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.
Religion is nothing, if it is not everything; if existence is not filled with it.
Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?
Religious experiences which are as real as life to some may be incomprehensible to others.
Reason shapes the future, but superstition infects the present.
Never trust a man who thinks his religion gives him all the answers.
In heaven, knowledge shall be commensurate with the enlarged powers of the glorified soul.
Let him who would move and convince others, be first moved and convinced himself.
Religion, to be permanently influential, must be intelligent.