c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
I'm here to tell you, there ain't much forgiveness in that old-time religion. That particular savior was a mean son of a bitch. If you sinned, honey, he was going to get you, no doubt about it.
— Ava Gardner, Ava: My Story
I call them sacred echoes because I noticed that throughout my relationships, daily life, and study, the same scripturally sound idea or phrase or word will keep reappearing until I can no longer avoid its presence." -The Sacred Echo
— Margaret Feinberg
No more quickly can a person rob you of your joy and peace than when that individual succeeds at making you feel like you're less than worthy of God as compared to his/her own self. The old adage "You're on your way to hell, and I'm on my way to heaven" spoken or implied to another, is the most predominantly effective way to make someone feel better about himself; and he doesn't even have to prove he's better in this life on earth because now he can just say "Wait 'til I'm looking down at you while you're in hell!" But don't be robbed of your joy and peace, individuals or groups of people like that don't know where God is; He is a whisper-distance away from you, is all.
— C. JoyBell C.
We must go out to Pure Life, Pure Truth, Pure Love, and that is the definition of God. He is the ultimate goal of life; from Him we came, and in Him alone do we find our peace.
— Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living
Hunger for God compels us to seek the Lord. At times our desire for God overcomes our physical desires, and the ache for God is palpable. Throughout the Scriptures, God is faithful to reward those who search for him. Written during one of King David's low points, while living on the run in the wilderness, he cries, "Oh God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." Though David hides in the wilderness, he doesn't stay there physically or spiritually. When we seek God with our whole hearts and souls, he promises to reveal himself to us." -Hungry for God
— Margaret Feinberg, Hungry for God: Hearing God's Voice in the Ordinary and the Everyday
The Official was bending over his desk, staring at the sergeant. "May I ask you a question?""Yes.""Have you ever thought you were Christ?""I can't say that I have. But I have considered that God was good to me to let me find what I was looking for, if that's what you mean.
— Ray Bradbury, Long After Midnight
God is only where you let Him in
— Menachem Mendel
The promise of a dreamer’s future will always remain greater than their present ability. God will always give them dreams that are further along than their current level of maturity.
— Wayne Cordeiro
And like an echo, God often uses the repetitive events and themes in daily life to get my attention and draw me closer to himself." - The Sacred Echo
— Margaret Feinberg, The Sacred Echo: Hearing God's Voice in Every Area of Your Life
Away with them, away; we should not believe fairy stories if we wish to be good. Think of them as persons from the fairy wood.
— Stevie Smith, Selected Poems
[God] deposits a dream of what we can be for Him, a dream that acts as our internal honing device.
— Wayne Cordeiro
The world as it is is the world as God sees it, not as we see it. Our vision is distorted, not so much by the limits of finitude as by sin and ignorance. But the more we raise ourselves in the scale of being, the more will our ideas about God and the world correspond to reality.
— William Ralph Inge
God's green earth can no longer sustain itself for those who worship the golden calf. Those who have put this planet in jeopardy shall no longer live. We have been working hard for this day to come and we have help from every God-fearing being on this planet. Many will say they believe, when in their hearts, they truly worship Mammon.
— Stephen Biro, Hellucination
The Id and the Superego are more scientific ways of considering the Devil and God, or your personal angels and demons. Science has turned the relationship between God, the Devil and you into a viewpoint for all to understand without the framework of religious belief to sidetrack the layperson into another realm of thinking.
— Stephen Biro, Hellucination
But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends "You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by Friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him through the Friendship itself, so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing. At this feast it is He who has spread the board and it is He who has chosen the guests. It is He, we may dare to hope, who sometimes does, and always should, preside. Let us not reckon without our Host.
— C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
Depend on it. God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds, and He can just as easily supply them ahead of time as afterwards, and He much prefers doing so.
— James Hudson Taylor
Or consider a story in the Jewish Talmud left out of the Book of Genesis. (It is in doubtful accord with the account of the apple, the Tree of Knowledge, the Fall, and the expulsion from Eden.) In The Garden, God tells Eve and Adam that He has intentionally left the Universe unfinished. It is the responsibility of humans, over countless generations, to participate with God in a "glorious" experiment - the "completing of the Creation."  The burden of such a responsibility is heavy, especially on so weak and imperfect a species as ours, one with so unhappy a history. Nothing remotely like "completion" can be attempted without vastly more knowledge than we have today. But, perhaps, if our very existence is at stake, we will find ourselves able to rise to this supreme challenge.
— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Look, look,' cried the count, seizing the young man's hands - "look, for on my soul it is curious. Here is a man who had resigned himself to his fate, who was going to the scaffold to die - like a coward, it is true, but he was about to die without resistance. Do you know what gave him strength? - do you know what consoled him? It was, that another partook of his punishment - that another partook of his anguish - that another was to die before him. Lead two sheep to the butcher's, two oxen to the slaughterhouse, and make one of them understand that his companion will not die; the sheep will bleat for pleasure, the ox will bellow with joy. But man - man, who God created in his own image - man, upon whom God has laid his first, his sole commandment, to love his neighbour - man, to whom God has given a voice to express his thoughts - what is his first cry when he hears his fellowman is saved? A blasphemy. Honour to man, this masterpiece of nature, this king of the creation!
— Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
And I understand my sisters when they say every woman has a story that's been told a maxim of one soul, maybe lessAnd that is why you'll never hear me call a woman slut, bitch or a dyke,No matter what she does, because I do not blame herI blame the men who have emotionally and physically raped her,I blame these corporations whose images tell them they hate her,And I put my arms on her shoulder and tell her how great to life and to God that SHE created her
— Mark Gonzales
Different creeds are but different paths to reach the same God.
— Ramakrishna
In regards to this great Book [the Bible], I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are found portrayed in it.
— Abraham Lincoln
What is this thing called life? I believeThat the earth and the stars too, and the whole glittering universe, and rocks on the mountains have life,Only we do not call it so--I speak of the lifeThat oxidizes fats and proteins and carbo-Hydrates to live on, and from that chemical energyMakes pleasure and pain, wonder, love, adoration, hatred and terror: how do these things growFrom a chemical reaction?I think they were here already, I think the rocksAnd the earth and the other planets, and the stars and the galaxieshave their various consciousness, all things are conscious;But the nerves of an animal, the nerves and brainBring it to focus; the nerves and brain are like a burning-glassTo concentrate the heat and make it catch fire:It seems to us martyrs hotter than the blazing hearthFrom which it came. So we scream and laugh, clamorous animalsBorn howling to die groaning: the old stones in the dooryardPrefer silence; but those and all things have their own awareness,As the cells of a man have; they feel and feed and influence each other, each unto all,Like the cells of a man's body making one being,They make one being, one consciousness, one life, one God.
— Robinson Jeffers, The Selected Poetry
God defines himself as "I am who I am", which also means: My being is such that I shall always be present in every moment of becoming.
— Hans Urs von Balthasar, Unless You Become Like This Child
Everything you do is connected to who you are as a person and, in turn, creates the person you are becoming. Everything you do affects those you love. All of life is covenant.Imbedded in the idea of prayer is a richly textured view of the world where all of life is organized around invisible bonds or covenants that knit us together. Instead of a fixed world, we live in our Father's world, a world built for divine relationships between people where, because of the Good News, tragedies become comedies and hope is born.
— Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
The Lord commands us to do good unto all men without exception, though the majority are very undeserving when judged according to their own merits... [The Scripture] teaches us that we must not think of man's real value, but only of his creation in the image of God to which we owe all possible honor and love.
— John Calvin, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life
God is found in the collection of Many. . . rather than in the One.
— Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol
There are two atheisms of which one is a purification of the notion of God.
— Simone Weil
God is a person, and his universe reflects his personhood. The closer something is to the character of God, the more it reflects him and the less it can be measured. Things such as integrity, beauty, hope, and love are all in the same category as prayer. You can tell their presence and even describe them, but you can't define them, simply because they are too close to God's image.
— Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
What the Father gives is the capacity to be a self, freedom, and thus autonomy, but an autonomy which can be understood only as a surrender of self to the other.
— Hans Urs von Balthasar, Unless You Become Like This Child
Does there exist an Infinity outside ourselves? Is that infinity One, immanent and permanent, necessarily having substance, since He is infinite and if He lacked matter He would be limited, necessarily possessing intelligence since He is infinite and, lacking intelligence, He would be in that sense finite. Does this Infinity inspire in us the idea of essense, while to ourselves we can only attribute the idea of existence? In order words, is He not the whole of which we are but the part?
— Victor Hugo
You know, we can quote the written Word all day to our friends, but nothing will touch them like our own hunger and love for the Word himself. It is not dutiful love that attracts but love freely lavished from a heart familiar with the gardens of heaven.
— Amy Layne Litzelman, This Beloved Road: A Journey of Revelation and Worship
Come, my child," I said, trying to lead her away. "Wish good-bye to the poor hare, and come and look for blackberries.""Good-bye, poor hare!" Sylvie obediently repeated, looking over her shoulder at it as we turned away. And then, all in a moment, her self-command gave way. Pulling her hand out of mine, she ran back to where the dead hare was lying, and flung herself down at its side in such an agony of grief as I could hardly have believed possible in so young a child."Oh, my darling, my darling!" she moaned, over and over again. "And God meant your life to be so beautiful!
— Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno
If you want nothing to do with god then why do you say his name all the time
— Emily Reimer
The English experience suggested that nobody really doubted the existence of God until theologians tried to prove it.
— The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World
Meditating on the nature and dignity of prayer can cause saying at least one thing to God: Lord, teach us to pray!
— Karl Rahner, The Need and the Blessing of Prayer
...for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.
— Frédéric Bastiat
I am not an ape, I am a man. The world has been created by God. Man has been created by God. It is not possible for man to understand God - God understands God. Man is God and therefore understands God. I am God. I am a man. I am good and not a beast. I am an animal with reason. I have flesh, I *am* flesh, I am not descended from flesh. Flesh is created by God. I am God. I am God. I am God.
— Vaslav Nijinsky, The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky
Why do men have nipples? Because God is a woman and she really wants us to enjoy ourselves, that's why.
— Cameron Dean, Passionate Thirst
A prayer is a chat with thy God.
— Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity
We have to believe in a God who is like the true God in everything except that he does not exist, since we have not reached the point where God exists.
— Simone Weil
Praise be to God, Who has so disposed matters that pleasant literary anecdotes may serve as an instrument for the polishing of wits and the cleansing of rust from our hearts.
— Ahmad Al-Tifashi, The Delight of Hearts: Or What You Will Not Find in Any Book
To put it another way, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Why must it be pain? Why can't he rouse us more gently, with violins or laughter? Because the dream from which we must be wakened, is the dream that all is well.
— William Nicholson, Shadowlands
Even on the cross He did not hide Himself from sight; rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker.
— Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation
Those who set up a fictitious worship, merely worship and adore their own delirious fancies; indeed, they would never dare so to trifle with God, had they not previously fashioned him after their own childish conceits.
— John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
Past boldness is no assurance of future boldness. Boldness demands continual reliance on God's spirit.
— Andy Stanley
if god had intended us to follow recipes, He wouldn't have given us grandmothers.
— Linda Henley
Life, faculties, production-in other words, individuality, liberty, property-this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it.
— Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
The nativity mystery “conceived from the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary”, means, that God became human, truly human out of his own grace. The miracle of the existence of Jesus , his “climbing down of God” is: Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary! Here is a human being, the Virgin Mary, and as he comes from God, Jesus comes also from this human being. Born of the Virgin Mary means a human origin for God. Jesus Christ is not only truly God, he is human like every one of us. He is human without limitation. He is not only similar to us, he is like us.
— Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline
The Self-revealing of the Word is in every dimension - above, in creation; below, in the Incarnation; in the depth, in Hades; in the breadth, throughout the world. All things have been filled with the knowledge of God.
— Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation
The world today is fast becoming one.Humanity is one, God is one and mankind are all part of one human family.all Religions are connected, and they all lead to faith in the one God, no matter what name we give him he is but one God.
— Naeem Abdullah, Islam: A Favor to Humanity
The body of the Word, then, being a real human body, in spite of its having been uniquely formed from a virgin, was of itself mortal and, like other bodies, liable to death. But the indwelling of the Word loosed it from this natural liability, so that corruption could not touch it. Thus is happened that two opposite marvels took place at once: the death of all was consummated in the Lord's body; yet, because the Word was in it, death and corruption were in the same act utterly abolished.
— Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation
When God has specially promised the thing, we are bound to believe we shall recieve it when we pray for it. You have no right to put in an 'if', and say, 'Lord, if it be thy will..." This is to insult God. To put an 'if' in God's promise when God has put none there, is tantamount to charging God with being insincere.
— Charles Grandison Finney
All simple souls must admire and respect one another, saying: 'Let us proceed each one along our path to the same goal, united in purpose and by means of God's order which, in its great variety, is in us all.
— Jean-Pierre de Caussade, The Sacrament of the Present Moment
Creation is thus God's presence in creatures. The Greek Orthodox theologian Philip Sherrard has written that "Creation is nothing less than the manifestation of God's hidden Being." This means that we and all other creatures live by a sanctity that is inexpressibly intimate, for to every creature, the gift of life is a portion of the breath and spirit of God. (pg. 308, Christianity and the Survival of Creation)
— Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
In the Bible, the opposite of Sin, with a capital 'S,' is not virtue - it's faith: faith in a God who draws all to himself in his resurrection.
— Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon & Three: Romance, Law & the Outrage of Grace
In Christ, for the first time, we see that in God himself there exists--within his inseparable unity--the distinction between the Father who gives and the Gift which is given (the Son), but only in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
— Hans Urs von Balthasar, Unless You Become Like This Child
What is important is not the specific manner in which God is worshiped but the degree to which the devotee is filled with love. (48-49)
— Prem Prakash, The Yoga of Spiritual Devotion A Modern Translation of the Narada Bhakti Sutras
Morality is everywhere the same for all men, therefore it comes from God; sects differ, therefore they are the work of men.
— Voltaire, A Pocket Philosophical Dictionary
(About changing faith) At our best, Christians embrace it, leaving enough space within orthodoxy for God to surprise us every now and then.
— Rachel Held Evans, Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions
In my hands is power. The power to hear or to destroy. To grant life or to cause death. I revere this gift, have honed it over time an art as magnificent and awesome as any painting in the Louvre. I an art, I am science. In all ways that matter, I am God.God must be ruthless and far-sighted. God studies his creations and selects. The best of these creations must be cherished, protected, sustained. Greatness rewards perfection.Yet even the flawed have purpose. A wise God experiment, considers, uses what comes into his hands and forges wonders. Yes, often without mercy, often with a violence the ordinary condemn. We who hold power cannot be detracted by the condemnations of the ordinary, by the petty and pitiful laws of simple man. They are blind, their minds are closed with fear-fear of pain, fear of death. They are too limited to comprehend that death can be conquered. I have nearly done so. If my work was discovered, they, with their foolish laws and attitudes, would damn me.When my work is complete, they will worship me.
— J.D. Robb, Conspiracy in Death
God, listen to the absurdity within us and raise us from the illusion!
— Sorin Cerin, Wisdom Collection: The Book of Wisdom
My mother believed in God's will for many years. It was af if she had turned on a celestial faucet and goodness kept pouring out. She said it was faith that kept all these good things coming our way, only I thought she said "fate" because she couldn't pronounce the "th" sound in "faith".  could have was hope, and with that I wasn't denying any possibility, good or bad. I was just saying, If there is a choice, dear God or whatever you are, here's where the odds should be placed.I remember the day I started thinking this, it was such a revelation to me. It was the day my mother lost her faith in God. She found that things of unquestioned certainty could never be trusted again. that had brought my parents to America. It had enabled them to have seven children and buy a house in Sunset district with very little money. It had given them the confidence to believe their luck would never run out, that God was on their side, that house gods had only benevolent things to report and our ancestors were pleased, that lifetime warranties meant our lucky streak would never break, that all the elements were now in balance, the right amount of wind and water.
— Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
No, I thought, growing more rebellious, life has its own laws and it is for me to defend myself against whatever comes along, without going snivelling to God about sin, my own or other people's. How would it profit a man if he got into a tight place, to call he people who put him there miserable sinners? Or himself a miserable sinner? I disliked the levelling aspect of this sinnerdom, it was like a cricket match played in a drizzle, where everybody had an excuse - and what a dull excuse! - for playing badly. Life was meant to test a man, bring out his courage, initiative, resource; and I longed, I thought, to be tested: I didn't want to fall on my knees and call myself a miserable sinner. But the idea of goodness did attract me, for I did not regard it as the opposite of sin. I saw it as something bright and positive and sustaining, like the sunshine, something to be adored, but from afar.
— L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between
I lay there with my mind running amuck, on the brink of madness. And somehow, gradually, early Sunday morning, I became calm. I can't think of any other word for it. I was thinking about the beach poem again, and I started to feel that I was being looked after, that everything was OK. It was strange: if there was ever a time in my life when I had the right to feel alone this was it. But I lost that sense of loneliness. I felt like there was a force in the room with me, not a person, but I had a sense that there was another world, another dimension, and it would be looking after me. It was like, "This isn't the only world, this is just one aspect of the whole thing, don't imagine this is all there is.
— John Marsden, A Killing Frost
I suddenly knew that religion, God - something beyond everyday life - was there to be found, provided one is really willing. And I saw that though what I felt in the church was only imagination, it was a step on the way; because imagination itself can be a kind of willingness - a pretense that things are real, due to one's longing for them. It struck me that this was somehow tied up with what the Vicar said about religion being an extension of art - and then I had a glimpse of how religion can really cure you of sorrow; somehow make use of it, turn it to beauty, just as art can make sad things beautiful.	I found myself saying: 'Sacrifice is the secret - you have to sacrifice things for art and it's the same with religion; and then the sacrifice turns out to be a gain.' Then I got confused and I couldn't hold on to what I meant - until Miss Blossom remarked: 'Nonsense, duckie - it's prefectly simple. You lose yourself in something beyond yourself and it's a lovely rest.'I saw that, all right. Then I thought: 'But that's how Miss Marcy cured her sorrow, too - only she lost herself in other people instead of in religion.' Which way of life was best - hers or the Vicar's? I decided that he loves God and merely likes the villagers, whereas she loves the villagers and merely likes God - and then I suddenly wondered if I could combine both ways, love God and my neighbor equally. Was I really willing to?
— Dodie Smith
As a child I had been taught to say my prayers at the start of every day, and so it did not seem an odd thing for me to stand out in the field and say "Oh God whatever happens today let it be under your perfect control.
— John Masters, 2 Pork Chops!
Different states of consciousness project different images of God–loving or vengeful or jealous, energetic or terrifying, and different images of God affect the nature and quality of our response to God. . . . The image or idea of God as wrathful and jealous will have a different effect than the image or the idea of God as loving. Similarly, whether God is regarded as male or female will have a significant impact on the culture. (29)
— Ravi Ravindra, The Wisdom of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: A New Translation and Guide by Ravi Ravindra
I don't believe in God. And I certainly don't feel chosen.""I think you may be."I smiled dubiously. "Thank you.""It is not meant as a compliment. Hazard makes you elect. You cannot elect yourself.
— John Fowles, The Magus
I saw my real gods . . the gods of most men. Food, drink, and security in conformity.
— Anne Rice
Everybody's lookin for God everywhere on the outside. He ain't in no book, and He ain't in no preacher, and He ain't in nothin or no one on the outside. You got to go inside 'cause that's where God is- in the deepest place inside you. And ain't nobody gon' make God tell you nothin. Ain't nobody gon' have no wisdome 'bout nothin if they thinks they can read 'bout it or hear about it from some man or woman. That got to come from revelation. That got to come from the Holy Spirit inside us, and that ain't somethin that can be bargained for. You can't achieve revelation. You can't work for what's free.
— Ron Hall
S'il n'existait pas Dieu il faudrait l'inventer." (If God did not exist he would have to be invented.)
— Voltaire
What Brahman is cannot be described. All things in the world — the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy — have been defiled, like food that has been touched by the tongue, for they have been read or uttered by the tongue. Only one thing has not been defiled in this way, and that is Brahman. No one has ever been able to say what Brahman is.
— Ramakrishna, Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna
...he said firmly, "God can help you. All the men I’ve seen in your position turned to Him in their time of trouble." "Obviously," I replied, "they were at liberty to do so, if they felt like it." I, however, didn’t want to be helped, and I hadn’t time to work up interest for something that didn’t interest me.
— Albert Camus, The Stranger
The mathematicians are the priests of the modern world.
— Bill Gaede, Why God Doesn't Exist
A certain wise man once said that God didn't play dice with the universe, but that man was wrong. Sometimes I think He must even try Russian roulette. 
— Daína Chaviano, The Island of Eternal Love
I was insanely jealous of Lucille. More jealous than I'd ever been of anyone in my entire life. Because she truly meant it. All I could think was, why can't I be as stupid as Lucille? Why can't I blame all my successes and all my failures on The Lord Jesus Christ Almighty? I would be so fucking happy if I lived like that. 
— Tiffanie DeBartolo, God-Shaped Hole
Imagine a very long time passing - and I find my way out, following someone who already knows how to leave Hell. And God says to me on Earth for the first time, "Xas!" in a tone of discovery, as if I'm a misplaced pair of spectacles or a stray dog. And he puts it to me that he wants me in Heaven. But Lucifer has doubled back - it was him I followed - to find me, where I am, in a forest, smitten, because the Lord has noticed me, and I'm overcome, as hopeless as your dog Josie whom you got rid of because she loved me.' Xas glared at Sobran. Then he drew a breath - all had been said on only three. He went on: 'Lucifer says to God the He can't have me. And at this I sit up and tell Lucifer that I didn't even think he knew my name, then say to God no thank you - very insolent this - and that Hell is endurable so long as the books keep appearing.
— Elizabeth Knox, The Vintner's Luck
As I accepted my death and dissolution into God's love, the insectoids began feeding on my heart, devouring the feelings of love and surrender. They were interested in emotion. As I was holding on to my last thought - that God is love - they asked, "Even here? Even here?
— Rick Strassman, Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics & Other Spiritual Technologies
Those who attempt to search into the majesty of God will be overwhelmed with His Glory!
— Thomas à Kempis
Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah
— Anonymous, Holy Bible: The New King James Version
It is sad that unless you are born a god, your life,from its very beginning, is a mystery to you.
— Jamaica Kincaid, The Autobiography of My Mother
In ridiculing a pathetic human fallacy, which seeks explanation where none need be sought and which multiplies unnecessary assumptions, one should not mimic primitive ontology in order to challenge it. Better to dispose of the needless assumption altogether. This holds true for everything from Noah's flood to the Holocaust.
— Christopher Hitchens
Jude leaped out of arm's reach, and walked along the trackway weeping--not from the pain, though that was keen enough; not from the perception of the flaw in the terrestrial scheme, by which what was good for God's birds was bad for God's gardener; but with the awful sense that he had wholly disgraced himself before he had been a year in the parish, and hence might be a burden to his great-aunt for life.
— Thomas Hardy
The place to cure most of the ills of society is in the homes of the people.
— Joseph B. Wirthlin
It was as if we'd only been gone the weekend. Or had we been gone a lifetime. Part of that was because when you've lived in Alaska, living in other places seems easier, less challenging, less threatening. Alaska had enlarged each of us. No one is ever the same after coming back from Alaska.
— Peter Jenkins, Looking For Alaska
God doesn't act like the Church. No, instead, the Church must act like God.
— Kim Clement
In Rwanda, one person's God is another person's Satan-Thérèse Nyirabayovu
— Karl Maier, Into the House of the Ancestors: Inside the New Africa
The Creator has – I say it in all reverence - drawn a myriad red herrings across the track, but the true scientist refuses to be baffled by superficial appearances in detecting the secrets of Nature. The vulgar herd catches at the gross apparent fact, but the man of insight knows what lies on the surfaces does lie.
— Israel Zangwill, The Big Bow Mystery
There are many problems which could only be solved by generations which are still to be born later. It's only one way of many how God gives answers to human problems and prayers.
— Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut
Dr Sass…maintained that in paradise, until the time of the fall, the whole world was flat, the back-curtain of the Lord, and that it was the devil who invented a third dimension. Thus are the words ‘straight’, ‘square’, and ‘flat’ the words of noblemen, but the apple was an orb, and the sin of our first parents, the attempt at getting around God. I myself much prefer the art of painting to sculpture
— Karen Blixen
Do you ever feel like we are the universe’s date to a pig party? Love, The Human Race
— Christy Leigh Stewart
I think that must be a lot like how God has it--not to sound as if I think I'm anything like God, mind you. But the whole idea--sitting up there behind glass you can't be seen through. The person down below looks up and it's just a reflection of themselves, a mirror is what they see. But behind the glass, somebody who loves you more than anything is watching, and is hoping for the best for you, and cheering you on, and is loving you even when you are doing something you shouldn't be.
— Suzanne Strempek Shea, Lily of the Valley
People are not being reached in the context of the body of Christ--they're like newborn babies being left on a doorstep somewhere to feed and care for themselves.
— Peter E. Gillquist, Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith
Satan is too hard a master. He would never command as did the Other with divine simplicity: 'Do likewise.' The devil will have no victims resemble him. He permits only a rough caricature, impotent, abject, which has to serve as food for eternal irony, the mordant irony of the depths.
— Georges Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest
Your father is the only God. You can also become god but you must follow a simple rule and let that rule be made up of love.
— Santosh Kalwar
Only is a bird doesn't swim in the ocean but flies in the air can it enter the ocean from above
—  only because God is not temporal can he enter into time.
On peut chercher dans Dieu le complice et l'ami qui manquent toujours. Dieu est l'éternel confident dans cette tragédie dont chacun est le héros.
— Charles Baudelaire, Intimate Journals
Some of the most beautiful things we have in life comes from our mistakes.
— Surgeo Bell
You can’t selectively numb your anger, any more than you can turn off all lights in a room, and still expect to see the light.
— Shannon L. Alder
There is only one all-pervading God. It has no religion, no incarnation. It is free from all contaminations.
— Amit Ray, Meditation: Insights and Inspirations
We degrade God too much, ascribing to him our ideas, in vexation at being unable to understand Him.
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
Those of us who embrace the feminine know its strength.
— Betsy Cornwell
Night doesn’t fall for my eyesBut my idea of the night is that it falls for my eyes.Beyond my thinking and having any thoughtsThe night falls concretelyAnd the shining of stars exists like it had weight.
— Alberto Caeiro, The Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro
In our worldly perceptions of Jesus, we tend to embrace the kindness of his love ('be encouraged') but not the discipline of his love ('and sin no more'). But with the whole scope of his love, or maturity in Christ, we begin relying on him for guidance where we would prefer him to walk beside us rather than behind us.
— Criss Jami, Killosophy
THE THREE LAWS OF ALLYou are never to worship a living soul,Except for three entities:Three - YOUR FATHERTwo - YOUR MOTHERAnd one - HE WHO IS ALL.To begin to study All Things,You must start with only three things:Man,Nature,And the universe.All three are a reflection of each other.So simply study one,To understand the other.All of creation started with JUST three things,And no living thing was created without them:Water,Light,And dust.Know these three basic laws.And you will come to knowHe Who Is All.Forever big, yet sometimes small,He is found in the heartOf everything.Suzy Kassem Poetry, Truth is Crying
— Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
The character of Jesus is the character of God. God would never do something Jesus would find morally reprehensible, so if you can’t find it in Jesus, then you really ought to think twice before you claim you’ve found it in God.
— Austin Fischer, Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed: Black Holes, Love, and a Journey in and Out of Calvinism
Religion, like science, is only noteworthy when it emphasizes a matter of what is true rather than whose belief is greater or lesser or which deity works for whom. Sincere religion and tested science are similar in that their assertions can be argued logically and objectively; otherwise, we get false cults and babble.
— Criss Jami, Killosophy
When you find that a theology has nothing more to offer than what the world already offers, then that theology as a theology is impractical, and therefore, useless.
— Criss Jami, Killosophy
All beings exist and nothing elseAnd that’s why they’re called beings
— Alberto Caeiro, The Keeper of Sheep
Greatness comes from the inside and once you believe you have it, it's yours to share with the world.
— Chris Burkmenn
An ugly face needs make-up
—  that's why Man needs religion.
Thank you Heavenly Father. You heard my petition. You have answered my plea.May your name be glorified and be praised.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Reason in man is rather like God in the world.
— Thomas Aquinas
Only in the silence of our mind are we One.
— Vivian Amis, The Essentials of Life
He doesn’t stop a lot of things that cause him pain. Your world is severely broken. You demanded your independence, and now you are angry with the one who loved you enough to give it to you. Nothing is as it should be, as Papa desires it to be, and as it will be one day. Right now your world is lost in darkness and chaos, and horrible things happen to those that he is especially fond of… Papa has never needed evil to accomplish his good purposes. It is you humans who have embraced evil and Papa has responded with goodness. What happened to Missy was the work of evil and no one in your world is immune from it.”~Sophia
— William Paul Young, The Shack
Is it not the same distance to God everywhere?
— Epictetus, Of Human Freedom
O Heavenly Children, God's messengers are as limitless as the fish in the sea. They come in all colors, regions, languages and creeds. But their message is one and the same, don't you see? He only wishes to unite all His children under one family tree.
— Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
God is only as strong as your belief in him.
— Sachin Kumar Puli
But, as I know that strength arising from obedience has a way of simplifying things which seem impossible, my will very gladly resolves to attempt this task although the prospect seems to cause my physical nature great distress; for the Lord has not given me strength enough to enable me to wrestle continually both with sickness and with occupations of many kinds without feeling a great physical strain. May He Who has helped me by doing other and more difficult things for me help also in this: in His mercy I put my trust.
— Teresa of Ávila, Interior Castle
God have pity on the smell of gasolinewhich finds its way like an armthrough a car window,more human than kerosene,more unctuous, more manly.
— S. Jane Sloat, In the Voice of a Minor Saint
Isn’t that the way God works? She’d thought. He takes the things in our lives that are ugly, disgusting, and downright wicked, and transforms them into something magnificent.
— J.E.B. Spredemann, An Unforgivable Secret
The Steadfast Love of the Lord is not Seasonal
—  His Mercies do not have winter or summer days... They are new every now and then.
Rather than remain a sealed jar, she sought only to pour herself out to others. Everything she did mirrored her faith. It was as though every waking hour of the day she was devoted to pleasing her God by serving others. This God that she worshiped consumed her. It didn't ask for a brief visit to a temple, or a small votive offering of food or coin, or a few prayers every now and then. This God wanted all of her.
— Francine Rivers, A Voice in the Wind
As individuals die every moment, how insensitive and fabricated a love it is to set aside a day from selfish routine in prideful, patriotic commemoration of tragedy. Just as God is provoked by those who tithe simply because they feel that they must tithe, I am provoked by those who commemorate simply because they feel that they must commemorate.
— Criss Jami, Killosophy
പിരിയുമ്പോള് ,എനിക്ക് വലതും തരിക ഓര്മ്മക്കായി എന്ന് പീറ്റര് ജീസ്സസിനോട്ചോദിച്ചു ,ക്രിസ്തുവാകട്ടെ അപ്പമെടുത്ത്പറഞ്ഞു "ഇതെന്റെ ശരീരമാണ്, നീ ഇത്ഭക്ഷിക്കുക "പീറ്റര് അപ്പം ഭക്ഷിച്ചു ,ആഅപ്പം അവന്റെ ശരീരത്തിന്റെ ഭാഗമായി ,ചിന്തയുടെ ഭാഗമായി,ദര്ശനത­തിന്റെയും് നൃത്തത്തിന്റെയ­ും ഭാഗമായി,സംഗീതത്തിന്റെയും രതിയുടെയും ഭാഗമായി,കുഞ്ഞുമക്കളുടെ ഭാഗമായി-അര്ത്ഥമിതാണ് -ദര്ശനങ്ങളുടെ സുഗന്തങ്ങള്എപ്പോള് വേണമെങ്കിലും കാലം കവര്ന്നെടുക്കാ­ം ,എന്നാല് അപ്പം നല്കിയവന്റെ ഓര്മ്മഎല്ലാ കാലങ്ങളിലും നിലനില്ക്കും-ജീവിതമെപ്പോഴാണ് വിശുദ്ധമായ ഒരുതളികയിലെടുത്തു വാഴ്ത്തി വിഭജിച്ചുനമുക്ക് കൊടുക്കാനാവുക.
— Boby Jose Kattikad, Hridayavayal | ഹൃദയവയല്‍
When the door of opportunity of your storehouse opens for you, let faith and hope enter first. When your faith leads the way, you will locate the source of your hidden treasures.
— Israelmore Ayivor
We are often harsher judges than God himself.
— Judah Smith, Jesus Is: Find a New Way to Be Human
But now, here she was, very wishful to pray, while not knowing how to explain her dilemma: ‘I’m terribly unhappy, dear, unprobable God—’ would not be a very propitious beginning.
— Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness
My grace is sufficient for thee. The words soothed her soul like a healing balm.
— J.E.B. Spredemann, An Unforgivable Secret
...there is nothing unforgivable and there are no secrets before an all-knowing merciful God.
— J.E.B. Spredemann, An Unforgivable Secret
Man has 2 common problems with God: the one is that there is evil in the world; the other is that free will is limited. The one, he is charging that the world is too evil; the other is that it is not evil enough.
— Criss Jami, Killosophy
If you drop your beliefs, you drop your success. God's mighty people begin to fall even as achievers when they begin to drop the beliefs they pursue at first.
— Israelmore Ayivor, The Great Hand Book of Quotes
Grace is God-given power to live differently.
— Judah Smith, Jesus Is: Find a New Way to Be Human
God transforms us one area at a time.
— Judah Smith, Jesus Is: Find a New Way to Be Human
We start our lives with blues . . . with music. It's our first language. It's the rhythm of the womb. It's your mama's heartbeat inside your head.
— David Mutti Clark, Professor Brown Shoes Teaches the Blues
There’s enough metaphysics in not thinking about anything.
— Alberto Caeiro, The Keeper of Sheep
To say that atheism is not a religion is the equivalent of saying anarchy is not really a political creed
— Bō Jinn
The human creature, humiliated and offended in ways that are inconceivable to the mind and heart, defies the blind and deaf divinity.
— Françoise Mauriac
Don’t be lookin up at no sky for help. Look down here, at us twisted dreamers.
— D.B.C. Pierre
A time is coming when the whole round world will know that God reigns and that God is Love, when hell and heaven, life and death, sin and salvation, will be read and understood aright at last.
— Oswald Chambers
All I know is that the closer I get to God, the deeper I get into the Bible, and the heavier the burden seems on my shoulders.
— Tim LaHaye, Tribulation Force
We must surrender ourselves to God, not our assignments.
— E'yen A. Gardner, Humbly Submitting to Change - The Wilderness Experience
I'll look to the crossAs my failure is lostIn the light ofYour glorious grace
— Hillsong
Na ca mi-a slabit vederea. Te rogi atata timp sa ti se arate Dumnezeu si cand ai ajuns langa El, nu-L mai vezi.
— Marin Sorescu, Thirst of the Salt Mountain: Trilogy of Plays
We have to be ready for the blessings God tosses at us. In order to catch your blessing, you have to let go of your burden.
— Raylene Roybal
Let the ruins come to lifeIn the beauty of Your nameRising up from the ashesGod forever You reign
— Hillsong
God, I am trying to recover my faith. Please don't abandon me in the middle ofthis adventure, I prayed, pushing my fears aside.
— Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
You can con God and get away with it, Granny said, if you do so with charm and wit. If you live your life with imagination and verve, God will play along just to see what outrageously entertaining thing you'll do next.
— Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas
I had no real communication with anyone at the time, so I was totally dependent on God. And he never failed me.
— Diet Eman, Things We Couldn't Say
Jesus is God's way of refusing to give up his dream for the world.
— Rob Bell
The longer the trial to which God subjects you, the greater the goodness in comforting you during the time of the trial and in the exaltation after the combat.
— Padre Pio
A person who goes in search of God is wasting his time. He can walk a thousand roads and join many religions and sects–but he'll never find God that way. God is here, right now, at our side. We can see Him in this mist, in the ground we're walking on, even in my shoes. His angels keep watch while we sleep and help us in our work. In order to find God, you have only to look around. But meeting Him is not easy. The more God asks us to participate in Hismysteries, the more disoriented we become, because He asks us constantly tofollow our dreams and our hearts. And that's difficult to do when we're used to living in a different way. Finally we discover, to our surprise, that God wants us to be happy, because He is the father.
— Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Sometimes new opportunity means new opposition. Not everything God asks us to do will be comfortable.
— Joyce Meyer
If Christ is God, He cannot sin, and if suffering was a sin in and by itself, He could not have suffered and died for us. However, since He took the most horrific death to redeem us, He showed us in fact that suffering and pain have great power.
— E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
The generality of mankind is lazy. What distinguishes men of genuine achievement from the rest of us is not so much their intellectual powers and aptitudes as their curiosity, their energy, their fullest use of their potentialities. Nobody really knows how smart or talented he is until he finds the incentives to use himself to the fullest. God has given us more than we know what to do with.
— Sydney J. Harris
Your call will become clear as as your mind is transformed by the reading of Scripture and the internal work of God's Spirit. The Lord never hides His will from us. In time, as you obey the call first to follow, your destiny will unfold before you. The difficulty will lie in keeping other concerns from diverting your attention.
— Charles R. Swindoll
Tears are God's way of cleansing the heart.
— Rebecca Barlow Jordan
There's a difference between waiting with patient expectation, and waiting because you never know what God will do. If you don't know how God thinks or what God wants to do in your life, read the Bible. When you know what God wants you to do, go out there and do it and see God work his wonderful mission through you.The whole time you thought you were waiting on God, but the whole time God was WAITING ON YOU.
— Osayi Emokpae Lasisi, Impossible Is Stupid
Behavior is the substance of religion. Belief is the substance of relationship.
— Charles F. Stanley, God's Way Day By Day
The true Christian can nurture a trustful optimism, because he is certain of not walking alone. In sending us Jesus, the eternal Son made man, God has drawn near to each of us. In Christ he has become our travelling companion.
— John Paul II
Fortunately Jesus didn't leave [the disciples]-or any of us-without hope or direction. Where we fail, Jesus succeeded. The only One who as able to recognize and follow His purpose from the beginning was Jesus. He alone was able to obey consistently and please God completely. And His divine mission was to make a way for each of us to do the same.
— Charles R. Swindoll
Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation-and for me the most important part is listening to God's replies.
— Frank C. Laubach
It takes faith to find personal significance in your relationship with God rather than how much money you earn, how beautiful you look, how many toys you own, how many trophies you collect, or how much territory you conquer and control.
— Charles R. Swindoll