Religion - christiansquoting.org.uk

Don't need a new religion, haven't used the old one up yet.

I am, therefore, of opinion that men ought, (after they have examined with unbiased judgments every system of religion, and chosen one system, on their own authority, for themselves,) to avow their opinions and defend them with boldness.-- John Adams Diary Mar. 7, 1756; 'Works' II, p8

Religion cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky, but the stars are there, and will reappear. --Carlyle

One sees a trend in our political and legal cultures toward treating religious beliefs as arbitrary and unimportant, a trend supported by a rhetoric that implies that there is something wrong with religious devotion. -- Stephen L. Carter, _The Culture of Disbelief_, 1993

...religion is the only firm foothold of all power; that cast loose or depraved, no government can be stable; for when was there ever obedience when religion did not teach it? - Charles I to Queen Henrietta Maria in Jemes Barbary, Puritan and Cavalier, p.174

It is rather ridiculous to ask a man just about to be boiled in a pot and eaten, at a purely religious feast, why he does not regard all religions as equally friendly and fraternal. G K Chesterton _The Everlasting Man_, 1925

Americans increasingly prefer to be described as "spiritual," rather than "religious." There is a telling difference here: the word "religion" comes from the Latin word religiari, for "binding," and that's the last thing we want our faith to do to us. - BreakPoint with Charles Colson Commentary #011109 - 11/09/2001

Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but live for it. --Caleb C. Colton

There is in me, as there is in men everwhere to-day, a hunger for a positive faith that will..."satisfy the soul of the saint without disgusting the intellect of the scholar". Though neither a saint nor a scholar, I have this hunger because I belong to this generation and this is the modern religious hunger. There is something in me that holds me fascinated at a street corner listening to a Salvation Army exhorter, despite my inner revolt against his inadequate conception of life and religion. --Glenn Frank, 1923

If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it?--Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

[By the end of the '70s, many people] hungered for religion's sweets, but rejected religion's discipline; wanted its help in trouble, but not he strictures that might have kept them out of trouble; expected its ecstasy, but rejected its ethics; demanded salvation, but rejected the harsh, antique dichotomy of right and wrong. --David Frum, _How We Got Here: The 70s--The Decade That Brought You Modern Life, For Better or Worse_

Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.- Mahatma Gandhi

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. - William H. Gates III

This life is just a testing ground. It's not a popular view, I know. People will.say that I'm sort of a mindless robot who's using religion as a crutch to get through life. Well, I'm not a mindless robot, but I am using [religion] as a crutch to get through life. ~Mel Gibson

And then there was another question. I had met Christ, but what kind of a Christian had I become? Was I a Protestant, or a Catholic? I avoided that question like the plague. I just didn't know, and I didn't dare ask. Years later when we were living in Geneva, my son was born and I had to register his birth. As I filled in the forms I came to the question 'Protestant ou Catholic'? I replied 'Chrétien' &endash; 'Christian'. 'But,' said the Registrar, 'that doesn't exist &endash; the computer won't accept it!' I went to my Pastor, who explained about Henry VIII and the birth of the Protestant movement. But I couldn't reconcile any of that with what I read in the Bible! After three days of arguing with the Registrar, the deadline approached and she gave in. 'Look, Monsieur Gidoomal, I've created a separate box here - it's marked "Chrétien" and we've even changed the computer programme!'- Ram Gidoomal "Karma, Politics and the Holy Spirit" - A Review of the CPA's Future, Address to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Group, Saturday June 19th 2004 Friends House, Euston

Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion. James Harrington (1611-1677)

Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion. - Falsely attributed to L. Ronald Hubbard say his followers, however see http://dlindsay.best.vwh.net/scientology/start.a.religion.faq for other evidence.

The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves, have been flown for religious ideals. -William James

The very strength and facility of the pessimists' case at once poses us a problem. If the universe is so bad, or even half so bad, how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator? Men are fools, perhaps; but hardly so foolish as that. The direct inference from black to white, from evil flower to virtuous root, from senseless work to a workman infinitely wise, staggers belief. The spectacle of the universe as revealed by experience can never have been the ground of religion: it must have always been something in spite of which religion, acquired from a different source, was held.... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Problem of Pain

There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt. Niccolo Machiavelli

As the observance of divine institutions is the cause of the greatness of republics, so the disregard of them produces their ruin; for where the fear of God is wanting, there the country will come to ruin, unless it be sustained the fear of the prince, which temporarily supply the want of religion.
Machiavelli, _Discourses_, 1519

Since I have known God in a saving manner, painting, poetry, and music have had charms unknown to me before. I have either received what I suppose is a taste for them, or religion has refined my mind, and made it susceptible of new impressions from the sublime and beautiful. O, how religion secures the heightened enjoyment of those pleasures which keep so many from God by their being a source of pride! -- Henry Martyn

Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. - Karl Marx

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children are smart. H. L. Mencken

To be political is to be religious, i.e. to acknowledge a god as the source of ultimate authority over the nation.The kingdom of God grows by means of the preaching of the gospel. Nonetheless, the object of this war is the conquest of 'nations', as Christ made clear in his Great Commission. Stephen Perks ,'Christianity As A Political Faith' 'Christianity & Society', April 2004

There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham.-- Anna Sewell (1820-1878): "Black Beauty," 1877.

Whenever a man talks loudly against religion,-always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions which have got the better of his creed.--- Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy.

Religion holds the solution to all problems of human relationship, whether they are between parents and children or nation and nation. Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God. A. J. Toynbee