quotations about God
They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
The Christian's God is a God of metamorphoses. You cast grief into his bosom: you draw thence, peace. You cast in despair: 'tis hope that rises to the surface. It is a sinner whose heart he moves. It is a saint who returns him thanks.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Thoughts," The Writings of Madame Swetchine
All nature is full of God. He is enthroned in Light: he creates darkness: he hath his way in the whirlwind, fendeth abroad his lightnings, giveth snow like wool, scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes, and casteth forth his ice like morsels! Who can stand before his cold? Who can thunder with a voice like God? It is He who distils the rain from his bottles, who opens the bubbling fountains, who covers the fields with grass, and the hills with flocks, who spins out the fleecy air, and spreads forth the liquid plains, who refreshes us with his wings, lights us with the sun, and entertains us with his table, richly furnish'd with all the dainty of heaven.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Another possible objection is this. Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream?
C. S. LEWIS
Mere Christianity
We shall never want to serve God in our real and secret hearts if He looms in our subconscious mind as an arbitrary Dictator or a Spoil-sport, or as one who takes advantage of His position to make us poor mortals feel guilty and afraid. We have not only to be impressed by the "size" and unlimited power of God, we have to be moved to genuine admiration, respect, and affection, if we are ever to worship Him.
J. B. PHILLIPS
Your God Is Too Small
Let nothing disturb thee,
Let nothing affright thee;
All passeth away:
God only shall stay.
Patience wins all:
Who hath God, needeth nothing;
For God is his All.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA
Exclamations of the Soul to God
The flame of my life burns low
Under the cluttered days,
Like a fire of leaves.
But always a little blue, sweet-smelling smoke
Goes up to God.
KARLE WILSON BAKER
Blue Smoke
The voice of the Almighty speaks most profoundly in such things as lives in silence themselves.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
Blood Meridian
O God, the Rock of Ages,
who evermore hast been,
what time the tempest rages,
our dwelling place serene:
before thy first creations,
O Lord, the same as now,
to endless generations
the Everlasting Thou!
EDWARD HENRY BICKERSTETH
"O God, the Rock of Ages"
The prerogative of God extendeth as well to the reason as to the will of man: so that as we are to obey His law, though we find a reluctation in our will, so we are to believe His word, though we find a reluctation in our reason.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
God -- if he really exist -- is good, alive, self-conscious, and governs all things according to his benevolent and holy providence; but the world shows no indications of such a benevolent and holy Providence. This earth appears to be a hell, or at best a planet condemned -- a sort of purgatory: it is filled with violence, tyranny and injustice, and yet God, if he exist, is absolute sovereign, and has willed that things should be as they are! -- Therefore there is no God.
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
Remarks on the Science of History
God didn't put us here for that pat on the back. He created us so He could be here Himself. So He could exist in the lives of those He created in His image.
FATHER FRANCIS MULCAHY
"Blood Brothers", M*A*S*H
In the face of nature's overwhelming forces, humans needed a God who would protect them from harm. When they felt that they had broken the law or committed wrongdoing, people turned to a God who would judge them on the one hand and redeem their sins on the other. In this way, purely from slef-interest, the project of creating God in our own image proceeded--and continues to proceed.
DEEPAK CHOPRA
How to Know God
Too much God and you overdose. God needs to be filtered.
MARGARET ATWOOD
The Year of the Flood
O Shepherd God, companion me on all the journeys of my life. Dance through the darkness with me.
MACRINA WIEDERKEHR
The Song of the Seed
I was brought up to believe that the Christian God wasn't a scared and compromising public servant, but the creator of the whole merciless truth, and I reckon that training spoiled me -- I actually took my teachers seriously!
SINCLAIR LEWIS
Elmer Gantry
I'm trying to get far away from [picturing God as] Gandalf or Santa Claus.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
"The Love Shack", Christianity Today, Mar. 4, Christianity Today, Mar. 4, 2013
The thoughts which the word "God" suggests to the human mind are susceptible of as many variations as human minds themselves. The Stoic, the Platonist, and the Epicurean, the Polytheist, the Dualist, and the Trinitarian, differ infinitely in their conceptions of its meaning. They agree only in considering it the most awful and most venerable of names, as a common term devised to express all of mystery, or majesty, or power, which the invisible world contains. And not only has every sect distinct conceptions of the application of this name, but scarcely two individuals of the same sect, who exercise in any degree the freedom of their judgment, or yield themselves with any candour of feeling to the influences of the visible world, find perfect coincidence of opinion to exist between them.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
"Essay on Christianity"
Let us get rid of this notion that we must always associate the thoughts of God with a spirit of great solemnity. Gayety and God are not mutually exclusive.
LYMAN ABBOTT
Seeking After God
What a wonderfully small idea mankind has of the Almighty. My impression is that he has made unchangeable laws to govern this and billions of other worlds and that he has forgotten even the existence of this little mote of ours ages ago.
THOMAS EDISON
diary entry, Jul. 21, 1885