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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.

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Most quoted on religion:

I take toleration to be a part of religion. I do not know which I would sacrifice; I would keep them both: it is not necessary that I should sacrifice either.

Edmund Burke

You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.

L. Ron Hubbard

O Brother! Sin for the servant is great calamity. May God protect us from such things! Sin in the beginning hardens the heart, which ultimatley leads to unbelief and wretchedness. Don't forget the wiles of Satan and the fate of Balāam Bāōur.

Makhdoom Sharfuddin Ahmed Yahya Maneri The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004)

If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel.

Jonathan Swift

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of Hell.

George Bernard Shaw Misalliance (1910)

Life without absorbing occupation is hell — joy consists in forgetting life.

Elbert Hubbard The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)

Disgrace should be represented upside down, because all her deeds are contrary to God and tend to hell.

Leonardo da Vinci The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883)

A shaping stone, to make us; a testing ground, to prove our worth; and a punishment for the sin.

Robert Jordan The Great Hunt (1990)

I know you want me to believe all this, but it seems little different from the religious stories we learned in school, esoteric and relatively pointless.

Sheri S. Tepper Singer from the Sea (1999)

Seek on earth what you have found in heaven.

George William Russell The Unpractised Heart (1942)

The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one's own — even more, one's own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being.

Katherine Anne Porter

"Hell goes round and round. In shape it is circular, and by nature it is interminable, repetitive, and nearly unbearable."

Brian O'Nolan The Third Policeman (1967)

Wherever we go we recreate our shells (hells), like an insect carrying its shell on its body. We feel our shell keeps us safe, but it crushes us and others, and keeps out light and sun.

Taisen Deshimaru Zen Miracles : Finding Peace in an Insane World (2002)

Sin is never in action, it is always in reaction.

Chinmayananda Saraswati

Miss Karmargi who’d been my Religious Education teacher at school. An avowed atheist who’d once said that she respected all religions equally—“which is more than can be said for most religions,” she’d added.

Ben Aaronovitch False Value (2020)

Because tens of millions of people have been destroyed practically, gone through absolute hell, and then suddenly they say, 'Well, it's all finished, let's forget it.' You don't forget it.

Michael I of Romania

“That does not take you to Hell,” said Louis, “but only to Barons Court. The mistake is pardonable.”

John Collier Fancies and Goodnights (1951)

The word “coincidence” always seems to start religious arguments for some reason.

David Eddings The Redemption of Althalus (2000)

Hell is full of incompetent rebels.

Esther Friesner Here Be Demons (1988)

From the blood of Medusa
Pegasus sprang.
His hoof of heaven
Like melody rang.

Eleanor Farjeon The New Book of Days (1961)

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