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Religion is not a native category. It is not a first-person term of self-characterization. It is a category imposed from the outside on some aspect of native culture.

— Jonathan Z. Smith Relating Religion (2004)

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Religion

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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.

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Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

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