All the political seers and sorcerers seem to be agreed that the coming Presidential campaign will be full of bitterness, and that most of it will be caused by religion. I count Prohibition as a part of religion, for it has surely become so in the United States. The Prohibitionists, seeing all their other arguments destroyed by the logic of events, have fallen back upon the mystical doctrine that God is somehow on their side, and that opposing them thus takes on the character of blasphemy.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
A cult is a religion with no political power.
—Thomas Wolfe (1900–38) American Novelist
Oh senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm, and yet will make Gods by dozens.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The Pope? How many divisions has he got?
—Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) Soviet Leader
Look through the whole history of countries professing the Romish religion, and you will uniformly find the leaven of this besetting and accursed principle of action—that the end will sanction any means.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
If a man is not rising upward to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downward to be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast. The most savage of men are not beasts; they are worse, a great deal worse.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
Make sure to send a lazy man the angel of death.
—Yiddish Proverb
My religious position: I think that God could do a lot better, and I’m willing to give Him the chance.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Religion is the possibility of the removal of every ground of confidence except confidence in God alone.
—Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Reformed Theologian, Author
The intellectual is constantly betrayed by his vanity. Godlike he blandly assumes that he can express everything in words; whereas the things one loves, lives, and dies for are not, in the last analysis completely expressible in words.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
When I was young, I was sure of many things; now there are only two things of which I am sure: one is that I am a miserable sinner; and the other, that Christ is an all-sufficient Savior.—He is well taught who learns these two lessons.
—John Newton (1725–1807) English Clergyman, Writer
Man is made to adore and to obey: but if you will not command him, if you give him nothing to worship, he will fashion his own divinities, and find a chieftain in his own passions.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Religion consists of a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.
—Luciano De Crescenzo (b.1928) Italian Writer, Film Actor, Director, Engineer
We sing in a church, why can we not dance there?
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (1783–1842) French Writer
It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, if afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it since no one attacks it. Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
Look into the world. How often do you behold a solid wretch, whose strait heart is open to man’s affliction, taking shelter behind and appearance of piety, and putting on the grab of religion, which none but the merciful and compassionate have a title to wear!
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
Sink the Bible to the bottom of the sea, and man’s obligation to God would be unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and his guide would be gone; he would have the same voyage to make, only his compass and chart would be overboard.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Jesus Christ is a God to whom we can approach without pride, and before whom we may abase ourselves without despair.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
The sons of Judah have to choose that God may again choose them. The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
What church I go to on Sunday, what dogma of the Catholic Church I believe in, is my business; and whatever faith any other American has is his business.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory.
—Elie Wiesel (b.1928) Romanian-born American Writer, Professor, Political Activist
Religion is what keeps the poor man from murdering the rich.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Religion is meant to be bread for daily use, not cake for special occasions
—Unknown
Throughout the long period of religious doubt, I had been rendered very unhappy by the gradual loss of belief, but when the process was completed, I found to my surprise that I was quite glad to be done with the whole subject
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
All the naturalistic religions are founded upon the assumption that nature—which “never did betray the heart that loved her”—is discoverable and ready to serve as an infallible guide.
—Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970) American Writer, Critic, Naturalist
I wouldn’t take the Pope too seriously. He’s a Pole first, a pope second, and maybe a Christian third.
—Muriel Spark (1918–2006) Scottish Novelist, Short-story Writer, Poet
Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
—Steven Weinberg (1933–2021) American Physicist
Religion often gets credit for curing rascals when old age is the real medicine.
—Austin O’Malley (1858–1932) American Aphorist, Ophthalmologist
True religion is not a mere doctrine, something that can be taught, but is a way of life. A life in community with God. It must be experienced to be appreciated. A life of service. A living by giving and finding one’s own happiness by bringing happiness into the lives of others.
—William J. H. Boetcker (1873–1962) American Presbyterian Minister
The thing with Catholicism, the same as all religions, is that it teaches what should be, which seems rather incorrect. This is “what should be.” Now, if you’re taught to live up to a “what should be” that never existed—only an occult superstition, no proof of this “should be”—then you can sit on a jury and indict easily, you can cast the first stone, you can burn Adolf Eichmann, like that!
—Lenny Bruce (1925–66) American Comedian, Writer, Social Critic, Satirist
It is a dogma of the Roman Church that the existence of God can be proved by natural reason. Now this dogma would make it impossible for me to be a Roman Catholic. If I thought of God as another being like myself, outside myself, only infinitely more powerful, then I would regard it as my duty to defy him.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
One of the hardest lessons we have to learn in this life, and one that many persons never learn, is to see the divine, the celestial, the pure, in the common, the near at hand-to see that heaven lies about us here in this world.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
Under our institutions the only way to perfect the Government is to perfect the individual citizen. It is necessary to reach the mind and soul of the individual. I know of no way that this can be done save through the influence of religion and education. By religion I do not mean fanaticism or bigotry; by education I do not mean the cant of the schools, but a broad and tolerant faith, loving thy neighbor as thyself, and a training and experience that enables the human mind to see into the heart of things.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Smitten as we are with the vision of social righteousness, a God indifferent to everything but adulation, and full of partiality for his individual favorites, lacks an essential element of largeness.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
What the world craves today is a more spiritual and less formal religion. To the man or woman facing death, great conflict, the big problems of human life, the forms of religion are of minor concern, while the spirit of religion is a desperately needed source of inspiration, comfort and strength.
—John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874–1960) American Philanthropist, Businessperson
What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in putting it? I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
God is for men and religion for women.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
There’s no reason to bring religion into it. I think we ought to have as great a regard for religion as we can, so as to keep it out of as many things as possible.
—Sean O’Casey (1880–1964) Irish Dramatist, Memoirist
You may have noticed that many religious people are deeply suspicious. They seem
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, and the people do not become religious, I do not know what is to become of us as a nation. And the thought is one to cause solemn reflection on the part of every patriot and Christian. If truth be not diffused, error will be; if God and his word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy; if the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; if the power of the gospel is not felt through the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness, will reign without mitigation or end.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965) American Lutheran Theologian, Philosopher
By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge! If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright