Quotes About Belief

It makes me feel very much what I believe I have said in some work, that remorse sleeps during a prosperous fate and grows sour in adversity

I believed in childhood by authority, in youth by sentiment, in my mature years by reason; now I believe because I have always believed.

No one cares for reality, everyone stakes his essence on illusion. Slaves and dupes of their self-love, men live not in order to live but to make other believe they have lived!

ils n'ont plus fait, par leurs formules, qu'une religion de mots, vu qu'il en coûte peu de prescrire l'impossible quand on se dispense de le pratiquer.

Votre Dieu n'est pas le nôtre, dirais-je à ses sectateurs. Celui qui commence par se choisir un seul peuple et proscrire le reste du genre humain, n'est pas le père commun des hommes ; celui qui destine au supplice éternel le plus grand nombre de ses créatures n'est pas le Dieu clément et bon que ma raison m'a montré.

On sent, je crois, qu'avoir de la religion, pour un enfant, et même pour un homme, c'est suivre celle où il est né. Quelquefois on en ôte ; rarement on y ajoute ; la foi dogmatique est un fruit de l'éducation.

There are in all ages men born to be in bondage to the opinions of the society in which they live.

Kept talking about how she's studying every holy book she can get her hands on, aiming to understand God's word. I quoted St. Augustine to her. 'If you understand it, it isn't God.' Gave her a cup of chamomile tea.

clearly not all these people who said that God spoke to them heard the same thing. All the fighting nations said God was on their side. How could God be on everyone's side?

Church of the Fiery Vision.

When God closes a door, he opens a window, but it's up to you to find it.

Don't worry, God understands,' Mom said. 'He knows that your father is a cross we must bear.

Brian told Mom we needed to keep Maureen away from those nutty Pentecostals, but Mom said we all came to religion in our own individual ways and we each need to respect the religious practices of others, seeing as it was up to every human being to find his or her own way to heaven.

Mom could say that in hindsight, but it seemed to me that when you were in the middle of something, it was awful hard to figure out what part of it was God's will and what wasn't.

Helen and Buster got down and started praying with Mom, but I just stood there looking at them. The way I saw it, I was the one who'd saved us all, not Mom and not some guardian angel.

We each needed to respect the religious practices of others, seeing as it was up to every human being to find his or her own way to heaven

Anyone who thinks he's too small to make a difference has never been bit by a mosquito.

We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa Claus myth and got nothing for Christmas but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten, Dad said, you'll still have your stars.

We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa myth and got nothing for Christmas but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten, Dad said, you'll still have your stars.

God knows what He's doing

She kept saying that the flood was God's will and we had to submit to it. But I didn't see things that way. Submitting seemed to me a lot like giving up. If God gave us the strength to bail—the gumption to try to save ourselves—isn't that what he wanted us to do?

Unfortunately, theory don't always carry the day.

Mary was so certain she was right, but the cause she was certain would save lives destroyed them, the man who swore to be loyal abandoned her, and the pregnancy she thought would bring new life killed her. I told myself not to be that certain about anything.

Dad said something about freaks of nature, and Mom called Dad a Mr. Know-It-All Smarty-Pants who refused to believe that she was special. Dad said something about Jesus H. Christ on a goddamn crutch not taking that much time to gestate. Mom got upset at Dad's blasphemy, reached her foot over to the driver's side, and stomped on the brake.