c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
That was the splendid thing about life: Though it was cruel, it was also mysterious, filled with wonder and surprise; sometimes the surprises were so amazing that they qualified as miraculous, and by witnessing those miracles, a despondent person could discover a reason to live, a cynic could obtain unexpected relief from ennui, and a profoundly wounded boy could find the will to heal himself and medicine for melancholy.
— Dean Koontz, Lightning
Write as though your life depended on it.
— Jill Telford
The ocean was one of the greatest things he had ever seen in his life—bigger and deeper than anything he had imagined. It changed its color and shape and expression according to time and place and weather. It aroused a deep sadness in his heart, and at the same time it brought his heart peace and comfort.
— Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Somewhere, on the long road that wound through those four years, the girl with her sachet & dancing slippers had slipped away & there was left a woman with sharp green eyes, who counted pennies & turned her hands to many menial tasks, a woman to whom nothing was left from the wreckage except the indestructible red earth on which she stood.
— Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
There is always the possibility of a better life with every change that we face, but sometimes we have to look hard for it.
— David Bowick, How to Disappear Completely
Death, I've dreamed of it, I've desired it, but what real happiness can come from it?
— Jonathan Anthony Burkett, Neglected But Undefeated
...a novel, like a myth or any great work of art, can become an initiation that helps us to make a painful rite of passage from one phase of life, one state of mind, to another. A novel, like a myth, teaches us to see the world differently; it shows us how to look into our own hearts and to see our world from a perspective that goes beyond our own self-interest.
— Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth / The Penelopiad / Weight / Dream Angus
It isn't the happy ending that Ingrid and I have dreamed up, but it's all a part of what I'm working through. The way life changes. The way people and things disappear. Then appear, unexpectedly, and had you close
— Nina LaCour, Hold Still
I stared out of the window at the bright-blue Swiss sky and I told him a story of two people. Two people who shouldn’t have met, and who didn’t like each other much when they did, but who found they were the only two people in the world who could possibly have understood each other. And I told him of the adventures they had, the places they had gone, and the things I had seen that I had never expected to. I conjured for him electric skies and iridescent seas and evenings full of laughter and silly jokes. I drew a world for him, a world far from a Swiss industrial estate, a world in which he was still somehow the person he had wanted to be. I drew the world he had created for me, full of wonder and possibility. I let him know a hurt had been mended in a way that he couldn’t have known, and for that alone there would always be a piece of me indebted to him. And as I spoke I knew these would be the most important words I would ever say and that it was important that they were the right words, that they were not propaganda, an attempt to change his mind, but respectful of what Will had said. I told him something good...
— Jojo Moyes
We're only given one life, and it's the one we live, she had thought; how painful now, to realize that wasn't true, that you would have different lives, depending on how brave you were, and how ready.
— Samuel Park, This Burns My Heart
Life may change but memories won't.
— Nkaujzoo Lee
I pulled the blanket around my shoulders. The sky was dark and vast and empty and not even a plane disturbed that sullen stillness, not even a star. The emptiness above was now mine within. It was a part of me, like a freckle, like a bruise. Like a middle name now one acknowledged.
— Sarah Winman
We are images of Adonai, and are responsible for one another, and for taking care of all on earth created by Adonai: just as Adonai is responsible for everything created. We learned to differentiate between good and evil. We can even create order out of chaos, as Adonai did on day one. We not only procreate, but also teach the next generations. (Deuteronomy 6:7). All of these abilities and responsibilities, we inherited when created in the image of Adonai. Every person also has a spark of Adonai within. We can choose to ignore this, or to embrace this. We have the power of choice. With this great power, comes great responsibility. You see, not only were we given the ability to reason, but also, we have the ability to create a new and different future, because we have the ability to change, both ourselves, and the world.
— Laura Weakley, What The Torah Teaches Us About Life / Through The Themes Of The Weekly Torah Portions
... shunning all offers of help, all offers of the more practical... This was his task, he said, and it would be carried out alone. Penance, my brother reminded me, was a lonely place to be.
— Sarah Winman
You build a tower then you also build the chance it will fall. To think of life as a foolproof is a falacy of fools, he thought. Things happen, he believed, and there’s nothing you can do to keep them from occuring.
— Marianne Wiggins
All things are like spring dreams, passing with no trace.
— Su Tung-po
Sighing, she headed back to work. She braced herself to lift the heavy lid of yet another trunk. The sight inside curled a small smile onto her lips, as it had with every trunk she’d pried open this morning.Books. More beautiful, precious books.
— Catherine LaRoche, Master of Love
He saw with pleasure he’d been wrong. The nervous tension and vulnerability she radiated were real, but so too was the core of strength to her. She was simply too smart and too determined to let him get to her, despite the cost evident in her stiff back and tense mouth.He was beginning to quite like his new librarian.
— Catherine LaRoche, Master of Love
The truth was, she found it hard to look at the man. It was like gazing at the sun.
— Catherine LaRoche, Master of Love
...You bring out the truth in me, Callista, and make me whole. I need you to set me free and give me the courage to be as strong as you are. I love you...
— Catherine LaRoche, Master of Love
Why are you kissing me?” she squeaked out breathlessly.“God, how can I not?” He ran his hands up and down her arms. “I think you’re made for me to kiss. I need to kiss you. You need to be kissed,” he said firmly, as if he’d reached some decision that brooked no debate. This did not sound like the smooth-talking and self-possessed charmer of his reputation.
— Catherine LaRoche, Master of Love
To her core, she suddenly knew she was not prepared to die at the hands of this worm. She had a betrothal ball to attend, wedding vows to declare, and a good man to love.
— Catherine LaRoche, Master of Love
Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine.
— Gordon B. Hinckley
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
— William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
I Choose Love...No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves.I Choose Joy...I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.I Choose Peace... I will live forgiven. I will forgive so I may live.I Choose Patience...I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Instead of cursing the one who takes my place, I'll invite him to do so, Rather complain that the wait is to long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clenching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.I Choose Kindness...I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for that is how God has treated me. I Choose Goodness...I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I accuse. I choose goodness.I Choose Faithfulness...Today I will keep my promises. My debtors will not regret their trust. My friends will not question my word. And my family will not question my love.I Choose Gentleness...Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it only be in praise. If I clench my fist, may it only be in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.I Choose Self-Control...I refuse to let what will rot, rule the eternal. I choose self-control. I will be drunk only by joy. I will be impassioned only by my faith. I will be influenced only by God. I will be taught only by Christ. I choose self-control.Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek His grace. And then when this day is done I will place my head on my pillow and rest.
— Max Lucado
Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.
— Mother Teresa
Soul mates' are fiction and an illusion; and while every young man and young woman will seek with all diligence and prayerfulness to find a mate with whom life can be most compatible and beautiful, yet it is certain that almost any good man and any good woman can have happiness and a successful marriage if both are willing to pay the price.
— Spencer W. Kimball
Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.
— Joseph B. Wirthlin
Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His. We can grow in faith only if we are willing to wait patiently for God's purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives, on His timetable.
— Neal A. Maxwell
Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy. Those who do not want mercy never seek it. It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness. A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless than one that always verges on despair.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
Oh, God, to know you is life. To serve You is freedom. To praise you is the soul's joy and delight. Guard me with the power of Your grace here and in all places. Now and at all times, forever. Amen.
— Augustine of Hippo
Guess that's thirty-one pieces of silver you've got now, huh? Sleep well, Judas.
— Mark Millar, Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event
Each of us is under a divinely spoken obligation to reach out with pardon and mercy and to forgive one another. There is a great need for this Christlike attribute in our families, in our marriages, in our wards and stakes, in our communities, and in our nations. We will receive the joy of forgiveness in our own lives when we are willing to extend that joy freely to others. Lip service is not enough. We need to purge our hearts and minds of feelings and thoughts of bitterness and let the light and the love of Christ enter in. As a result, the Spirit of the Lord will fill our souls with the joy accompanying divine peace of conscience.
— Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Prayer does not fit us for the greater work
—  prayer is the greater work.
Now, brethren, do not expect perfection in your choice of a mate. Do not be so particular that you overlook her most important qualities of having a strong testimony, living the principles of the gospel, loving home, wanting to be a mother in Zion, and supporting you in your priesthood responsibilities.Of course, she should be attractive to you....And one good yardstick as to whether a person might be the right one for you is this: in her presence, do you think your noblest thoughts, do you aspire to your finest deeds, do you wish you were better than you are?
— Ezra Taft Benson
A proverb in the Old Testament states: 'He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city'.It is when we become angry that we get into trouble. The road rage that affects our highways is a hateful expression of anger. I dare say that most of the inmates of our prisons are there because they did something when they were angry. In their wrath they swore, they lost control of themselves, and terrible things followed, even murder. There were moments of offense followed by years of regret. . . .So many of us make a great fuss of matters of small consequence. We are so easily offended. Happy is the man who can brush aside the offending remarks of another and go on his way.
— Gordon B. Hinckley
We are not called by God to do extraordinary things, but to do ordinary things with extraordinary love. 
— Jean Vanier
We must not falter nor weary in well-doing. We must lengthen our stride. Not only is our own eternal welfare at stake, but also the eternal welfare of many of our brothers and sisters who are not now members of this, the true Church. I thrill to the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith in a letter that he sent to the Church from Nauvoo on September 6, 1842: 'Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward. … Courage … and on, on to the victory!
— Spencer W. Kimball
An atheist waving a cross at a vampire was a truly pitiful sight.
— Laurell K. Hamilton, Guilty Pleasures
Perseverance means to continue in a given course until we have reached a goal or objective, regardless of obstacles, opposition, and other counterinfluences...Perseverance is a positive, active characteristic...It gives us hope by helping us realize that the righteous suffer no failure except in giving up and no longer trying.
— Joseph B. Wirthlin
If, in the end, you have not chosen Jesus Christ it will not matter what you have chosen.
— Neal A. Maxwell
You can wake up every day looking forward to new adventures with hope smiling brightly before you because you have a Savior. You are baptized in His Church.... You just need to stay in, pressing forward with a brightness of hope to your heavenly home.
— Julie B. Beck
I am the way into the city of woe,I am the way into eternal pain,I am the way to go among the lost.Justice caused my high architect to move,Divine omnipotence created me,The highest wisdom, and the primal love.Before me there were no created thingsBut those that last forever—as do I.Abandon all hope you who enter here.
— Dante Alighieri, Inferno
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible Gods and Goddesses. To remember that the dullest, and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.
— C.S. Lewis, Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis: Surprised by Joy, Reflections on the Psalms, the Four Loves, the Business of Heaven
Truly, my dear young friends, you are a chosen generation. I hope you will never forget it. I hope you will never take it for granted. I hope there will grow in your hearts an overpowering sense of gratitude to God, who has made it possible for you to come upon the earth in this marvelous season of the world's history.
— Gordon B. Hinckley
Feeling without judgement is a washy draught indeed
—  but judgement untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human deglutition.
Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.
— Mother Teresa
Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. ... We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.
— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
When everyone drowns and I'm the only one to escape, God is protecting me. When everyone else is saved and I'm the only one to drown, God is protecting me then too.
— Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
A friend is a possession we earn, not a gift. ....The Lord has declared that those who serve him and keep his commandments are called his servants. After they have been tested and tried and are found faithful and true in all things, they are called no longer servants, but friends. His friends are the ones he will take into his kingdom and with whom he will associate in an eternal inheritance.
— Marvin J. Ashton
Do not make your mind a dumping ground for other people's garbage.
— Ezra Taft Benson
The one help we all need is given to us freely though the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Having faith in Jesus Christ and In His Atonement means relying completely on Him-trusting in His infinite power, intelligence, and love.
— Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Christlike attributes come into our lives as we exercise our agenncy righteously.
— Dieter F. Uchtdorf
The number one cause of atheism is Christians. Those who proclaim Him with their mouths and deny Him with their actions is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable.
— Karl Rahner
treasure up these words in thy heart. Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love.
— Anonymous, Holy Bible: King James Version
But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.
— Anonymous, Holy Bible: King James Version
When the challenges of mortality come, and they come for all of us, it may seem hard to have faith and hard to believe. At these times only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement can bring us peace, hope, and understanding. Only faith that He suffered for our sakes will give us the strength to endure to the end. When we gain this faith, we experience a mighty change of heart, and like Enos, we become stronger and begin to feel a desire for the welfare of our brothers and sisters. We pray for them, that they too will be lifted and strengthened through faith on the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.
— Robert Beverly Hale
God gives us life, but the world's landlord is the devil....
— Carlos Ruiz Zafón
If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea;If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb;And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
— Joseph Smith Jr., The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: Containing the Revelations Given to Joseph Smith ... with Some Additions by His Successors in the Presidency of the Church
whoever prolongs his desire ruins his actions
— Ali ibn Abi Talib
If we will walk humbly with our God, He will lead us by the hand to exactly who and what we need, to those people, things, and experiences He has designed and intended for us, and this alone will be the cause of our deep fulfillment and happiness.
— Matthew Kelly, Rediscovering Catholicism: Journeying Toward Our Spiritual North Star
I have come to the conclusion that women believe marriage is proof that they have worth. It is the ultimate game of choosing sides for teams. It is hard to be picked last, but not to be chosen at all is unbearable - especially if you know that you are a good player and can help the team. Not only are you excluded but you also have to stay around and watch the game.
— Kristen McMain Oaks, A Single Voice
Our testimonies, our closeness to our Father in Heaven, and our ability to serve and love and laugh and enjoy life do not depend on whether we are married or single. If we look to Christ for answers, He will give them. It also follows that with our increased devotion and understanding of Him, the happier and more complete we will become and the more we will comprehend our true worth in the sight of God.
— Kristen McMain Oaks, A Single Voice
frustration, complication and misery are available in abundance, but so is God's grace.
— Joyce Meyer
While I respect the Judeo-Christian ethic, as well as the eastern philosophies and of course the teachings of Mohammed, I find that organized religion has corrupted those beliefs to justify countless atrocities throughout history. Were I to attend church, I'd be a hypocrite.
— Hyde
Prayers said by good people are always good prayers
— Willa Cather
Be grateful that your righteous life molds you so that you don’t fit where you don’t belong
— Richard G. Scott
As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have a responsibility to make our moment bright and to live to ur full potential, married or not.
— Kristen McMain Oaks, A Single Voice
He [Christ] died for me. He made His righteousness mine and made my sin His own; and if He made my sin His own, then I do not have it, and I am free.
— Martin Luther
Wherever and however any one of us may be conceived, it is the same. We come into being in the arms of God.
— Robert Fulghum, Maybe, Maybe Not
Even this nation (the US) will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground, and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin, this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean, and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction.
— Joseph Smith Jr.
Jesus clearly viewed children as precious - and that if he loved kids enough to say that adults should be more like them, we should spend more time loving them too.
— Todd Burpo
Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. Hope is one of those things that you can't buy, but that will be freely given to you if you ask. Hope is the one thing people cannot live without. Hope is a thing of beauty.
— Matthew Kelly, Rediscovering Catholicism: Journeying Toward Our Spiritual North Star
But this I know. Those who seek Him will do well to look among the poor and the lowly, the sorrowful and the oppressed.
— Henry Van Dyke, The Other Wise Man
Since no one really knows what or who God is, or whether God is at all, why can't God be hope?
— Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Intensely Alice
...I know I was wrong. If i could go back and do it over, I would. I wish I could undo it all."I know that." Grandma reached over and put a twisted hand on hers. "'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' Isaiah one eighteen."I've done terrible things."Don't make no difference. You can't out-sin the cross.
— Linda Nichols
His laws once broken, His justice and the very nature of those laws bring the immutable retribution; but if we turn penitently to Him, He enables us to bear our punishment with a meek and docile heart, ‘for His mercy endureth forever.
— Elizabeth Gaskell
Maybe that was the definition of life everlasting: the belief that the next generation would carry your work forward.
— Ann Patchett, Run
During the night, angels stared down through the stars into Jacob's world. They watched him sleep. They commented on the way his body folded on the bed. They liked this man. They drew their wings over him and stood guard by his soul.
— Noah Benshea
Because those events are so real that they cast their shadow forward and backwards through all time, whenever men think of these matters at all. Even if they are mired in ignorace, they will see...fragments of the Truth, as men imprisoned in a cave see shadows cast by the sun. Likewise, all men derive their moral intuitions from God; how not? There is no other source, just as there is no other way to make a wheel than to make it round.
— S.M. Stirling
Let us be about setting high standards for life, love, creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to.
— Greg Anderson
The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the miraculous also.
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
We are not perfect. The people around us are not perfect. People do things that annoy, disappoint, and anger. In this mortal life it will always be that way. Nevertheless, we must let go of our grievances. Part of the purpose of mortality is to learn how to let go of such things. That is the Lord’s way. Remember, heaven is filled with those who have this in common: They are forgiven. And they forgive.
— Dieter F. Uchtdorf
No religion with a universal message . . . under one flag can even momentarily entertain the idea of employing force to spread its message. Swords can win territories, but not hearts. Force can bend heads, but not minds.
— Mirza Tahir Ahmad
Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul,May keep the path, but will not reach the goal;While he who walks in love may wander far,Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.
— Henry Van Dyke, The Other Wise Man
Many people have asked me, 'How do you make a single life a happy one? My answer is, 'Create the best life possible. The decisions you make determine where life takes you. I would make every effort, married or single, to get closer to Heavenly Father, to get the most education possible, to make my home a heaven on earth, and to learn how to manage my time and finances.' I sought for and still seek for any experience I can have to make my life happier and more fulfilling; being single or married has nothing to do with it.
— Kristen McMain Oaks, A Single Voice
We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although we might settle for less, Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of becoming.
— Joseph B. Wirthlin
Religious people of any serious kind made her nervous: they were like men in raincoats who might or might not be flashers.
— Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg
If we don't have time for masterpiece moments, the very reason we came to earth is being wasted on us.
— Chieko N. Okazaki, Being Enough
Times of sadness are the very moment to laugh and laugh greatly.
— Masaharu Taniguchi
The choice for devoted Latter-day Saint women is not just to simply go forward and try to be happy and create a fulfilling life. As women of covenant our goal is to go forward and develop stron testimonies and nurturing and caring hearts that will prepare us for our roles as mothers in eternity. With that end in mind, I determined to go on happily, to become 'anxiously engaged in a good cause' (D&C 58:27), and to believe that the rest would take care of itself.
— Kristen McMain Oaks, A Single Voice
You are a religious and a scholar
—  what the fuck?
Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians - any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.
— Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Qur'an / القرآن الكريم
Most prayers are not really questions...and if we listen very closely, a prayer is often its own answer. ...We pray because we are here - not to change the world, but to change ourselves. Because it is when we change ourselves...that the world is changed.
— Douglas Wood
The adversary would keep us busily engaged in a multitude of trivial things in an effort to keep us distracted from the few vital things that make all the difference.
— Ardeth Greene Kapp
I must not forget that these coarsely-clad little peasants are of flesh and blood as good as the scions of the gentlest genealogy; and that the germs of native excellence, refinement, intelligence, kind feeling, are as likely to exist in their hearts as in those of the best born. My duty will be to develop these germs: surely I shall find some happiness in discharging that office.
— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Teach me to treat all that comes to me with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all.
— Elisabeth Elliot
Religion means to know God and to love Him.
— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, The Science of Self-Realization
Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed so easily. 
— Dorothy Day
When conversion takes place, the process of revelation occurs in a very simple way — a person is in need, he suffers, and then somehow the other world opens up. The more you are in suffering and difficulties and are 'desperate' for God, the more He is going to come to your aid, reveal Who He is and show you the way out...
— Seraphim Rose, God's Revelation to the Human Heart
The image of the Lord has been replaced by a mirror.
— Jorge Luis Borges
God gave us free will so that we might choose our own destinies. He left it up to us to achieve them.
— R.M. ArceJaeger
The wise man will follow a star, low and large and fierce in the heavens, but the nearer he comes to it the smaller and smaller it will grow,till he finds it the humble lantern over some little inn or stable. Not till we know the high things shall we know how lowly they are.
— G.K. Chesterton, William Blake
We will take a few moments and make fun of religious people, and we do this in love. No, we do, because we love to make fun of religious people.
— Mark Driscoll
The arm of flesh will fail you," Bridie's grandmother had been fond of reminding her, especially after she'd started dating, bringing home this one and that one, going on and on about them. "Love with all your heart, . . . but don't look to anybody but the Lord to fill up your empty spots. There's never been a man born . . . who can do that, and I don't care if he's the finest thing since store-bought pickles.
— Linda Nichols
It is feeling and not reasoning that drives one to prayer.' -Emma to Charles
— Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.
— Jonh Wesley
There is, we are aware, a philosophy that denies the infinite. There is also a philosophy, classified as pathologic, that denies the sun; this philosophy is called blindness. To set up a theory that lacks a source of truth is an excellent example of blind assurance. And the odd part of it is the haughty air of superiority and compassion assumed toward the philosophy that sees God, by this philosophy that has to grope its way. It makes one think of a mole exclaiming, "How I pity them with their sun!" There are, we know, illustrious and powerful atheists; with them, the matter is nothing but a question of definitions, and at all events, even if they do not believe in God, they prove God, because they are great minds. We hail, in them, the philosophers, while, at the same time, inexorably disputing their philosophy.
— Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
That when we live no more, We may live ever
— Anne Bradstreet
Desire can be eradicated from the roots by firmly imbibing the four attributes of: Jnan, Atmanishtha, Vairagya, Dharma and the full fledged devotion to God.
— Swami Vivekananda
If I had but two loaves of bread, I would sell one and buy hyacinths, for they would feed my soul.
— Mohammad
Truth is best (of all that is) good. As desired, what is being desired is truth for him who (represents) the best truth. (Gathas 27.14)
— Zoroaster
It is my strong conviction that a realist conception of human nature should be made a servant of an ethic of progressive justice and should not be made into a bastion of conservatism, particularly a conservatism which defends unjust privileges.
— Reinhold Niebuhr, The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses
But it was hard, oh, it was hard. Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love--but sometimes it was so hard to love. Sometimes my heart was sinking so fast with anger, desolation, and weariness, I was afraid it would sink to the very bottom of the Pacific and I would not be able to lift it back up.
— Yann Martel
The life of the cenobite is a human problem. When we speak of convents, those seats of error but innocence, of mistaken views but good intentions, of ignorance but devotion, of torment but martyrdom, we must nearly always say yes or no...The monastery is a renunciation. Self-sacrifice, even when misdirected, is still self-sacrifice. To assume as duty a strict error has its peculiar grandeur.
— Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Focusing on worldly achievements and acceptance has never been the way to true happiness, and an obsessive, discontent with our physical appearance can lead to unhappiness if not despair.
— Pamela H. Hansen
No net less wide than a man's whole heart, nor less fine of mesh than love, will hold the sacred Fish.
— C.S. Lewis
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith
— Anonymous
The utterance of God is a lamp, whose light is these words: Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship. ... So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.
— Bahá'u'lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf
As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow. But to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
— Martin Luther King Jr., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ty, my boy, here's what you tell them. Say it quietly, and sincerely, and like it's the most important thing anyone ever uttered. Tell them, 'Jesus loves you. But I'm his favorite.
— Robin Reardon, Thinking Straight
Life is not a funfair, life is a warfare
— David O. Oyedepo
Because He lives, I can face yesterday.
— Jared C. Wilson
Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!Thou art the Potter and I am the clay.
— Chaim Potok
Sensible men are all of the same religion. Religious sentiments cannot be stirred up within righteous people of any religion for instigating them to do wrong to their own or fellow brethrens”.
— Amit Abraham, The Great Game
A simpler form of the same objection consists in saying that death ought not to be final, that there ought to be a second chance. I believe that if a million chances were likely to do good, they would be given.
— C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
We must truly listen to each other, respecting our essential brotherhood and the courage of those who try to speak, however they may differ from us in professional standing or religious belief or moral vision. We must speak and listen patiently, with good humor, with real expectation, and our dialogue can serve both truth and charity.
— Eugene England
It is easy to have love affairs than to solve math problems but it is easy to learn if you trust God
— Edwin Abejero
I am time the destroyer of all beings in all worlds, engaged to destroy all beings in this world; of those heroic soldiers presently situated in the opposite army even without you non will be spared.
— Lord Krishna, Srimad Bhagavad Gita
Religious Americans donate more and volunteer more time to charitable institutions than do secular Americans.
— Dennis Prager, Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph
We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity … in fact our movement is Christian.
— Adolph Hitler
Out here in Amish. Smokin big doinks in Amish﻿. Gang.
— Pope Leo III, The Enchiridion of Pope Leo III: The Grimoire of Pope Leo
As they perform this ritual, I almost have to turn away, thinking again what a boomeranging, out-of-body experience it is to watch a religious childhood from the outside, when before I was in the very marrow of it.
— Patricia Lockwood, Priestdaddy: A Memoir
Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved.
— St. Charles Borromeo
Take God for your spouse and friend and walk with him continually, and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you.
— St John of the Cross
The instruction received at the mother's knee, and the paternal lessons, together with the pious and sweet souvenirs of the fireside, are never effaced entirely from the soul.
— Hugues Felicite Robert De Lamennais
‌If you done something for the sake of God, be worry only for God’s satisfaction, if you done it for people’s satisfaction, be certain you will be regretted.
— Kamaran Ihsan Salih
If you really want to understand a man, don't just listen to what he says but watch what he does.
— Maurice Blondel
The kingdom is not represented by an expression of religious traditions
— Sunday Adelaja
One of the happiest days of my life was when I quit waiting for "happily-ever-after" to come find me and proclaimed joy in the just now season of life. And the next season. And the next.
— Vicki Courtney, Ever After: Life Lessons Learned in My Castle of Chaos
And remember, following Christ is a lifelong journey. Christians are foot soldiers, so to speak. Always learning. Always growing stronger.
— Robin Lee Hatcher, Keeper of the Stars
To ask when the kingdom of God will come is to be religious
— Sunday Adelaja
If to a person religion means reading books and obeying every single word from it without the slightest bit of reasoning, then such perception would only bring destruction upon the person and the world. Also there are people who use the words from those books to justify their own filthy actions. Let’s take a conservative Muslim, for example. Say, the conservative Muslim male Homo sapiens (I won’t call such creature a human, regardless of the religion, since his action here shows no sign of humanity) is found to be beating his wife. Now, if someone says to him “this is wrong”, he would naturally reply, “this is a divine thing to do, my book says so”. Now, if a Christian says “my book is older, so you should stop obeying your book and start obeying mine”, there will come the Buddhist, and say, “my book is much older still, obey mine”. Then will come the Jew, and say, “my book is even older, so just follow mine”. And in the end will come the Hindu and say “my books are the oldest of all, obey them”. Therefore referring to books will only make a mess of the human race and tear the species into pieces.
— Abhijit Naskar, In Search of Divinity: Journey to The Kingdom of Conscience
The book-learned preacher who carries the badge of authority, is by no means religious.
— Abhijit Naskar
He was religious, but had refrained from allowing his religious ideals to be obscured by a god.
— Henning Mankell, The Dogs of Riga
We pray for a messenger from God—who knows but what the messenger also prayed for a place to take his message?
— Orson Scott Card, Heartfire
Every scripture, no matter how ancient, must go through rigorous human scrutiny.
— Abhijit Naskar
Pardon my French if you're a religious man.''I am,' Bill said, grinning.'Then get outta my cab and go to fucking church,' the cabbie said, and they both burst out laughing.
— Stephen King, It
He caught me up on wings of light, and showed me the realms of his creation, the glittering gemstones paving his heaven. He left my body weak and spent, my spirit gorged with honey.
— Julie Berry, The Passion of Dolssa
The moment you exchange spontaneity with rules you've lost the edge of romance
— François Du Toit, The Mirror Bible
We didn’t think anything of it at the time, but we saw several of the bodies of the crew, space pirates all, with what looked like necklaces of garlic around their necks. There was salt strewn on the floor in places, and it made a crunchy sound as we walked over it. Some had died clinging to crude wooden and metal crosses. Religious fanatics, I thought then – after all, isn’t it usually the worst sort of people who turn to religion when they suddenly see their end approaching and they fear some kind of reckoning coming their way?
— Christina Engela, Space Vacation
Off, this fucking theories... and religious stuff.
— Deyth Banger
You cannot defend human rights without fighting religious fanatics - regardless of one's own religious experience - it is unavoidable. Why? Because they are the ones who take issue with how other people live their lives instead of minding their own business.
— Christina Engela, Bugspray
Not being allowed to persecute someone else in the name of your religion does NOT equate to religious persecution.
— Christina Engela
Some presters might tell you never to question, but that is tantamount to telling you not to think. Odun created us to explore, to experience. There is no harm in asking questions…
— Kevin J. Anderson, The Edge of the World
Over the past five years, I’ve said my best prayers every night, haven’t missed a night, though I gotta admit, if it wouldn’t break my mother’s heart, I’d probably have stopped a year ago. I mean, praying to be free of Hiskott only makes me expect to be free soon, and then when the prayer’s never answered, you feel even worse, and you wonder what’s the point. I’m not criticizing God, if that’s what you think, because nobody knows why God does things or how He thinks, and He’s humongously smarter than any of us, even smarter than Ed. They say He works in mysterious ways, which is for sure true. What I’m saying is, maybe the whole praying business is a human idea, maybe God never asked us to do it. Yeah, all right, He wants us to like Him, and He wants us to respect Him, so we’ll live right and do good. But God is good—right?—and to be really good you’ve got to have humility, we all know that, so then if God is the best of the best, then He’s also the humblest of the humble. Right? So maybe it embarrasses Him to be praised like around the clock, to be called great and mighty all the time. And maybe it makes Him a little bit nuts the way we’re always asking Him to solve our problems instead of even trying to solve them ourselves, which He made us so we could do. Anyway, so after almost giving up on prayer, and being pretty darned sure that God is too humble to sit around all day listening to us praise Him and beg Him, the funny thing is, I’m praying like crazy for Oddie. I guess I’m hopeless.
— Dean Koonz, Dean Koontz 3 Books Collection Set
The fans are always more radical than that which they are fans.
— Criss Jami
If you want to kill giants, hang around a giant killer. It rubs off.
— Bill Johnson
So now George has arrived. He is not nervous inthe least. As he gets out of his car, he feels an upsurge of energy, of eagerness for the play to begin. And he walks eagerly, with a springy step, along the gravel path past the Music Building toward the Department office. He is all actor now—an actor on his way up from the dressing room, hastening through the backstage world of props and lamps and stagehands to make his entrance. A veteran, calm and assured, he pauses for a well-measured moment in the doorway of the office and then, boldly, clearly, with the subtly modulated British intonation which his public demands of him, speaks his opening line: "Good morning!" And the three secretaries—each one of them a charming and accomplished actress in her own chosen style—recognize him instantly, without even a flicker of doubt, and reply "Good morning!" to him. (There is something religious here, like responses in church—a reaffirmation of faith in the basic American dogma that it is, always, a good morning. Good, despite the Russians and their rockets, and all the ills and worries of the flesh. For of course we know, don't we, that the Russians and the worries are not really real? They can be un-thought and made to vanish. And therefore the morning can be made to be good. Very well then, it is good.)
— Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man
I experienced the joy of living alone for the first time while also falling deeply in love with Eve. Genesis Eve. Mother of all the Living Eve. Paradise Lost Eve. Lover Eve. Sister Eve. My Eve. She, too, had made a decision that was both painful and liberating. I was thankful for her willingness to defy a rule for experience, for story, for possibility. --Kitty Taylor
— Various
We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
— Joseph Smith, Jr.
Let's dare to do something so big that if God is not in it, we are doomed to fail.
— Edmund Chan
I try to pray everyday or every night to thank my Personal Lord for all that he has given me, all that he is giving me, and all that he will give me.
— James Hauenstein
Gone is the trust to be placed in oaths; I cannot understand if the gods you swore by then no longer rule, or men live by new standards of what is right.
— Euripides, Medea
No guile? Nay, but so strangely He moves among us. . Not this Man but Barabbas! Release to us Barabbas!
— Adelaide Crapsey, Verse by Adelaide Crapsey
Riley had no doubt that an "immediate and merciful act of the Almighty" had saved them from the surf at Bojador. According to him, all of his men believed this too. Later, when a friend advised him to play down this conviction, because skeptics would use it to discredit the rest of his account of the voyage, Riley refused.
— Dean King, Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival
Enjoy every religious moment by wearing orthodox cassock and feel yourself more spiritual. psg vestments is a best place to shop orthodox vestments
— orthodox vestments
I try to pray everyday or night to thank my Personal Lord for all that he has given me, all that he is giving me, and all that he will give me.
— James Hauenstein
Usually, fundamentalists, be they Christian, Muslim, or any faith, shape and interpret religious thought to make it conform to and legitimize a conservative status quo. Fundamentalist thinkers use religion to justify supporting imperialism, militarism, sexism, racism, homophobia. They deny the message of love that is at the heart of every major religious tradition.
— bell hooks
It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little
—  do something.
It’s never lost on me that it was the religious who Jesus had to challenge not to throw stones.
— Steve Maraboli
Some of my earliest and fondest memories of my mother are of her kneeling at the side of per bed every night and praying. As a child, I would always get very close to her as she prayed. I would put my ear as close as I could to her mouth and try my best to hear what she was saying to God, but I never could make out the words. Today, being married to an addict myself, I'm pretty sure I know exactly what she was praying.
— Barbara Bice, Just Right
It is not a surprise that a person would want to be a prophet. What's ridiculous is that other people let him.
— Bill Maher
And on the eighth day, Satan laughed.
— James Schannep, Infected
And when I was born, I drew in common air, and fell upon the earth, which is of like nature; and the first voice which I uttered was crying, as all others do."by Solomon Ibn Gabirol
— Steven J. Jacobson