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Although every believing Christian understands that God guides our steps, fewer and fewer emphasize the point. A God working actively in the world makes us uneasy. We tend to like our God distant and a bit malleable, ready to bend to every new human idea. A God with a will of his own is too scary, and, besides, he might get in the way of our satisfaction of immediate desire.

— Stephen L. Carter The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002)

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More quotes by Stephen L. Carter

Rumor is rarely more interesting than fact, but it is always more readily available.

The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002)

Liberalism, for all its virtues, has begun to develop a sense of entitlement, and needs time to rediscover its soul.

Trump and the Fall of Liberalism (2016)

"We live today in a world in which nobody believes choices should have consequences. But may I tell you the great secret that our culture seeks to deny? You cannot escape the consequences of your choices. Time runs in only one direction."

The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002)

The mark of a healthy democracy is the preference for argument rather than invective. Those are the roots the left must reclaim.

Trump and the Fall of Liberalism (2016)

True love is not the helpless desire to possess the cherished object of one's fervent affection; true love is the disciplined generosity we require of ourselves for the sake of another when we would rather be selfish; that, at least, is how I have taught myself to love my wife.

The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002)

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Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God.

Basil of Caesarea

Once you accept the existence of God — however you define him, however you explain your relationship to him — then you are caught forever with his presence in the center of all things.

Morris West The Clowns of God (1981)

God seeks comrades and claims love,
the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.

Rabindranath Tagore Fireflies (1928)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Stephen L. Carter (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.