religion

I believe that the scientist is trying to expand absolute truth and the artist absolute beauty, so that I find in art and science, and in an attempt to live a good life, all the religion I want.

—Haldane,J(ohn) B(urdon) S(anderson)

Most men's anger about religion is as if two men should quarrel for a lady they neither of them care for.

—Halifax, George Savile, 1st Marquis of

I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.

—Krishnamurti,Jiddu

Art and Religion are, then, two roads by which men escape from circumstance to ecstasy.

—Bell, (Arthur) Clive Howard

As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith.

—Paine,Thomas

There is a holy mistaken zeal in politics as well as in religion. By persuading others, we convince ourselves.

—'Junius' possibly the pseudonym of  Sir Philip Francis

As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.

—Orwell, George pseudonym of  Eric Arthur Blair

The basic command of religion is not 'do this!'or 'do not do that!' but simply 'look!'

—Toynbee, (Theodore) Philip

The authority of a belief imposed by religion surely destroys the discovery of reality.One relies on authority because one is afraid to stand alone.

—Krishnamurti,Jiddu

Because a man has a black face and a different religion fromours, there isno reasonwhy heshould betreatedas a brute.

—Edward VII

I am becoming like the Irish Census, broken down by Age, Sex, and Religion.

—MacRe¤  amoinn, Sean Seamas Criostoir

Prisons are built with stones of Law, brothels with bricks of Religion.

—Blake,William

I can't talk religion to a man with bodily hunger in his eyes.

—Shaw, George Bernard

Christianity is really a man's religion: there's not much in it for women except docility, obedience, who-sweeps- the-room-as-for-thy-cause, downcast eyes and death in childbirth. For the men it's better: all power and money and fine robes, the burning of the hereticsöfun, fun, fun!öand the Inquisition fulminating from the pulpit.

—Weldon, Fay originally Franklin Birkinshaw

I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved inanynationwhere Christianity wasthereligion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution.

—Swift,Jonathan

A cult is a religion with no political power.

—Wolfe,Tom (Thomas Kennerley)

Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and some people do the same by their religion.

—Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam

Some people read too much: the bibliobuli†who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through the most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.

—Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis)

Theosophy, on earth, is like the white ray of the spectrum, and each religion only one of the seven colours.

—Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna

Your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy.Bothyourreligionand policy must be basedon it.

—Ruskin,John

The puritanical potentialities of sciencehavenever been forecast. If it evolves a body of organized rites, and is established as a religion, hierarchicallyorganized, things more than anything else will be done in the name of 'decency'. The coarse fumes of tobacco and liquors, the consequent tainting of the breath and staining of white fingers and teeth, which is so offensive to many women, will be the first things attended to.

—Lezama Lima,Jose¤

Football is like a religion to me. I worship the ball, and I treat it like a god. Too many players thinkof a football as something to kick.They should be taught to caress it and to treat it like a precious gem.

—Pele¤   pseudonym of  Edson Arantes do Nascimento

For my religion, though there be several circumstances that might persuade the world I have none at allöas the general scandal of my profession, the natural course of my studies, the indifferency of my behaviour and discourse in matters of religion, neither violently defending one, nor with that common ardour and contention opposing anotheröyet in despite hereof I dare without usurpation assume the honourable style of a Christian.

—Browne, SirThomas

J'aime l'homme de¤  livre¤   par sa religion et vivifie¤   par les dieux que je fonde en lui. I admire the person freed from his religion and inspired by the gods inside of himself.

—Saint-Exupe¤  ry, Antoine de

Equal and exact justice to all men†freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of the person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selectedöthese principles form the bright constellation that has gone before us.

—Jefferson,Thomas

All good moral philosophy is but an handmaid to religion.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

Our banking system grew byaccident; and wherever something happens byaccident, it becomes a religion.

—Wriston,Walter Bigelow

   Aunt Sadie†so much disliked hearing about health that people often took her for a Christian Scientist, which, indeed, she might have become had she not disliked hearing about religion even more.

—Mitford, Nancy Freeman

Hoo-doo, which in America flowered in New Orleans, was an unorganized religion without ego-games or death worship.

—Reed, Ishmael Scott

If religion is onlya garment of Christianityöand even this garment has looked very different at different timesöthen what is religionless Christianity?

—Bonhoeffer, Dietrich

And still be doing, never done: As if Religion were intended For nothing else but to be mended.

—Butler, Samuel

   Sceptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.

—Sagan, Carl Edward

Persecution is a bad and indirect way to plant religion.

—Browne, SirThomas

In matters of religion and matrimony I never give any advice; because I will not have anybody's torments in this world or the next laid to my charge.

—Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of

It was manifest to me that there was something in the Roman Catholic religion which made the priests very dear to the people; for I doubt whether in any village in England, had such an accident happened to the rector, all the people would have roused themselves at midnight to wreak their vengeance on the assailant.

—Trollope, Anthony

But I suppose even God was born too late to trust the old religionö all those settings out that never left the ground, beginning in wisdom, dying in doubt.

—Lowell, RobertTraill Spence,Jr

The one certain way for a woman to hold a man is to leave him for religion.

—Spark, Dame Muriel Sarah ne¤  e  Camberg

A nosotros nos ensen‹  aron a respetar la iglesia, a no toser, a no escupir en el atrio, a no lavar la ropa en el altar y no es as |¤ : la vida rompe las religiones. We were taught respect for the church, no hawking and spitting on porticos, don't soak your socks on the altarö but things are different: life smashes religions.

—Basoalto

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

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

A British officer to be called Resident who shall be accredited to his Court and whoseadvice must be asked and acted upon on all questions other than those touching Malay religion and custom.

—Pangkor,Treaty of

'Tis certain we have but very imperfect accounts of the manners and religion of these people; this part of the world being seldomvisited,but bymerchants, whomind little but their own affairs; or travellers, who make too short a stay to be able to report anything exactly of their own knowledge.

—Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley ne¤  e Pierrepoint

It is well said, in every sense, that a man's religion is the chief fact with regard to him.

—Carlyle,Thomas

Whenever a man talks loudly against religion,öalways suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions which have got the better of his creed.

—Sterne, Laurence

Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for itöanything but live for it.

—Colton, Charles Caleb

My religion and myartöthey are all my life.

—John, Gwen

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.

—OŁ    Bruadair, Da¤ i bh|¤  dh

Methinks there be not impossibilities enough in religion for an active faith.

—Browne, SirThomas

Of no ageönor of any religion, or party or profession. The body and substance of his works came out of the unfathomable depths of his own oceanic mind.

—Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

One religion is as true as another.

—Burton, Robert pseudonym DemocritusJunior

Persecution is not an original feature of any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all law- religions, or religions established by law.

—Paine,Thomas

Perhapsthemost sublimeinsights oftheJewishprophets and the Christian gospel is the knowledge that since perfection is love, the apprehension of perfection is at once the means of seeing one's imperfections and the consoling assurance of grace which makes this realization bearable. This ultimate paradox of high religion is not an invention of theologians or priests. It is constantly validated by the most searching experiences of life.

—Niebuhr, Reinhold

So we have the Philistine of genius in religionöLuther; the Philistine of genius in politicsöCromwell; the Philistine of genius in literatureöBunyan.

—Arnold, Matthew

It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth Man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. See Berkeley 79:7. 48

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

How glorious it would be in the eyes of God and men, if we managed to hunt the Catholics from England, follow them to France, and, like the bold King of Sweden, rouse the Protestants in France, plant our religion in Paris by agreement or force, and go from there to Rome to chase the Antichrist and burn the town whence superstition comes.

—Leslie, David

The greatest thing a humansoul everdoes in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, all in one.

—Ruskin,John

   Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

—Bible (NewTestament)

I am a Catholic. As far as possible I go to Mass every day. Asfaraspossible Ikneeldownandtell these beadsevery day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that he has spared me the indignity of being your representative.

—Belloc, (Joseph) Hilaire Pierre

Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers.

—Cather,Willa Sibert

Religion blushing veils her sacred fires, And unawares Morality expires.

—Pope, Alexander

I count religion but a childish toy, And hold there is no sin but ignorance.

—Marlowe, Christopher

Religion Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway, Where his eagles never flew, None as invincible as they.

—Cowper,William

He would often say, Religion does not banish mirth, but only moderates and sets rules to it.

—Walton, Izaak

What is to prevent a daily newspaper from being made the greatest organ of social life? Books have had their dayöthe theatres have had their dayöthe temple of religion has had its day. A newspaper can be made to take the lead of all these in the great movements of human thought and of human civilisation. A newspaper can send more souls to Heaven, and save more from Hell, than all the churches or chapels in New Yorköbesides making money at the same time.

—Bennett,James Gordon, Snr

La passion est toute l'humanite¤  . Sans elle, la religion, l'histoire, le roman, l'art seraient inutiles. Passion is all of humanity.Without it, religion, history, the novel and art would be useless.

—Balzac, Honore¤   de

Religion is far more acute than science, and if it only added judgement to insight, would be the greatest thing in the world.

—Forster, E(dward) M(organ)

   Religion issomething which stands beyond, behind, and within the passing flux of immediate things; something which is real, and yet waiting to be realized; something which is a remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present facts; something that gives meaning to all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension; something whose possession is the final good, and yet is beyond all reach; something which is the ultimate ideal, and the hopeless quest.

—Whitehead, Alfred North

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the feelings of a heartless world, and the spirit of conditions that are unspiritual. It is the opium of the people.

—Marx, Karl Heinrich

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

—Paine,Thomas

  Religion is what a man does with his solitariness.

—Whitehead, Alfred North

One's religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is Success.

—Barrie, SirJ(ames) M(atthew)

A brave world, Sir, full of religion, knavery, and change: we shall shortly see better days.

—Behan, Brendan Francis

  All Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion.

—Burke, Edmund

The true meaning of religion is thus not simply morality, but morality touched with emotion.

—Arnold, Matthew

The order of nobility is of great use, too, not only in what it creates, but in what it prevents. It prevents the rule of wealthöthe religion of gold. This is the obvious and natural idol of the Anglo-Saxon† From this our aristocracy preserves us.

—Bagehot,Walter

Thereligionof money istoday the onlyonewhichhasno unbelievers. Gay

—Gautier,The¤  ophile

When we say 'science' we can either mean any manipulation of the inventive and organizing power of the human intellect: or we can mean such an extremely different thing as the religion of science, the vulgarized derivativefromthispureactivitymanipulated bya sortof priestcraft into a great religious and political weapon.

—Lezama Lima,Jose¤

Religion's in the heart, not in the knees.

—Jerrold, Douglas William

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

—Swift,Jonathan

Religion isthetragedy of mankind† But I do know, from the inside as well as from personal observation, that religion appeals to something deep and irrational and strong within us, and that is what makes it so dangerous.

—Wilson, A(ndrew) N(orman)

Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for superstition.

—Burke, Edmund

More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us.Without poetry, our science will appear incomplete; and most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry.

—Arnold, Matthew

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

—Einstein, Albert

Quand me"  me Dieu n'existerait pas, la religion serait encore sainte et divineöDieu est le seul e"  tre qui, pour re¤  gner, n'ait me"  me pas besoin d'exister. Even if God did not exist, religion would still be holyand divine.God isthe only being who, inorder toreign, need not even exist.

—Baudelaire, Charles

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

—Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis)

France is revolutionary or she is nothing at all. The revolution of1789 is her political religion.

—Lamartine, Alphonse Marie Louis de

In brief, where the Scripture is silent, the church is my text; where that speaks,'tis but my comment; where there is a joint silence of both, I borrow not the rules of my religionfrom Rome or Geneva, butthe dictates of my own reason.

—Browne, SirThomas

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion.To attack the first isnottoassail the last.To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.

—Bronte«  , Charlotte

'Sensiblemen are all thesamereligion.' 'And pray what is that?' inquired the prince.'Sensible men never tell.'

—Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

Mayonnaise, n.One of the sauces which serve the French in place of a state religion.

—Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett

Faith gives new light to the soul, but it does not put our eyes out; and what God hathgivenusinournature could never be intended as a snare to Religion, or engage us to believe a lie.

—Taylor,Jeremy

The healthy spirit of self-help created among working people would, more than any other measure, serve to raise them as a class; and this, not by pulling down others, but by levelling them up to a higher and still advancing standard of religion, intelligence, and virtue.

—Smiles, Samuel

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.

—Burke, Edmund

I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.

—Shaw, George Bernard

'Theosophy' isthe essence of all religionand of absolute truth, a drop of which only underlies every creed.

—Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna

   If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

—Bible (NewTestament)

The true religion of America has always been America.

—Mailer, Norman Kingsley

Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine, now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

—Szasz,Thomas Stephen

Conservatives donot believethatthepolitical struggle is the most important thing in life† The simplest of them prefer fox-hunting, the wisest religion.

—Hailsham, Quintin (McGarel) Hogg, 2nd Viscount

A man of your head and hair should owe more to that reverend ceremony, and not mountthemarriage bed like atown-bull, ora mountain-goat; but stay the dueseason and ascend it then with religion and fear.

—Jonson, Ben