Quotes about religion
page 44

“Historically the belief in heaven and the belief in utopia are like compensatory buckets in a well: when one goes down the other comes up. When the classic religions decayed, communistic agitation rose in Athens (430 B.C.), and revolution began in Rome (133 B.C.); when these movements failed, resurrection faiths succeeded, culminating in Christianity; when, in our eighteenth century, Christian belief weakened, communism reappeared. In this perspective the future of religion is secure.”

Will Durant book The Story of Civilization

Source: The Story of Civilization (1935–1975), III - Caesar and Christ (1944), Chapter 28, Part 5 (Footnote 2)

Faith, Communication, Future

“The way I see it, people should get around their differences and spend more time understanding their religion. In that way we will become a better person and be more accommodative of others. Among other things we will not become possessive, which is one of the root causes of fiction in relationships.”

Dominic Su Haw Chiu (1939) Malaysian prelate

"Bishop Dominic Su 70th Birthday & 40th Anniversary of Priestly Ordination Celebration." https://www.catholic.my/shc/magazine/BishopSuInterview02.htm (December 5, 2009)

People, Way, Understanding, Time

“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.”

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

Wisdom, Knowledge, Science

“America's freedom of religion, and freedom from religion, offers every wisdom tradition an opportunity to address our soul-deep needs: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, secular humanism, agnosticism and atheism among others.”

Parker Palmer (1939) American theologian

Wisdom, Soul, Freedom

“It is easy to criticize the "fanaticism" of our ancestors when one has lost the very notion of saving truth, or to be "tolerant" when one derides religion.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2006, Light on the Ancient Worlds, World Wisdom, 9, 978-0-941532-72-3]
Miscellaneous, Modernity

Truth

“One of the effects, among others, of modern science has been that of mortally wounding religion by posing in concrete terms problems which esoterism alone can resolve and which remain unresolved because esoterism is not heeded and is heeded less now than ever. Faced by these new problems, religion is disarmed, and it borrows clumsily and gropingly the arguments of the enemy, and this obliges it to falsify its own perspective imperceptibly and disavow itself more and more; its doctrine is certainly not affected, but false opinions borrowed from its repudiators corrode it insidiously "from within", as witnessed by modernist exegesis, the demagogic leveling of the liturgy, Teilhardian Darwinism or the "sacred art" of surrealist and "abstract" persuasion.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2006, Light on the Ancient Worlds, World Wisdom, 27, 978-0-941532-72-3]
Miscellaneous, Religion

Art, Problem, Science, Falseness

“Religion translates metaphysical or universal truths into dogmatic language; now though dogma is not accessible to all men in its intrinsic truth, which can only be directly attained by the Intellect, it is nonetheless accessible through faith, which is, for the great majority, the only possible mode of participation in the Divine Truths. As for intellectual knowledge, which proceeds neither from belief nor from a process of reasoning, it goes beyond dogma in the sense that, without ever contradicting the latter, it penetrates its internal dimension, that is, the infinite Truth that dominates all forms.”

Frithjof Schuon book The Transcendent Unity of Religions

[1993, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, Quest Books, xxxi, 978-0-8356-0587-8]
Miscellaneous, Religion

Men, Truth, Faith, Knowledge

“Without religion − or without authentic religion − a human collectivity cannot survive in the long run; that is, it cannot remain human.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2003, The Play of Masks, World Wisdom, 12, 978-0-94153214-3]
Miscellaneous, Religion

“Hell is an element of any religion which is morally healthy.”

James Moffatt (1870–1944) British theologian

as quoted by Miles H. Krumbine in: [Review of What Is Hell?, The Journal of Religion, 10, 3, 1930, 435–436, 0022-4189, 10.1086/480965]

Hell

“God-sent are all religions blest;
And Christ, the Way, the Truth, the Life,
To give the heavy laden rest
And peace from sorrow, sin, and strife.”

Max Heindel (1865–1919) American asrologer and occultist

Creed or Christ (1909)

Life, God, Truth, Peace

“Of all the arts, music makes the most direct appeal to the emotions and to those shadowy, but real portions of our being called the imagination and the soul. Emotion is as indispensible to music as love to religion.”

Walter Raymond Spalding (1865–1962) American music pedagogue and author

Page 3 https://books.google.com/books?id=pQARAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA3. Music: An Art and a Language (1920), Preliminary Considerations (Ch. I)

Love, Art, Music, Soul

“Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, two thousand four hundred and sixty years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

Opening statement.
1870s, The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877)

Men, Motivation

“He that is willing to tolerate any religion, or discrepant way of religion, besides his own, unless it be in matters merely indifferent, either doubts of his own, or is not sincere in it.”

Nathaniel Ward (1578–1652) Puritan clergyman and pamphleteer in England and Massachusetts

In 1647, as quoted in "Free Speech and Its Present Crisis" https://www.city-journal.org/free-speech-crisis (2018), by Allen C. Guelzo, City Journal

Way, Sincerity, Indifference

“Dogma and law are two different things, and I think whatever a religion is, it has its own dogma. The law is totally different. And I think in your case, professor, when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern.”

Dianne Feinstein (1933) American politician

September 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/11/opinion/the-dogma-of-dianne-feinstein.html to Amy Coney Barrett

Law, Thinking, Reading, Drawing

“The rules of your religion do not apply to people who do not believe in it so let people live the way they want.”

Zhiar Ali (1999) Kurdish human rights activist and artist

Ali on freedom to choose one's religion and lifestyle, via Twitter.

People, Way

“Nobody has done more for Christianity or for evangelicals — or for religion itself — than I have.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Quoted in "Donald Trump Claims Nobody Has Done More 'for Religion Itself' Than Him" https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-claims-nobody-has-done-more-religion-itself-him-1635036, Newsweek, 2 October 2021 2021, October 2021

“I’ve never seen a religion that wasn’t basically evil.”

Rudy Rucker book Master of Space and Time

Source: Master of Space and Time (1984), Chapter 10, “God’s Laws” (p. 72)

Evil

“The most important thing is that we would like people to reach some kind of mutual understanding, so that these huge mixed nationalities, religions, social order, finally understand each other, if possible ... And then everything would fall into place, and there are no more desires would not be.”

Viktor Tsoi (1962–1990) Soviet rock musician (1962-1990)

"Appendix I. Viktor Tsoi: interview diary" https://ik-ptz.ru/en/istoriya/prilozhenie-i-viktor-coi-dnevnik-intervyu-fragmenty-iz-odnoimennoi.html

People, Understanding

“Almost every prophet fought against Capitalism. But all the religions are becoming pro-Capitalism.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Love came first before any religion in the world.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love, World

“Religion deals with the heart (feelings/emotions) while science only focuses on the mind (increasing the intellectual)—However, we need something that can link the heart and the mind at the same time.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Feeling, Science, Time, Heart

“Religion is not an unrealistic phenomenon. You must have faith and keep your daily prayer.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Faith

“Socialism is and will forever remain to be the only true religion of all the prophets. It's the struggle of brotherhood.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“War between religions and science will never end; because they speak difference languages. There is a lack of communication between them.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

War, Communication, Science

“We can't keep blaming women for loving money so much. Because most of the men forget their religions upon seeing the cash.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love, Women, Men, Money

“Your religion is not the best nor the worst when compared to other beliefs.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Atheism too has become a religion, just as their brothers and sisters who are theists by hearts and minds.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Sister, Heart

“Different religions are based upon different opinions of the founders of those religions.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“In every religion there is always a touch of mystery. Letting the mind wander in unnecessary things.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“In religion, you are fighting with an invisible enemy or perhaps, your mindset and the power of your imagination.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Imagination, Fight

“Many people wish to be placed in the heaven of scientists. Because few thinkers can be found in religion.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People

“Most of the terrible wars in the world are based upon religion. It seems to divide, rather than uniting. Perhaps, we are going wrong somewhere.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

War, World

“Religion and science are all in pursuit of reaching the spiritual realm, thus transcending bodily things.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Science

“Religions, including science, are still so immature. They did not find the location of the soul. Most of them are still in doubt.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Soul, Science

“Science will be completely separated from religion on the day that scientists will invent their own calendar(s).”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Science

“Since every religion is based upon a philosophical idea, it would make sense that we are all following the philosophies of our religious founders.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Idea, Sense

“The beauty of religion is to explore the heart and thus, to put feelings into practice.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Beauty, Feeling, Heart

“The fact that you can only find the monuments of Jesus next to the church shows how the state has separated itself from religion.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Is there any religion whose followers can be pointed to as distinctly more amiable and trustworthy than those of any other? If so, this should be enough. I find the nicest and best people generally profess no religion at all, but are ready to like the best men of all religions.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Religion
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part II - Elementary Morality

Men, People

“We have to change the situation. Everybody is closing his country against the neighbor. We have to open these frontiers to each other and live in one community, one fraternity of people. This is the meaning of Christian life, this the meaning of our religion.”

Samir Nassar (1950)

Syria: Church perseveres in spite of war https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2020-02/syria-church-damascus-bishop-migration-christians-bari.html (20 February 2020)

Life, People, Communication, Change

“Any minority’s right to be different must be respected, but the right of the majority must not be questioned.
..
Without the values at the core of Christianity and other world religions, without moral norms that have been shaped over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

19 September 2013 during his speech at the Valdai forum
2013

People, World, Question

“Happiness is religion and character; faith and virtue. It is a fact that man cannot find happiness within his own limits; his very nature condemns him to surpass himself, and in surpassing himself, to free himself.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2003, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, World Wisdom, 220, 978-0-94153227-3]
Spiritual life, Happiness

Happiness, Faith, Nature

“ALL religions have preserved the remembrance of a primitive book, written in hieroglyphs by the sages of the earliest epoch of the world. [...] The tradition in question rests altogether on the one dogma of Magic: the visible is for us the proportional measure of the invisible.”

Eliphas Levi (1810–1875) French writer

Miscellaneous Quotes On the Subjects of Magic and Magicians
Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, H.L. Mencken (Translator), The Anti-Christ, Chicago, Sharp Press, 1999, p. 144.</

Books, World, Question

“I have often wondered why anger is considered by some Western religions to be a sin. It is such a marvelous protection against evil.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: The Marianne Trilogy, Marianne, the Magus, and the Manticore (1985), Chapter 2 (p. 45)

Evil, Anger

“I would no more quarrel with a man because of his religion than I would because of his art.”

Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) religious leader

Source: The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany, p. 270

Art

“The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion.”

Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German writer

as quoted in Londhe, S. (2008). A tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and wisdom spanning continents and time about India and her culture https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Tribute_to_Hinduism.html?id=G3AMAQAAMAAJ

Life, Wisdom, Beauty

“Every religion has basic principles that is designed to uplift people's mind and teaches good morals and ethics, the tools which lead to a harmonious society where people do not encroach, but help one another.”

Yingluck Shinawatra (1967) Thai businesswoman and politician

"Speech On The Occasion Of The End Of Ramadan H. 1432" https://www.thaiembassy.sg/announcements/speech-by-prime-minister-yingluck-shinawatra-on-the-occasion-of-the-end-of-ramadan-h-1 (2011)

People, Help

“There are several different meanings of the words "religion" and "spirituality", all of which are important. The whole point about an integral or comprehensive approach is that it must find a way to believably include all of those important meanings in a coherent whole.”

Ken Wilber (1949) American writer and public speaker

Source: Which Level of God Do You Believe In? (2004)

Way

“The local Catholic Church here, together with other religions present in Thailand, we have sought to offer our contribution encouraging our people to pray, promoting dialogue with everyone, educating to legality and social justice and morality in social and political activity.”

Louis Chamniern Santisukniram (1942) Archbishop of Thailand

Source: “Social injustice and corruption at the root of the crisis”: President of Thai Bishops' Conference tells Fides http://www.fides.org/en/news/26621-ASIA_THAILAND_Social_injustice_and_corruption_at_the_root_of_the_crisis_President_of_Thai_Bishops_Conference_tells_Fides (6 May 2010)

People, Education, Justice

“When National Socialism has ruled long enough, it will no longer be possible to conceive of a form of life different from ours.
In the long run, National Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Source: 11-12 July 1941, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944

Life

“If history is to teach us anything, it must teach us that there is a continuity which binds together the present and the past, the East and the West. And no branch of history teaches that lesson more powerfully than the history of language and the history of religion.”

Max Müller (1823–1900) German-born philologist and orientalist

History, Past

“Partition, split of the nationalist movement didn’t happen over ideology or geography. It happened on one key question – is religion the determinant of our nationhood.”

Shashi Tharoor (1956) Indian politician, diplomat, author

2020s

Question

“By God, our religion (din) from which we have departed is better and more correct than that which these people follow. Their religion does not stop them from shedding blood, terrifying the roads, and seizing properties.' And they returned to their former religion.”

Al-Tabari (839–923) influential Persian scholar, historian and exegete of the Qur'an

Source: Tabari 17:187

God, People

“In the Islamic world many places of worship belonging to the earlier religion have been converted to mosques.”

Koenraad Elst (1959) orientalist, writer

M. Shokoohy: “Two fire temples converted to mosques in central Iran”, Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce, EJ. Brill, Leiden 1985, p.546.
Source: 2000s, Ayodhya: The Case Against the Temple (2002)

World

“In the longer run, some education in comparative religion is the solution, or at least a central part of the solution.”

Koenraad Elst book Ayodhya and After

Source: 1990s, Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society (1991)

Education, Parting

“A religion with an ever-growing line of enlightened masters, such as exists in the dharma traditions, is less likely to become fossilized into institutional dogma and therefore more difficult to control.”

Rajiv Malhotra book Being Different

Source: Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism (2011)

“Rather will it be a public of inherently free individuals w'ho can keep an individual purpose, learnt in the fields of intense suffering and experience. Such a public are likely to accept and wield responsibility in respect of their own government and their own religion and education.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter XXXV The Opportunity Today

Education, Suffering

“We can assume that a perfect world IS the ultimate goal for mankind and the purpose of God, for this has been promised to us in all religions.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World

God, World, Perfection

“It has seen the people themselves taking increasing individual and collective action in order to obtain a world organization or government, a universal religion, or a universal language.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Introduction p. I - XII

People, World, Universe

“[People].. would have become aware of the purpose and presence of God in every part of creation and in themselves, to such an extent that they would be incapable of separating ‘religion’ from science, education or government. The integration would have become complete.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter IV The Spiritual Cabinet

God, People, Education, Science

“All religions fall far short of their own ideals.”

Ernest Becker book The Denial of Death

Source: The Denial of Death (1973), The Present Outcome of Psychoanalysis, p. 204

“There are hundreds of other [Koranic] psalms and hadiths urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”

Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989) Religious leader, politician

Source: Excerpted from "Islam Is Not a Religion of Pacifists" (1942), English translation in Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin, Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 29, 32-36.

Men, War, Soul, Fight

“While the inner sciences have a long history in countries such as India, Tibet and China, they have never rejected the outer sciences, and there has never been a conflict between dharma and science as there has been between Western religion and science.”

Rajiv Malhotra book Being Different

Source: Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism (2011)

History, Science, Country

“The ideal reconciliation should come from religion. But this kind of concept should come from either the Protestants or the Catholics, because we Christians have this kind of idea we have this kind of solidarity — whereas other religions don't care about this.”

John Hung Shan-chuan (1943) Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Taipei

Source: Interview with Archbishop of Taipei https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/interview-with-archbishop-of-taipei-1299 (December 2008)

Idea

“When I was 13, I told my parents I didn’t believe in God any more. I wanted to be an atheist because I believed that religion should be about community and having a place to go in prayer, not something that should determine women’s freedoms.”

Elizabeth Olsen (1989) American actress

Source: Ryder, Caroline. "Elizabeth Olsen cover interview for Dazed&Confused" https://www.carolineryder.com/carolineryder/2013/09/elizabeth-olsen-cover-interview-for.html. (September 2, 2013).

Women, God, Communication, Parent

“Indonesians must grateful for what the founding fathers have inherited through Pancasila, which stresses inclusivity in a plural society. In Indonesia, religion is challenged to learn from local cultures and not to underestimate humanity”

Adrianus Sunarko (1966) Indonesian Roman Catholic bishop

Source: Indonesian prelate becomes a theology professor https://www.ucanews.com/news/indonesian-prelate-becomes-a-theology-professor/85179 (14 May 2019)

Learning

“He soon retires (i.e., into a cloister) who finds religion late.”

Mateo Alemán book Guzmán de Alfarache

Source: Guzmán de Alfarache (1599-1604), Pt. II, Lib. I, Ch. III.

“To remain satisfied and grateful for the pleasure of the Beloved, at the cost of religion and heart is necessarily passionate love, which in Sufi terminology is called faithfulness.”

Bu Ali Shah Qalandar (1209–1324) Indian Sufi saint

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 271

Love, Pleasure, Faith, Passion

“The way we practice religion today poses security problem in the country. If we take holiness serious, we will be able to tackle the problem of bombings in the country. There should be no sacred cows in the society. Everybody should look for the common good of the masses.”

Ayo-Maria Atoyebi (1944)

Source: Probe retired generals, Catholic Bishop urges Jonathan https://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/05/probe-retired-generals-catholic-bishop-urges-jonathan/ (21 May 2012)

Way, Problem, Country

“Peace cannot be established by blaming religion; rather, it can only be achieved by campaigning against transgression and injustice while keeping religion aside.”

Mirza Masroor Ahmad (1950) spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Others

Peace

“It makes no difference to us what your religion is because we believe that as humanity we are all one. Thus, no matter what a person's belief we should love and respect each other.”

Mirza Masroor Ahmad (1950) spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Others

Love, Personality

“I believe in that one god who is the lord of all nations, all races & all religions, and so it becomes impossible that I could ever develop any hatred in my heart for any nation, any race or any religion.”

Mirza Masroor Ahmad (1950) spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Addresses Source: Historic Address in Southern California https://www.alislam.org/press-release/head-of-ahmadiyya-muslim-jamaat-delivers-historic-address-in-southern-california/, 11th May 2013

God, Heart

“An Ahmadi boy, an Ahmadi man, a woman and a girl who had accepted Promised Messiah (peace be on him) they have taken oath that they will give preference to the religion above the worldly affairs. And it can happen only when they will act upon the commandments of the religion.”

Mirza Masroor Ahmad (1950) spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Eid and Friday Sermons Source: Striving for Moral Excellence: The Islamic Teachings https://www.alislam.org/friday-sermon/2017-01-13.html, Friday Sermon 13th January 2017

Peace, Girl, Boy

“How we live our everyday lives has to be the main concern of religion.”

Kodo Sawaki (1880–1965) Japanese zen Buddhist monk

Source: The Zen Teachings of Homeless Kodo (Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 2014), p. 64

“I will defend my right to confess my faith, so that no one else would be deprived of their right to freedom of religion and speech. I hold to the view that my expressions are legal, and they should not be censored. I will not back down from my views. I will not be intimidated into hiding my faith.”

Päivi Räsänen (1959) Finnish politician

Source: The Persecution of a Finnish Parliamentarian https://www.ncregister.com/news/the-persecution-of-a-finnish-parliamentarian (December 15, 2020)

Faith, Freedom

“No nation on earth can vie with the Hindus in respect of the antiquity oftheir civilization and the antiquity of their religion.”

Magnus Björnstjerna (1779–1847) Swedish count and general (1779-1847)

Source: quoted in Londhe, S. (2008). A tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and wisdom spanning continents and time about India and her culture https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Tribute_to_Hinduism.html?id=G3AMAQAAMAAJ Context: ... "In a metaphysical point of view we fmd among the Hindus all the fundamental ideas of those vast systems which, regarded merely as the offspring offantasy, nevertheless inspire admiration on account of the boldness of flight and of the faculty of human mind to elevate itself to such remote ethereal regions. We find among them all the principles of Pantheism, Spinozism and Hegelianism, of God as being one with the universe; spiritual life of mankind; and of the return of the emanative sparks after death to their divine origin; of the uninterrupted alternation between life and death, which is nothing else but a transition between different modes of existence. All this we find among the philosophies of the Hindus exhibited as clearly as by our modem philosophers more than three thousand years since.

“We're fat, we're greedy, and we don't give a shit. Our religion is TV. Our saviour is Bill Gates. We've learned our lessons well. We know how to put number one first.”

Dan Fante (1944–2015) American writer

Dan Fante [quote appears on Goodreads but does not state a source]
Unsourced

Learning

“Ancient India gave to to the world its religions and philosophies: Egypt and Greece owe India their wisdom and it is known that Pythagoras went to India to study under Brahmins, who were the most enlightened of human beings.”

Pierre Sonnerat (1748–1814) French botanist (1748-1814)

Wisdom, World, Study

“We find among the Indians the vestiges of the most remote antiquity .... We know that all peoples came there to draw the elements of their knowledge ... India, in her splendor, gave religions and laws to all the other peoples; Egypt and Greece owed to her both their fables and their wisdom.”

Pierre Sonnerat (1748–1814) French botanist (1748-1814)

Pierre Sonnerat: Voyage aux Indes orientales et a la Chine, Paris, 1782. Quoted in A Look at India From the Views of Other Scholars, by Stephen Knapp https://www.stephen-knapp.com/a_look_at_india_from_the_views_of_other_scholars.htm Source: quoted in Londhe, S. (2008). A tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and wisdom spanning continents and time about India and her culture https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Tribute_to_Hinduism.html?id=G3AMAQAAMAAJ

Wisdom, People, Law, Knowledge

“Everyone with different beliefs, with different backgrounds, with different cultures, they all come together and when you are in there (at the Miss Universe pageant), you forget about politics, about your religion. It's just about embracing other women.”

Andrea Meza (1994) Miss Universe 2020

Source: Andrea Meza (2021) cited in: " In Israel, Miss Universe says pageant no place for politics https://www.arabnews.com/node/1970011/offbeat" in Arab News, 17 November 2021.

Women, Universe, Forgetting

“You know that my ancestors were the most christian emperors of the great nation of Germany, the catholic kings of Spain, the archdukes of Austria, and the dukes of Burgundy, who all were, until death, faithful sons of the Roman Church...I am therefore resolved to maintain everything which these my forebears have established to the present…and to settle this matter I will use all my dominions and possessions, my friends, my body, my blood, my life, and my soul. It would be a disgrace for you and me, the illustrious and renowned nation of Germany, privileged and pre-eminent as protector and defender of the Catholic faith, if heresy, or even just the suspicion of heresy, and the degradation of the Christian religion were to return to the hearts of men in our time to our perpetual dishonour.”

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) Holy Roman Emperor

Diet of Worms (1521)
Source: *Detlef Ploese and Guenther Vogler, eds., Buch der Reformation. Eine Auswahl zeitgenössischer Zeugnisse (1476-1555). Berlin: Union Verlag, 1989, pp. 245-53

Life, Death, Men, Faith

“For religion all men are equal, as all pennies are equal, because the only value in any of them is that they bear the image of the King.... It has often been said, very truly, that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary; it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary man feel ordinary.”

G. K. Chesterton Charles Dickens

Ch 1 : "The Dickens Period"
Charles Dickens (1906)

Men, Truth, Feeling

“[T]he risk of these sports, and the supposed manliness of facing that risk, is generally put forth as one of their merits. Now I may be very blind and mean-spirited, but the manly sport of foxhunting seems to me not to be manly at all, but to be at once cowardly and fool hardy. It is cowardly as regards the cruelty practised on a victim which cannot defend himself by tormentors who, as far as the victim is concerned, are perfectly safe. It is foolhardy as risking men's lives for no adequate cause. It is manly, it is something much better than manly, when a man sacrifices or risks his life in a good cause. But I can see nothing manly, nothing in any way praiseworthy, in a man risking his life in a bad cause or in no cause at all. When a fox-hunter is suddenly cut off in the midst of his cruelties, I can see nothing in his end at all resembling the end of the martyr who dies for his religion or of the hero who dies for his country. I believe I am unfashionable in thinking so, but I cannot help it.”

Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) English historian (1823-1892)

Source: 'The Morality of Field Sports', The Fortnightly Review (October 1869), quoted in E. A. Freeman, The Morality of Field Sports (1874), p. 24

Life, Men, Fools, Way

“Here’s some miscellaneous information. First, wear what you like. Personally I dislike uniforms. I never have worn a uniform. Secondly, if you have a religion, keep it to yourself. I dislike religions. I have always disliked religions. In response to the thought passing through each of your skulls, I do not think of myself as God. But you may do so, if you choose.”

Jack Vance (1916–2013) American mystery and speculative fiction writer

Sail 25 (p. 75)
Short fiction, Future Tense (1964)

God, Thinking, Personality

“I believe that the religious have two main tasks. On the one hand, as Ezekiel says, to behave like sentinels, not spies: when there is a threat we must warn and try to solve the problem before it explodes, it is a very big responsibility and if there are so many problems it means that the sentinels did not carry out their job well. Then we must be intercessors and when there is hostility between two groups, families or people, we have to mediate in truth. It is also essential to always keep prayer alive for the Country and for the protagonists so that God converts the heart. Now, it can be said, that the heart of many is of stone, it is up to us to make it flesh. Religions here seek a common line to promote peace.”

Jean Zerbo (1943) Malian Roman Catholic cardinal

Source: Cardinal Zerbo: Catholic sentinels and mediators among violence and conflict http://www.fides.org/en/news/68204-AFRICA_MALI_Cardinal_Zerbo_Catholic_sentinels_and_mediators_among_violence_and_conflict (24 June 2020)

God, Hostility, People, Truth

“Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to governments – and to organized religions as well. That is why governments and religious organizations seek to control education.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

Education

“The message of the prophets was social because, as we have said, Israel's was a social ideal. Judaism was ever a social religion, regulator of social living, a religion that primarily endeavored to guide and direct the life of men, of man as a social being, of man in every human relation.”

Stephen Samuel Wise (1874–1949) American rabbi (1874-1949)

Free Synagogue Pulpit: Sermons and Addresses Source: p. 28 https://archive.org/details/freesynagoguepu00wisegoog/page/n36/mode/2up

Life, Men

“The motivations and methodologies might differ, but both science and religion posit life as a special outcome of a vast and mostly inhospitable universe. There is a rich middle ground for dialogue between the practitioners of astrobiology and those who seek to understand the meaning of our existence in a biological universe.”

Chris Impey (1956) astronomer

Source: Vatican Observatory examines theological implications of finding alien life https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/17651/vatican-observatory-examines-theological-implications-of-finding-alien-life (10 November 2009)

Life, Motivation, Understanding, Universe

“Beware, lastly, of imagining you shall obtain the end without using the means conducive to it. God can give the end without any means at all; but you have no reason to think He will. Therefore constantly and carefully use all those means which He has appointed to be the ordinary channels of His grace. Use every means which either reason or Scripture recommends, as conducive (through the free love of God in Christ) either to the obtaining or increasing any of the gifts of God. Thus expect a daily growth in that pure and holy religion which the world always did, and always will, call “enthusiasm;” but which, to all who are saved from real enthusiasm, from merely nominal Christianity, is “the wisdom of God, and the power of God;” the glorious image of the Most High; “righteousness and peace;” a “fountain of living water, springing up into everlasting life!””

John Wesley book Sermons on Several Occasions

1770s, Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)
Source: Sermon 37 "The Nature of Enthusiasm"

Love, Life, Wisdom, God

“Beware you are not a fiery, persecuting enthusiast. Do not imagine that God has called you (just contrary to the spirit of Him you style your Master) to destroy men’s lives, and not to save them. Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think. Use no constraint in matters of religion. Even those who are farthest out of the way never compel to come in by any other means than reason, truth, and love.”

John Wesley book Sermons on Several Occasions

1770s, Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)
Source: Sermon 37 "The Nature of Enthusiasm"

Love, Men, God, Truth

“A time came when the Catholics, having long relied on force, were compelled to appeal to opinion. That which had been defiantly acknowledged and defended required to be ingeniously explained away. The same motive which had justified the murder now prompted the lie. Men shrank from the conviction that the rulers and restorers of their Church had been murderers and abetters of murder, and that so much infamy had been coupled with so much zeal. They feared to say that the most monstrous of crimes had been solemnly approved at Rome, lest they should devote the Papacy to the execration of mankind. A swarm of facts were invented to meet the difficulty: The victims were insignificant in number; they were slain for no reason connected with religion; the Pope believed in the existence of the plot; the plot was a reality; the medal is fictitious; the massacre was a feint concerted with the Protestants themselves; the Pope rejoiced only when he heard that it was over. These things were repeated so often that they have been sometimes believed; and men have fallen into this way of speaking whose sincerity was unimpeachable, and who were not shaken in their religion by the errors or the vices of Popes. Möhler was pre-eminently such a man. In his lectures on the history of the Church, which were published only last year, he said that the Catholics, as such, took no part in the massacre; that no cardinal, bishop, or priest shared in the councils that prepared it; that Charles informed the Pope that a conspiracy had been discovered; and that Gregory made his thanksgiving only because the King's life was saved. Such things will cease to be written when men perceive that truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

Source: 1860s, The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew (1869)

Life, Men, Truth, Lie

“[T]he Victorian Age... cared more for life than for thought; consequently it produced abundant and fine life, while its thought was comparatively unambitious and aimed mainly at serving the practical purposes of life. It cared intensely for morals and little for metaphysics; a good deal for religion and scarcely at all for theology... It had an immense faith, a faith in goodness, in duty, in the future of mankind.”

Gilbert Murray (1866–1957) Anglo-Australian scholar

1920s, The Ordeal of This Generation: The War, the League and the Future (1929)
Source: "The Civilization of the Nineteenth Century: Its Greatness and the Flaw which led to its Collapse", p. 51

Life, Age, Faith, Future