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Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.

— Stephen Greenblatt The Swerve (2011)

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Faith

More quotes by Stephen Greenblatt

Allusions to "hidden counsels" and "mysterious reasons" are almost always the mark of doctrinal incoherence.

Hamlet in Purgatory (2002)

The pattern of dreaming and deferral and compromise is an altogether familiar one: it is the epitome of a failed life.

The Swerve (2011)

It is extremely dangerous to have a state run by someone who governs by impulse.

Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics (2018)

The quintessential emblem of religion—and the clearest manifestation of the perversity that lies at its core—is the sacrifice of a child by a parent.

The Swerve (2011)

Art always penetrates the particular fissures in one’s psychic life.

The Swerve (2011)

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Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

Thomas Jefferson Letter to Peter Carr (1787)

I had never doubted my own abilities, but I was quite prepared to believe that "the world" would decline to recognize them.

Colin Wilson Postscript to the Outsider (1967)

Love is the active, working principle in all true faith. It is its very soul, without which it is dead. "Faith works by love."

Jonathan Edwards Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Attribution

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