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Quotes about religion

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Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.
Daniel Webster1782–1852Speech at Plymouth, Massachusetts (22 December 1820)
- Christianity
God never gave man a thing to do concerning which it were irreverent to ponder how the Son of God would have done it.
George MacDonald1824–1905Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 250.
- Christianity
It is a fine thing to establish one’s own religion in one’s heart, not to be dependent on tradition and second-hand ideals. Life will seem to you, later, not a lesser, but a greater thing.
D. H. Lawrence1885–1930
Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.
Bill Gatesborn 1955“In Search of the Real Bill Gates,” Time (13 January 1997)
- Anti-Religion
Though it is very important for man as an individual that his religion should be true, that is not the case for society. Society has nothing to fear or hope from another life; what is most important for it is not that all citizens profess the true religion but that they should profess religion.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XVII.
The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book One, Chapter V.
The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XVII.
Self-denial is the shining sore on the leprous body of Christianity.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900
- Christianity
I knew a parson who frightened his congregation terribly by telling them that the second coming was very imminent indeed, but they were much consoled when they found that he was planting trees in his garden.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)
- Christianity
Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894)
- Science
Must then a Christ perish in torment in every age to save those that have no imagination?
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Saint Joan (1923), Epilogue (Cauchon)
- Christianity
What is the question now placed before society with the glib assurance the most astounding? That question is this⁠—Is man an ape or an angel? My lord, I am on the side of the angels.
Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881Speech to the Oxford Diocesan Conference (25 November 1864), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (1929), p. 108
- Science
The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.
Clarence Darrow1857–1938Why I Am An Agnostic (1929)
- Anti-Religion
- Wisdom
Government is violence, Christianity is meekness, non-resistance, love. And, therefore, government cannot be Christian, and a man who wishes to be a Christian must not serve government.
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910Letter to Dr. Eugen Heinrich Schmitt (October 12, 1896), translated by Nathan Haskell Dole
- Christianity
- Government
The very word “Christianity” is a misunderstanding⁠—at bottom there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross.
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900The Antichrist (1895), Aphorism 39 (translated by H. L. Mencken, 1918)
- Christianity