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If I were personally to define religion, I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstance.

— Theodore Dreiser The Genius (1915)

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More quotes by Theodore Dreiser

Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail.

Among the forces which sweep and play throughout the universe, untutored man is but a wisp in the wind. Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.

Sister Carrie (1900)

The most futile thing in this world is any attempt, perhaps, at exact definition of character. All individuals are a bundle of contradictions—none more so than the most capable.

The Financier (1912)

The Irish are a philosophic as well as a practical race. Their first and strongest impulse is to make the best of a bad situation—to put a better face on evil than it normally wears.

The Financier (1912)

I acknowledge the Furies. I believe in them. I have heard the disastrous beating of their wings.

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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)

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