“If I were personally to define religion, I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstance.”

The Genius (1915) The University of Illinois Press, 2004, ISBN 0-252-03100-8, p. 734

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Theodore Dreiser 20
Novelist, journalist 1871–1945

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“And thus I understand that man’s Soul is made of nought: that is to say, it is made, but of nought that is made.”

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

Summations, Chapter 53
Context: Ere that He made us He loved us, and when we were made we loved Him. And this is a Love that is made, of the Kindly Substantial Goodness of the Holy Ghost; Mighty, in Reason, of the Might of the Father; and Wise, in Mind, of the Wisdom of the Son. And thus is Man’s Soul made by God and in the same point knit to God.
And thus I understand that man’s Soul is made of nought: that is to say, it is made, but of nought that is made. And thus: — When God should make man’s body He took the clay of earth, which is a matter mingled and gathered of all bodily things; and thereof He made man’s body. But to the making of man’s Soul He would take right nought, but made it. And thus is the Nature-made rightfully oned to the Maker, which is Substantial Nature not-made: that is, God. And therefore it is that there may nor shall be right nought atwix God and man’s Soul.
And in this endless Love man’s Soul is kept whole, as the matter of the Revelations signifieth and sheweth: in which endless Love we be led and kept of God and never shall be lost. For He willeth we be aware that our Soul is a life, which life of His Goodness and His Grace shall last in Heaven without end, Him loving, Him thanking, Him praising. And right the same that we shall be without end, the same we were treasured in God and hid, known and loved from without beginning.
Wherefore He would have us understand that the noblest thing that ever He made is mankind: and the fullest Substance and the highest Virtue is the blessed Soul of Christ. And furthermore He would have us understand that His dearworthy Soul was preciously knit to Him in the making which knot is so subtle and so mighty that it — is oned into God: in which oneing it is made endlessly holy. Furthermore He would have us know that all the souls that shall be saved in Heaven without end, are knit and oned in this oneing and made holy in this holiness.

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“Religion isn't invented by man. Men are invented by religion.”

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 28
Context: Religion isn't invented by man. Men are invented by religion. Men invent responses to Quality, and among these responses is an understanding of what they themselves are. You know something and then the Quality stimulus hits and then you try to define the Quality stimulus, but to define it all you've got to work with is what you know. So your definition is made up of what you know. It's an analogue to what you already know. It has to be. It can't be anything else. And the mythos grows this way. By analogies to what is known before. The mythos is a building of analogues upon analogues upon analogues. These fill the collective consciousness of all communicating mankind. Every last bit of it. The Quality is the track that directs the train. What is outside the train, to either side—that is the terra incognita of the insane. He knew that to understand Quality he would have to leave the mythos. That's why he felt that slippage. He knew something was about to happen.

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“Instead, therefore, of saying that Man is the creature of Circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that Man is the architect of Circumstance. It is Character which builds an existence out of Circumstance.”

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The Life and Works of Goethe (1855; repr. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1856) vol. 1, p. 30, often misattributed to Thomas Carlyle.
Context: Instead, therefore, of saying that Man is the creature of Circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that Man is the architect of Circumstance. It is Character which builds an existence out of Circumstance. Our strength is measured by our plastic power. From the same materials one man builds palaces, another hovels, one warehouses, another villas.

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“The body knows no pain, not like the soul. At least a nerve has limits, a body part a name. But the soul … the soul … There is no bandage -- even crying is in vain.”

Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) Italian-American writer, poet, inventor, actress, voice artist (1958-2014)

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“I don't think I did anything great. Any Chinese or Olympics-loving torchbearer would protect the torch under such circumstances.”

Jin Jing (1981) Chinese fencer

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“The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented. It was man's ability to invent which has made human society what it is.”

Dennis Gabor (1900–1979) Nobel Prize-winning physicist and inventor of holography

Source: Inventing the Future (1963), p. 161

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