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The chief forces which hold a community together and cause it to constitute one State are three, common nationality, common religion, and common interest.

— John Robert Seeley The Expansion of England (1883)

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Religion

More quotes by John Robert Seeley

Property can exist only under the guardianship of the State.

The Expansion of England (1883)

No heart is pure that is not passionate; no virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic. And such an enthusiastic virtue Christ was to introduce.

Ecce Homo (1866)

We seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind.

The Expansion of England (1883)

No man saw the building of the new Jerusalem, the workmen crowded together, the unfinished walls and unpaved streets; no man heard the clink of trowel and pickaxe; it descended out of heaven from God.

Ecce Homo (1866)

John the Baptist was like the Emperor Nerva. In his career it was given him to do two things—to inaugurate a new régime, and also to nominate a successor who was far greater than himself.

Ecce Homo (1866)

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

Attribution

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