“Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.”

Blue Like Jazz (2003, Nelson Books)

Source: Hainish Cycle, The Telling (2000), Ch. 4, §3 (pp. 90–91)
Context: One of the historians of Darranda said: To learn a belief without belief is to sing a song without the tune.
A yielding, an obedience, a willingness to accept these notes as the right notes, this pattern as the true pattern, is the essential gesture of performance, translation, and understanding. The gesture need not be permanent, a lasting posture of the mind or heart, yet it is not false. It is more than the suspension of disbelief needed to watch a play, yet less than the conversion. It is a position, a posture in the dance.

Source: Does My Head Look Big In This?

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 18 (p. 181)

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

The New Day: Campaign Speeches of Herbert Hoover (1928), Campaign speech in New York (22 October 1928)

The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess (1979)
Context: The Orderer, whose core issue is control, splits us into Controller and Out-of-Control selves, tells us "Don't Feel", and generates anxiety, rigidity, and addictions. The Orderer seduces us with the belief that order can be imposed from without, that the answer to chaos is more rigid order.

Der Glaube an eine bestimmte Idee gibt dem Forscher den Rückhalt für seine Arbeit. Ohne diesen Glauben wäre er verloren in einem Meer von Zweifeln und halbgültigen Beweisen. <br class="br">Attributed in Konrad Zuse http://www.dpma.de/ponline/erfindergalerie/bio_zuse.html on &quot;Die Erfindergalerie&quot;, dpma.de, 2008

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