Bartholomew Gough photo
Homér photo
Markiplier photo

“Oh my god, you stabbed her! You killed her! HELP! HE KILLED HER! HE STABBED HER WITH A KITCHEN KNIFE!”

Markiplier (1989) American YouTuber and Internet personality

…I'm very sorry."
Video game commentary, Calm Time (November 23, 2013)
Source: Calm Time | MOST DISTURBING GAME, Markiplier, wikipedia:Markiplier, November 23, 2013, YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQQLZ6mRyrE,

Simone Weil photo
Angela of Foligno photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“An honest God is the noblest work of man.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

This is derived from Alexander Pope's "An honest man's the noblest work of God." Motto of the essay "The Gods" (1876) as published in The Gods and Other Lectures (1879).

Jerry Coyne photo

“The fact that both Jews and Christians ignore some of God’s or Jesus’s commands, but scrupulously obey others, is absolute proof that people pick and choose their morality not on the basis of its divine source, but because it comports with some innate morality that they derived from other sources.”

Jerry Coyne (1949) American biologist

" Biblical morality part 2: Killing non-virgin brides and rebellious kids http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/biblical-morality-part-2-killing-non-virgin-brides-and-rebellious-kids/" June 26, 2012

Nicholas of Cusa photo

“I behold Thee, 0 Lord my God, in a kind of mental trance”

Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) German philosopher, theologian, jurist, and astronomer

De visione Dei (On The Vision of God) (1453)

Philip James Bailey photo

“Art is man's nature; nature is God's art.”

Proem
Festus (1839)

Ben Croshaw photo
Thomas Jackson photo

“I see from the number of physicians that you think my condition dangerous, but I thank God, if it is His will, that I am ready to go. … It is the Lord's Day; my wish is fulfilled. … I have always desired to die on Sunday.”

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general

Words on his deathbed (9 - 10 May 1863); as quoted in "Stonewall Jackson's Last Days" by Joe D. Haines, Jr. in America's Civil War http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_civil_war/3031406.html

Petr Chelčický photo
Millard Fillmore photo

“May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.”

Millard Fillmore (1800–1874) American politician, 13th President of the United States (in office from 1850 to 1853)

Letter to Henry Clay (11 November 1844), as quoted in Presidential Wit from Washington to Johnson (1966) edited by Bill Adler
1840s

Lin Yutang photo
Bernard Cornwell photo
Paul Erdős photo

“God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the prime numbers.”

Paul Erdős (1913–1996) Hungarian mathematician and freelancer

Referencing Albert Einstein's famous remark that "God does not play dice with the universe", this is attributed to Erdős in "Mathematics : Homage to an Itinerant Master" by D. Mackenzie, in Science 275:759 (1997), but has also been stated to be a comment originating in a talk given by Carl Pomerance on the Erdős-Kac theorem, in San Diego in January 1997, a few months after Erdős's death. Confirmation of this by Pomerance is reported in a statement posted to the School of Engineering, Computer Science & Mathematics, University of Exeter http://empslocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin//kac-pomerance.txt, where he states it was a paraphrase of something he imagined Erdős and Mark Kac might have said, and presented in a slide-show, which subsequently became reported in a newspaper as a genuine quote of Erdős the next day. In his slide show he had them both reply to Einstein's assertion: "Maybe so, but something is going on with the primes."
Misattributed

Rudyard Kipling photo
Russell Conwell photo

“Love is the grandest thing on God's earth, but fortunate the lover who has plenty of money.”

Russell Conwell (1843–1925) American academic administrator

Acres of Diamonds (1915)

W.E.B. Du Bois photo

“When you increase your focus, you decrease your options. Good things are not necessarily God things.”

Craig Groeschel (1967) American priest

It – How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It (2008, Zondervan)

Thomas Hobbes photo
Clive Staples Lewis photo

“Even atheists rebel and express, like Hardy and Housman, their rage against God although (or because) He does not, on their view, exist…”

The Problem of Pain (1940)
Variant: "Atheists express their rage against God although in their view He does not exist."

John Donne photo

“It is too little to call man a little world, except God, man is a diminutive to nothing. Man consists of more pieces, more parts, than the world; than the world doth, nay, than the world is.”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

IV. Mediscque Vocatur The physician is sent for
Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624)

Upton Sinclair photo
Thomas Brooks photo
Julian of Norwich photo

“Good Lord, I see Thee that art very Truth; and I know in truth that we sin grievously every day and be much blameworthy; and I may neither leave the knowing of Thy truth, nor do I see Thee shew to us any manner of blame. How may this be?
For I knew by the common teaching of Holy Church and by mine own feeling, that the blame of our sin continually hangeth upon us, from the first man unto the time that we come up unto heaven: then was this my marvel that I saw our Lord God shewing to us no more blame than if we were as clean and as holy as Angels be in heaven.”

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

Summations, Chapter 50
Context: Yet here I wondered and marvelled with all the diligence of my soul, saying thus within me: Good Lord, I see Thee that art very Truth; and I know in truth that we sin grievously every day and be much blameworthy; and I may neither leave the knowing of Thy truth, nor do I see Thee shew to us any manner of blame. How may this be?
For I knew by the common teaching of Holy Church and by mine own feeling, that the blame of our sin continually hangeth upon us, from the first man unto the time that we come up unto heaven: then was this my marvel that I saw our Lord God shewing to us no more blame than if we were as clean and as holy as Angels be in heaven. And between these two contraries my reason was greatly travailed through my blindness, and could have no rest for dread that His blessed presence should pass from my sight and I be left in unknowing how He beholdeth us in our sin. For either behoved me to see in God that sin was all done away, or else me behoved to see in God how He seeth it, whereby I might truly know how it belongeth to me to see sin, and the manner of our blame. My longing endured, Him continually beholding; — and yet I could have no patience for great straits and perplexity, thinking: If I take it thus that we be no sinners and not blameworthy, it seemeth as I should err and fail of knowing of this truth; and if it be so that we be sinners and blameworthy, — Good Lord, how may it then be that I cannot see this true thing in Thee, which art my God, my Maker, in whom I desire to see all truths?

Esaias Tegnér photo
James K. Morrow photo
Keir Hardie photo
Julian of Norwich photo

“God is all that is good, as to my sight, and the goodness that each thing hath, it is He.”

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

The First Revelation, Chapter 8

John Von Neumann photo

“There probably is a God. Many things are easier to explain if there is than if there isn't.”

John Von Neumann (1903–1957) Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath

As quoted in John Von Neumann : The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence and Much More (1992) by Norman Macrae, p. 379

T. H. White photo

“God is love, the parson whined.
Yes, and is he also blind?”

T. H. White (1906–1964) author

"Love Is Blind".

Nikolai Gogol photo
Ali Shariati photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“God said, I am tired of kings,
I suffer them no more;
Up to my ear the morning brings
The outrage of the poor.”

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

Boston Hymn http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/1177/, st. 2
1860s, May-Day and Other Pieces (1867)

Georges Bernanos photo
John Angell James photo
Samuel Vince photo

“A very eminent writer has observed, that "the conversion of the Gentile world, whether we consider the difficulties attending it, the opposition made to it, the wonderful work wrought to accomplish it, or the happy effects and consequences of it, may be considered as a more illustrious evidence of God's power, than even our Saviour's miracles of casting out devils, healing the sick, and raising the dead." Indeed, a miracle said to have been wrought without any attending circumstances to justify such an exertion of divine power, could not easily be rendered credible; and our author's argument proves no more. If it were related, that about 1700 years ago, a man was raised from the dead, without its answering any other end than that of restoring him to life, Iconfess that no degree of evidence could induce me tobelieve it; but if the moral government of God appeared in that event, and there were circumstances attending it which could not be accounted for by any human means, the fact becomes credible. When two extraordinary events are thus connected, the proof of one established the truth of the other. Our author has reasoned upon the fact as standing alone, in which case it would not be easy to disprove some of his reasoning; but the fact should be considered in a moral view - as connected with the establishment of a pure religion, and it then becomes credible. In the proof of any circumstance, we must consider every principle which tends to establish it; whereas our author, by considering the case of a man said to have been raised from the dead, simpli in a physical point of view, without any reference to a moral end, endavours to show that it cannot be rendered credible; and, from such principles, we may admit his conclusions without affecting the credibility of Christianity. The general principle on which he establishes his argument, is not the great foundation upon which the evidence of Christianity rests. He says, "Notestimony can be sufficient to establish a miracle, unless it be of such a kind, that the falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endavours to prove." Now this reasoning, at furthest, can only be admitted in those cases where the fact has nothing but testimony to establish it. But the proofs of Christianity do not rest simply upon the testimony of its first promulgators, and that of those who were affterwards the instruments of communicating it; but they rest principally upon the acknowledged and very extraordinary affects which were produced by the preaching of a few unlearned, obscure persons, who taught "Christ crucified;" and it is upon these indisuptable matters of ffact which we reason; and when the effects are totally unaccountable upon any principle which we can collect from the operation of human means, we must either admit miracles, or admit an effect without an adequate cause. Also, when the proof of any position depends upon arguments drawn from various sources, all concutring to establish its turh, to select some one circumstance, and atrempt to show that that alone is not sufficient to render the fact credible, and thence infer that it is not ture, is a conclusion not to be admitted. But it is thus that our author has endavoured to destroy the credibiliry of Christianity, the evidences of which depend upon a great variety of circumstances and facts which are indisputably true, all cooperating to confirm its truth; but an examination of these falls not whithin the plan here proposed. He rests all his arguments upon the extraordinary nature of the fact, considered alone by itself; for a common fact, with the same evidence, would immediately be admitted. I have endavoured to show, that the extraordinary nature, as much as the mosst common events are necessary to fulfill the usual dispensations of Providence, and therefore the Deity was then direted by the same motive as in a more ordinary case, that of affording us such assitance as our moral condition renders necessary. In the establishment of a pur religion, the proof of its divine origin may require some very extraordinary circumstances which may never afterwards be requisite, and accordingly we find that they have not happened. Here is therefore a perfect concistencty in the operation of the Deity, in his moral government, and not a violation of the laws of nature: Secondly, the fact is immediately connected with others which are indisputably true, and which, without the supossition of the truth of that fact, would be, at least, equally miraculous. Thus I conceive the reasoning of our author to be totally inconclusive; and the argumentss which have been employed to prove the fallacy of his conclusions, appear at the same time, fully to justify our belief in, and prove the moral certainty of, our holy religion.”

Samuel Vince (1749–1821) British mathematician, astronomer and physicist

Source: The Credibility of Christianity Vindicated, p. 27; As quoted in " Book review http://books.google.nl/books?id=52tAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA262," in The British Critic, Volume 12 (1798). F. and C. Rivington. p. 262-263

Stewart Brand photo

“We are as gods and might as well get good at it.”

Stewart Brand (1938) American writer

Opening sentence of the Purpose of the 1968 Whole Earth Catalog.

Emil M. Cioran photo
Marcus Garvey photo

“Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God's grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life.”

Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) Jamaica-born British political activist, Pan-Africanist, orator, and entrepreneur

First Message to the Negroes of the World from Atlanta Prison" http://www.unia-acl.org/archive/whrlwind.htm (10 February 1925).

Bill Gates photo

“The objective is to convince people that Darwinism is inherently atheistic, thus shifting the debate from creationism vs. evolution to the existence of God vs. the non-existence of God. From there people are introduced to 'the truth' of the Bible and then 'the question of sin' and finally 'introduced to Jesus.”

This is from a summary of Johnsons ideas on the "Wedge strategy" which appeared in "Missionary Man" by Rob Boston in Church and State Magazine (April 1999) http://web.archive.org/web/20010508032051/http://www.au.org/churchstate/cs4995.htm, and not a direct quote. See also "Bad Philip Johnson Quote" at Panda's Thumb http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2006/02/post-4.html
Misattributed

Fritz Leiber photo

“I’ve never found anything in occult literature that seemed to have a bearing. You know, the occult—very much like stories of supernatural horror—is a sort of game. Most religions, too. Believe in the game and accept its rules—or the premises of the story—and you can have the thrills or whatever it is you’re after. Accept the spirit world and you can see ghosts and talk to the dear departed. Accept Heaven and you can have the hope of eternal life and the reassurance of an all-powerful god working on your side. Accept Hell and you can have devils and demons, if that’s what you want. Accept—if only for story purposes—witchcraft, druidism, shamanism, magic or some modern variant and you can have werewolves, vampires, elementals. Or believe in the influence and power of a grave, an ancient house or monument, a dead religion, or an old stone with an inscription on it—and you can have inner things of the same general sort. But I’m thinking of the kind of horror—and wonder too, perhaps—that lies beyond any game, that’s bigger than any game, that’s fettered by no rules, conforms to no man-made theology, bows to no charms or protective rituals, that strides the world unseen and strikes without warning where it will, much the same as (though it’s of a different order of existence than all of these) lightning or the plague or the enemy atom bomb. The sort of horror that the whole fabric of civilization was designed to protect us from and make us forget. The horror about which all man’s learning tells us nothing.”

Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction

“A Bit of the Dark World” (pp. 261-262); originally published in Fantastic, February 1962
Short Fiction, Night's Black Agents (1947)

James Clerk Maxwell photo
John Wesley photo
Aron Ra photo
Macarius of Egypt photo
Abraham Joshua Heschel photo
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen photo
Charles Darwin photo
Girolamo Savonarola photo

“Do you wish to be free? Then above all things, love God, love your neighbor, love one another, love the common weal; then you will have true liberty.”

Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498) Italian Dominican friar and preacher

Reported in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) edited by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 378

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“The biggest sin is unbelief. God wants us to believe Him. But we rebel against God when we refuse to trust Him.”

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

Chick tracts, " And It Was Good! http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1089/1089_01.asp" (2015)

Doron Zeilberger photo

“Regardless of whether or not God exists, God has no place in mathematics, at least in my book.”

Doron Zeilberger (1950) Israeli mathematician

An Enquiry Concerning Human (and Computer!) [Mathematical] Understanding C.S. Calude, ed., "Randomness & Complexity, from Leibniz to Chaitin", World Scientific, Singapore, (October 2007)

Rousas John Rushdoony photo
James D. Watson photo
John Calvin photo
Carl Everett photo
Sara Teasdale photo