“Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.”

—  Wilhelm Reich

As quoted in Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005) by James Lee Christian, p. 556

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same." by Wilhelm Reich?
Wilhelm Reich photo
Wilhelm Reich89
Austrian-American psychoanalyst 1897–1957

Related quotes

Prince photo

“Do I believe in God? Do I believe in me?
Some people wanna die so they can be free
(I said) Life is just a game, we're all just the same…do you wanna play?”

Prince (1958–2016) American pop, songwriter, musician and actor

Controversy
Song lyrics, Controversy (1981)

Ray Comfort photo

“We have turned our backs on God, and given Him lip-service by maintaining a belief in His existence and at the same time embracing that which is abhorrent to Him; things such as homosexual marriage, abortion, adultery, fornication, pornography, lying, theft and blasphemy. Few have any fear of God, which the Bible says is the ‘beginning’ of wisdom. A wise man once said, ‘Most I fear God. Next I fear him who fears Him not.’ When someone doesn’t fear God, they give themselves to evil.”

Ray Comfort (1949) New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist

As quoted in Mass Murder 'Normal' in World without God' http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/mass-murder-normal-in-world-without-god/, Worldnutdaily (2012-07-23)

Bob Dylan photo

“You always said people don't do what they believe in; they just do what's most convenient, then they repent.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Knocked Out Loaded (1986), Brownsville Girl (with Sam Shepard)

John Calvin photo

“The wicked do not fear God from any unwillingness to offend him, provided they could do so with impunity. … But believers, as has been said, dread the offense even more than the punishment.”

John Calvin book Institutes of the Christian Religion

Book 3, Chapter 2, Section 27, p. 480
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

Jean Paul Sartre photo

“He chooses the most feared, most hated man in order to worship him as a god, feeling sure that he is alone in perceiving the god’s secret virtues.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Saint Genet

165
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

Muhammad Ali photo

“We all have the same God, we just serve him differently.”

Muhammad Ali book The Soul of a Butterfly

Source: The Soul of a Butterfly (2004), p. xvii
Context: We all have the same God, we just serve him differently. Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans all have different names, but they all contain water. So do religions have different names, and they all contain truth, expressed in different ways forms and times. It doesn't matter whether you're a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew. When you believe in God, you should believe that all people are part of one family. If you love God, you can't love only some of his children.

Prince photo

“I just can't believe all the things people say -- Controversy
Am I black or white? Am I straight or gay? -- Controversy
Do I believe in God? Do I believe in me?”

Prince (1958–2016) American pop, songwriter, musician and actor

Controversy
Song lyrics, Controversy (1981)

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“If it is God who gives the spirit of power and strength, then it is also the same God who gives “the spirt of self-control,” and if ignoble cowardice and fear of people are just as detestable in any age, the excess of eager enthusiasm, “zeal without wisdom,” are no less corrupting and at times are fundamentally just as detestable, just as blasphemous.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Søren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong p. 323
1840s, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (1847)

Muhammad Ali photo

“Wouldn't it be a beautiful world if just 10 percent of the people who believe in the power of love would compete with one another to see who could do the most good for the most people?”

Muhammad Ali book The Soul of a Butterfly

Source: The Soul of a Butterfly (2004), p. xxiii
Context: Wouldn't it be a beautiful world if just 10 percent of the people who believe in the power of love would compete with one another to see who could do the most good for the most people? So many of us enjoy taking part in competitions, why not hold a competition of love instead of one that leads to jealousy and envy? If we continue to think and live as if we belong only to different cultures and different religions, with separate missions and goals, we will always be in self-defeating competition with each other.

Related topics