Skip to content

You who build these altars now
to sacrifice these children,
you must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
and you never have been tempted
by a demon or a god.

— Leonard Cohen Songs from a Room (1969)

Another quote →

Topics

More quotes by Leonard Cohen

Courage is what others can't see, what is never affirmed. It is made of what you have thrown away and then come back for.

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river.

Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)

Every heart to love will come
But like a refugee.

The Future (1992)

It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love.

Beautiful Losers (1966)

And here you are hurried,
And here you are gone;
And here is the love,
That it's all built upon.

Ten New Songs (2001)

All Leonard Cohen quotes →

You may also like

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: Leonard Cohen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.