Religious Quotations

"I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it." - Harry Emerson Fosdick ("The Mystery of Life" in Riverside Sermons Harper 58)

"Hunting God is a great adventure." - Marie De Floris OSB (To novices making their vows, quoted by Peter Beach and William Dunpy Benedictine and Moor Holt, Rinehart & Winston 60)

"[A rabbi] should not despair if people do not do as much as they should. Every parent has that with children. God is merciful." - Rabbi Louis Finkelstein (NY Times 1 Sep 85)

"Religion is more like response to a friend than it is like obedience to an expert." - Austin Farrer, Warden, Keble College, Oxford. (International Baccalaureate)

"One of the silliest of all discussions is the question whether God is personal - it would be more useful to inquire whether ice is frozen." - Austin Farrer, Warden, Keble College, Oxford (Saving Belief Hodder & Stoughton 64)

"God does not play dice [with the universe]. Albert Einstein (Quoted by Banesh Hoffman Albert Einstein New American Library 73)

"The soul of civilization is its religion, and it dies with its faith." - Will and Ariel Durant (The Age of Reason Begins Simon & Schuster 61)

"I have learned that human existence is essentially tragic. It is only the love of God, disclosed and enacted in Christ, that redeems the human tragedy and makes it tolerable. No, more than tolerable. Wonderful." - Angus Dun, former Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC (Recalled in his death 12 Aug 71)

"A man does a lot of praying in an enemy prison. Prayer, even more than sheer thought, is the firmest anchor." - Jeremiah A Denton Jr. (Quoted by George Esper and the Associated Press The Eyewitness History of the Vietnam War 1961-75 Ballantine 83)

"Faith must not be slow to reason, nor reason to adore." - Lakdasa J De Mel, Angelican Metropolitan of India (Sermon closing 10th Lambeth Conference, St Paul's Cathedral, London, 25 Aug 68)

"Death gives life its fullest reality." - Anthony Dalla Villa, Roman Catholic priest (ib)

"What you are is God's gift to you; what you make of it is your gift to God." - Anthony Dalla Villa, Roman Catholic priest (Eulogy at memorial Mass for Andy Warhol at NYC's St. Patrick's Cathedral 1 Apr 87)

"Mindful of the fact you live in an agricultural country, I presume you know what an ass is. We read in the New Testament that our blessed Lord rode on an ass in triumph into the city of Jerusalem. Today the Lord rides on another ass: I myself." -  Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston (Preaching in the slums of Lima, Peru, Time 21 Aug 64)

"Sleep is the best meditation." - Dalai Lama (People 10 Sep 79)

"There has never been a better raconteur than Jesus of Nazareth." - Harvey Cox, Professor of Divinity, Harvard (The Seduction of the Spirit Simon & Schuster 73

"Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible." - William Sloane Coffin Jr., Senior Minister, Riverside Church, NYC (Once to Every Man Atheneum 77, quoted in Christian Science Monitor 5 Jan 78)