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When I come before these men I do not have to explain that we are all sinners. They have committed every sin there is. All I have to tell them is that I, too, am a sinner.

— Karl Barth Witness to an Ancient Truth (1962)

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Religion

More quotes by Karl Barth

Jesus is the movement for social justice, and the movement for social justice is Jesus in the present.

Jesus Christ and the Movement for Social Justice (1911)

Faith in God's revelation has nothing to do with an ideology which glorifies the status quo.

An Almanac of the Christian Church (1987)

The relation between us and God, between this world and His world presses for recognition, but the line of intersection is not self-evident.

The Epistle to the Romans (1918)

Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.

The Harper Book of Quotations (1993)

Men have never been good, they are not good, they never will be good.

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