Quotes about religion
page 7

“The fact is, even in an Aryan society, which we do not have, one cannot and must not legislate morality. Morality must be inculcated in children by their parents and by the mythologies and subtle influence of constructive religion.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Drugs and Governments
Focus Fourteen

Children, Parent

“In reality, all religions only pray in the Name of God. Because no one truly knows His Name.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God, Reality

“It is only the vulgar people who will imagine religion to be the main enemy of science.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People, Imagination, Science

“Love should be your truest religion and humanity your priority in life.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love, Life

“You can have faith without becoming religious, nor having any religion.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Faith

“Promotion is everywhere, even when it comes on practising and choosing the best religion for yourself.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1843)

“Music is the only religion that delivers the goods. All music is good. It fulfills a social function. It's like wallpaper to your lifestyle. It defines what you are.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

New York Daily News interview (1979)

Music

“I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion has anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds. One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.”

Bertrand Russell book Why I Am Not a Christian

"The Emotional Factor"
1920s, Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)

Men, People, Thinking

“Nobody has ever managed to explain what it is they are longing after in religion, but it is quite clear what they are trying to escape from – this earthly vale of tears, one’s untenable existential situation.”

Peter Wessel Zapffe book The Last Messiah

The Last Messiah (1933) Source: trans. Peter Reed & David Rothenberg https://ia803202.us.archive.org/15/items/20200821_20200821_1659/OAP_Zapffe_Last_Messiah.pdf, page 8

Tear

“If i could change one thing about the world, it'd be:
Their thinking, because nowadays their thinking has become so sick that they do not see anything other than their religion. they keep fighting and quarreling with each other in the name of religion, they all forget that there is no greater religion than humanity. I want to change their thinking so that peace and harmony prevails between them.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

World, Peace, Thinking, Change

“Softmindedness often invades religion. ... Softminded persons have revised the Beautitudes to read "Blessed are the pure in ignorance: for they shall see God." This has led to a widespread belief that there is a conflict between science and religion. But this is not true. There may be a conflict between softminded religionists and toughminded scientists, but not between science and religion. ... Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. book Strength to Love

Source: 1960s, Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 1 : A tough mind and a tender heart

Wisdom, God, Knowledge, Science

“The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Source: Introduction to 1961 edition of Sceptical Essays (1961)

Passion

“Just as the ancient sutras, the writings contained within this book are sacred and have come out of a state of consciousness we may call stillness. Unlike those ancient sutras, however, they don’t belong to any one religion or spiritual tradition, but are immediately accessible to the whole of humanity. There is also an added sense of urgency here. The transformation of human consciousness is no longer a luxury, so to speak, available only to a few isolated individuals, but a necessity if humankind is not to destroy itself.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: Stillness Speaks (2003), intro

Books, Sense

“Never have nations been civilized, except by religion.”

Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821) Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat

XXXIII, p. 99
Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions (1809)

“Race Disconnects
Religion Separates
Politics Divides
and Wealth Classifies.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Wealth

“Science is not the latest religion and scientists are not exalted priests. We have to think of science as a powerful tool that works. Using it requires responsibility. Science gives us vaccines one moment, nuclear warheads the next. It’s up to be wise tool users.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

Thinking, Science

“[...]I should say that it is a good rule of thumb never to mention religion if you can possibly avoid it.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Letter to Humphry House (11 April 1940). The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, George Orwell: An Age Like This, 1920–1940, Editors: Sonia Orwell, Ian Angus. p. 530 http://books.google.com/books?id=0j2qODEJkdoC&pg=PA530#v=onepage&q&f=false.

“Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting John Locke's argument.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Notes on Religion (October, 1776). Published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes http://oll.libertyfund.org/ToC/0054.php, Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 2 http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Jefferson0136/Works/0054-02_Bk.pdf, pp. 267 1770s Context: Locke denies toleration to those who entertain opinions contrary to those moral rules necessary for the preservation of society; as for instance, that faith is not to be kept with those of another persuasion, … that dominion is founded in grace, or who will not own & teach the duty of tolerating all men in matters of religion, or who deny the existence of a god (it was a great thing to go so far—as he himself says of the parliament who framed the act of toleration … He says 'neither Pagan nor Mahomedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.' Shall we suffer a Pagan to deal with us and not suffer him to pray to his god? Why have Christians been distinguished above all people who have ever lived, for persecutions? Is it because it is the genius of their religion? No, its genius is the reverse. It is the refusing toleration to those of a different opinion which has produced all the bustles and wars on account of religion. It was the misfortune of mankind that during the darker centuries the Christian priests following their ambition and avarice combining with the magistrate to divide the spoils of the people, could establish the notion that schismatics might be ousted of their possessions & destroyed. This notion we have not yet cleared ourselves from.

Quotes

“Religion, the dominion of the human mind;
Property, the dominion of human needs; and
Government, the dominion of human conduct,
represent the stronghold of man's enslavement
and all the horrors it entails.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

“Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

A Philosophy of Life (Lecture 35) 1930s, "New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-analysis" https://books.google.com/books/about/New_Introductory_Lectures_on_Psycho_anal.html?id=hIqaep1qKRYC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false (1933) Source: New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis

“Scriptures, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Books, Faith, Falseness

“The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake.”

Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass

Source: The Amber Spyglass

“Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. This is the principle behind lotteries, dating, and religion.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

The Dilbert Principle (1995)

“For she was of that generation who, having found nothing in religion, had formed themselves through literature.”

Doris Lessing book A Proper Marriage

Source: A Proper Marriage

Literature

“I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

"Presidential Candidates Proposing to Ban Muslim Immigration to the United States" http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/muhammad-ali-hits-trump-misguided-murderers-sabotaging-islam-n477351 (9 December 2015). Context: I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world... True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion... We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda... They have alienated many from learning about Islam. True Muslims know or should know that it goes against our religion to try and force Islam on anybody.

Peace, Peaceful

“Art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Art, Color, Wealth

“Without discipline, Religion would be impossible”

Hamza Yusuf (1958) American Islamic scholar

Source: Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart

“Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.’ I just want to love God.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love, God

“The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.”

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

Age

“Calvin:"It says here that 'religion is the opiate of the masses.'… what do you suppose that means?"
Television: "… it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995: An Exhibition Catalogue

“I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get
used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours;
my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

Confidence, Parting

“… religion either produces the very best people or the very worst.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the 12 Steps

People

“Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality.”

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

“Regardless of what I think about Islam or Wicca or any other religion, the fact is that it's a group of people. Every faith has its ceremonies. And since it's made up of people, every faith also has its assholes.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

People, Faith, Thinking

“I’ll do this to you till there’s something to take the place of your vows—until you see the two of us together as your religion.” (Garreth)”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Pleasure of a Dark Prince

“What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

“A sense of humor, properly developed, is superior to any religion so far devised.”

Tom Robbins book Jitterbug Perfume

Source: Jitterbug Perfume (1984)

Sense

“Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.”

Penn Jillette (1955) American magician

“Death is just a new beginning…at least in my religion. And extreme inebriation seriously helps. (Syn)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

Death, Help

“Without the support from religion--remember, we talked about it--no father, using only his own resources, would be able to bring up a child.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Support

“Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. Espousing the former is not defending the latter.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

“All outward forms of religion are almost useless, and are the causes of endless strife…. Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

Source: Merry Christmas, Peter Rabbit!

“Myth is what we call other people's religion.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

People

“Only fanatics — in religion as well as in politics — can find a meaning in someone else’s death.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Source: The Judges

Death

“Every religion is the product of the conceptual mind attempting to describe the mystery.”

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

“Holy solitaries' is a phrase no more consistent with the Gospel than holy adulterers. The Gospel of Christ knows no religion but social; no holiness, but social holiness.”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Christ

“It is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation

Variant: It is remarkable, Hardin, how the religion of science has grabbed hold.
Source: Foundation

Science

“If I were asked for a one-sentence sound
bite on religion, I would say I was against it.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

“Good people are good people; religion has nothing to do with it.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

People

“Most world religions denounced war as a barbaric waste of human life. We treasured the teachings of these religions so dearly that we frequently had to wage war in order to impose them on other people.”

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

Life, War, People, World

“And there it was again. Another religion turned against itself. Another edifice constructed by the human mind, decimated by human nature.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Nature

“Atheism is a religion like abstinence is a sex position.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Sex

“No religion is perfect, not after man gets through with it.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Source: The Red Dice

Perfection

“You said their prayer - is this the religion you believe in, then?"
"I believe in them all."
Vin frowned. "None of them contradict each other?"
Sazed smiled. "Oh, often and frequently they do. But, I respect the truths behind them all.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Truth, Smile

“Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Reality, Effort

“We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Literature

“There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant, Vol. II, preface (1898)
1890s

“They say religion is about love, but you wonder how much of it really is about fear.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Nature of Jade

Love, Fear

“It all depends on whatyou're talking about helping. That's the wonderful think about just about every religion on the planet - they're all so incredibly selfish.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

Thinking, Help, Dependency, Selfishness

“The minute you get a religion you stop thinking. Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas.”

Ray Bradbury book The October Country

The Next in Line (1947)
Source: The October Country (1955)
Context: “Don’t these people ever get lonely?”
“They’re used to it this way.”
“Don’t they get afraid, then?”
”They have a religion for that.”
“I wish I had a religion.”
“The minute you get a religion you stop thinking,” he said. “Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas.”

Idea, Thinking

“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever. This is a somewhat new kind of religion.”

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

“I have no religion, but if I were to choose one, it would be that of Shariati's.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

“Tea… is a religion of the art of life.”

Kakuzo Okakura book The Book of Tea

Source: The Book of Tea

Life, Art, Tea

“I could not comprehend the justice of that law, or that religion, which upholds or recognizes the principle of slavery;”

Solomon Northup book Twelve Years a Slave

Source: Twelve Years a Slave

Justice, Law

“Soccer isn't the same as Bach or Buddhism. But it is often more deeply felt than religion, and just as much a part of the community's fabric, a repository of traditions.”

Franklin Foer (1974) American journalist

Source: How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization

Communication, Parting

“My faith is whatever makes me feel good about being alive. If your religion doesn't make you feel good to be alive, what the hell is the point of it?”

Tom Robbins Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Source: Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Faith, Feeling, Hell

“If he'd learned one thing while he'd been away, it was that loneliness is the most taboo subject in the world. Forget sex or politics or religion. Or even failure. Loneliness is what clears out a room.”

Douglas Coupland book Miss Wyoming

Source: Miss Wyoming

World, Sex, Failure, Learning

“Why are those who are notoriously undisciplined and unmoral also most contemptuous of religion and morality? They are trying to solace their own unhappy lives by pulling the happy down to their own abysmal depths.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Source: Seven Words of Jesus and Mary: Lessons from Cana and Calvary

Happiness

“If people but knew their own religion, how tolerant they would become, and how free from any grudge against the religion of others.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) Indian Sufi

Source: The Bowl of Saki: Thoughts for Daily Contemplation from the Sayings and Teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan

People

“This was the kind of dress that changed the world. The kind of dress that started religions.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

World, Change

“It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday

People, Country

“If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.”

Charles Simic (1938) American poet

Soul, Night

“Religion is like language or dress. We gravitate toward the practices with which we were raised. In the end, though, we are all proclaiming the same thing. That life has meaning. That we are grateful for the power that created us.”

Dan Brown book Angels & Demons

Source: Angels & Demons

Life

“When a nation forgets her skill in war, when her religion becomes a mockery, when the whole nation becomes a nation of money-grabbers, then the wild tribes, the barbarians drive in… Who will our invaders be? From whence will they come?”

Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) American author

From a letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (July 1923)
Letters

Money, War, Forgetting

“Some men, under the notion of weeding out prejudice, eradicate virtue, honesty and religion.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Men

“I endeavored to renounce society, that I might avoid temptation. But it was a poor religion; so far as it prevailed, only tended to make me gloomy, stupid, unsociable, and useless.”

John Newton (1725–1807) Anglican clergyman and hymn-writer

Stupidity

“Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, 'I am not the kind of person I want to be.' It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

People, Personality

“Bring a vampire around, people start discovering religion.”

Richard Laymon (1947–2001) American writer

Source: The Stake

People

“One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection. But the basis of morality is really very simple and doesn't require religion at all.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

People

“Lying on stained wretched sheets with the bleeding virgin,
we could plan a murder…or start a religion.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Source: An American Prayer (1978)

Lying

“We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)

Love, Hate

“I asked them why when they persecute men, for religion or colour it was seen by the world as oppression and when they persecute women, it was dismissed as tradition.”

Emer Martin (1968) Irish writer

Source: Baby Zero

Women, Men, World

“To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother's keeper. To accept injustice”

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

1950s, Three Ways of Meeting Oppression (1958)
Context: To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother's keeper. To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right. It is a way of allowing his conscience to fall asleep. At this moment the oppressed fails to be his brother's keeper. So acquiescence-while often the easier way-is not the moral way. It is the way of the coward.

Evil