The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream
That this watch exists and has no watchmaker.
Religion Quotes
Religion is a page where believers and unbelievers share space. Shakespeare and Milton lead, but Robert Ingersoll and the biologist Jerry Coyne are close behind, and the sourced favourites lean sceptical: Bertrand Russell in Sceptical Essays (1928) on moralists and Hell, Bierce in 1911 calling religion a daughter of Hope and Fear.
Three entries are flagged. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep” is credited to the missionary Jim Elliot, and the notes call it a paraphrase of the English clergyman Philip Henry (1631–1696). Newton’s remark that he could calculate the motions of heavenly bodies but not the madness of the people is disputed, and it is usually tied to the South Sea stock bubble. A line about Earth and Heaven credited to David Hare is flagged misattributed.
Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect.
The greater part of mankind are angry with the sinner and not with the sin.
A foolish superstition introduces the influences of the gods even in the smallest matters.
Things sacred should not only be untouched with the hands, but unviolated in thought.
The existence of the gods is expedient and, as it is expedient, let us assume it.