Of Truth, Faith, Belief, Religion and God ...

Here is a collection of my favorite quotes grouped by main subject. They don't necessarily all reflect my believes (although most of them do) but I like them! Quotes are taken from the Quotations Page

God

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Or what about the statue in California currently said to be crying bloody tears? Why worry about the alleged weeping of a plaster effigy when so many actual human beings have reason to cry?
Anna Quindlen (1953 - ), Newsweek, 01-02-06

God is not dead but alive and well and working on a much less ambitious project.
Anonymous, Graffito

When you want something really bad and you close your eyes and wish for it-- God's the guy who ignores you.
Caspian Tredwell-Owen, and Alex Kurtzman, The Island, 2005

All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.
Chuck Palahniuk (1962 - ), Invisible Monsters, 1999

They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.
Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Everyone ought to worship God according to his own inclinations, and not to be constrained by force.
Flavius Josephus (37 AD - 100 AD), Life

Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man.
Francis Cardinal Spellman (1889 - 1967)

Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
Indian Proverb

What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?
Irv Kupcinet

God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.
J. G. Holland

I want to believe in intelligent design, and hence I am suspicious of anything that seems to confirm my desire to believe.
James Lileks, The Bleat web log, September 15, 2003

If God lived on earth, people would break his windows.
Jewish Proverb

God must become an activity in our consciousness.
Joel S. Goldsmith

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.
Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997)

I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through.
Paul Valery (1871 - 1945)

Whatever God's dream about man may be, it seems certain it cannot come true unless man cooperates.
Stella Terrill Mann

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

We want God to come and save us. But he won’t. God doesn’t stop levees from failing, he doesn’t stay the force of tsunamis, and he doesn’t stop planes from smashing into buildings. Deus Ex Machina is overrated.
Waiter Rant, Waiter Rant weblog, 09-09-05

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.
Woody Allen (1935 - )

Religion

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When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), (attributed)

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), "Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium", 1941

I won't take my religion from any man who never works except with his mouth.
Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

I am determined that my children shall be brought up in their father's religion, if they can find out what it is.
Charles Lamb (1775 - 1834)

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. Lawrence (1885 - 1930)

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible.
George Burns (1896 - 1996)

For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction.
Ian McKellen, Interview on the Today Show, May 2006

A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.
James Feibleman

Such evil deeds could religion prompt.
Lucretius (96 BC - 55 BC), De Rerum Natura

Never confuse the faith with the supposedly faithful.
Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 10-19-06

The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.
Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 - 1890)

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
Steven Weinberg (1933 - ), quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999

A cult is a religion with no political power.
Tom Wolfe (1931 - )

Faith

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I always admired atheists. I think it takes a lot of faith.
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Seoul Mates, 1991

He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Much Ado about Nothing", Act 1 scene 1

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
Wilson Mizner (1876 - 1933)

Belief

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I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.
Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964)

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.
Gerry Spence, 'How to Argue and Win Every Time'

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to believe.
Laurence J. Peter (1919 - 1988), misquoting Sir Walter Scott

I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe.
Leo Rosten (1908 - )

Remember that what you believe will depend very much on what you are.
Noah Porter (1811 - 1892)

I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Truth

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The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
Herbert Agar

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.
Josh Billings (1818 - 1885), 'Affurisms from Josh Billings: His Sayings,' 1865

A lie told often enough becomes the truth.
Lenin (1870 - 1924)

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), (attributed)

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Advice to Youth

Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962)

Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.
Quintus Septimius Tertullianus (160 AD - 230 AD), Adversus Valentinianos

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

Turns out if you never lie, there's always someone mad at you.
Scott Westerfeld, Extras, 2007

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930), (Sherlock Holmes) The Sign of Four, 1890

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

The truth is always a compound of two half- truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say.
Tom Stoppard (1937 - )

Love truth, and pardon error.
Voltaire (1694 - 1778)