Top 100 Religion Quotes of All Time

A short, finished list rather than an endless feed: 100 of the best religion quotes ever written, picked out of the full religion archive on QuoteForever. You will find Christopher Hitchens, Bertrand Russell, E. O. Wilson and Charles R. Swindoll among them.

Read the list top to bottom, or use it as a starting point - every author name links to everything else they said, and every quote has its own page you can share or turn into an image.

1

I admit that the generation which produced Stalin, Auschwitz and Hiroshima will take some beating, but the radical and universal consciousness of the death of God is still ahead of us. Perhaps we shall have to colonise the stars before it is finally borne in upon us that God is not out there.

I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn't need any advice ... - Henry Ford 2

I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn't need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about.

3

To honor him whom we have made is far from honoring him that hath made us.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him. - Voltaire 4

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

5

The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster cruel vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging three headed beast like god one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes fools and hypocrites.

We use religion like a trolley-car--we ride on it only while it is ... - Austin O'malley 6

We use religion like a trolley-car--we ride on it only while it is going our way.

7

There was no place in the land where the seeker could not find some small budding sign of pity for the slave. No place in all the land but one - the pulpit. It yielded last; it always does. It fought a strong and stubborn fight, and then did what it always does, joined the procession - at the tail end. Slavery fell. The slavery texts in the Bible remained; the practice changed; that was all.

8

When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or ... - Thomas Paine 9

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

10

There are some poisons which, before they kill men, allay pain and diffuse a soothing sensation through the frame. We may recognize the hour of enjoyment they procure, but we must not separate it from the price at which it was purchased.

11

Liberals hate America, they hate "flag-wavers", they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam (post 9/11). Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now.

12

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone.

13

If there is a supreme being, he's crazy.

True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all ... - Albert Einstein 14

True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.

15

Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its parts are harmoniously conceived to complement and support each other; nothing is superfluous and nothing lacking; and the result is a structure of absolute balance and solid composure.

16

Where knowledge ends, religion begins.

17

Tell me there is a God in the serene heavens that will damn his children for the expression of an honest belief! More men have died in their sins, judged by your orthodox creeds, than there are leaves in all the forests in the wide world ten thousand times over. Tell me these men are in Hell; that these men are in torment; that these children are in eternal pain, and that they are to be punished forever and forever! I denounce this doctrine as the most infamous of lies.

If the truth were known, many sermons are prepared and preached with ... - George Frederick Pentecost 18

If the truth were known, many sermons are prepared and preached with more regard for the sermon than the souls of the hearers.

What if the meek inherited the Earth and we had to defend ourselves ... - Robert Orben 19

What if the meek inherited the Earth and we had to defend ourselves from Martians?

20

Sincerity is the indispensable ground of all conscientiousness, and by consequence of all heartfelt religion.

21

The establishment of Christianity . . . arrested the normal development of the physical sciences for over fifteen hundred years.

22

Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by the help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts.

23

A religion true to its nature must also be concerned about man's social conditions....A ny religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion.

24

Religion means living your own life, completely fresh and new, without being taken in by anyone.

Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the ... - Samuel Butler 25

Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and desertion, he would probably get one.

26

Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.

Yoga is not a religion to me. - Christy Turlington 27

Yoga is not a religion to me.

28

It is hard for many people today to make the distinction between religion and religiosity, the latter a dangerous parody of the former.

29

Sin is not just breaking God's laws; it is breaking His heart.

30

Any spirit that permits compromise with the world is a false spirit. Any religious movement that imitates the world in any of its manifestations is false to the cross of Christ and on the side of the devil.

31

People are much too solemn about things - I'm all for sticking pins into episcopal behinds.

32

Irreligion - the principal one of the great faiths of the world.

33

THEOSOPHY, n. An ancient faith having all the certitude of religion and all the mystery of science.

34

Christianity has done a great deal for love by making a sin of it.

35

The 'law of wills and causes,' formulated by Comte, . . . is that when men do not know the natural causes of things, they simply attribute them to wills like their own; thus they obtain a theory which provisionally takes the place of science, and this theory forms a basis for theology.

36

Religion has been an essential part of my life ever since I was baptised. My personal journey with God has been very important throughout my life.

37

True wisdom always leads us to please God.

38

Surely you do not believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?

39

The First Amendment freedom of religion is as important today as when the Bill of Rights was first written.

40

One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion.

41

A good supply of resignation is of the first importance in providing for the journey of life.

42

That is the whole trouble with being a heretic. One usually must think out everything for oneself.

43

The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God.

44

To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.

45

In such a performance you may lay the foundation of national happiness only in religion, not by leaving it doubtful "whether morals can exist without it," but by asserting that without religion morals are the effects of causes as purely physical as pleasant breezes and fruitful seasons.

46

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

47

Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him.

48

The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

49

Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It's nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith, and enable and elevate it are intellectual slaveholders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction.

50

Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.

51

Science is different to all other systems of thought because you dont need faith in it, you can check that it works.

52

The stamp of the Saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.

53

I'm a scientist. We don't talk about the spirit. Soul is a four letter word in our tradition.

54

Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. And in the final tolling it often turns out that the facts are more comforting than the fantasy.

55

Virtually every major technological advance in the history of the human species - back to the invention of stone tools and the domestication of fire - has been ethically ambiguous.

56

In Goddess religion death is not feared, but is understood to be a part of life, followed by birth and renewal.

57

I'm a priest, not a priestess. Priestess implies mumbo jumbo and all sorts of pagan goings-on. Those who oppose us would love to call us priestesses. They can call us all the names in the world -- it's better than being invisible.

58

They have hijacked my religion.

59

The universe, he observed, makes rather an indifferent parent, I am afraid.

60

On tough days, you gotta have heart. Don't quit, whatever you do. Persevere.

61

It's a delightful thing to receive a good word just at your time of need. Encourage someone today.

62

Worry and faith just don't mix.

63

Religion Has made an honest woman of the supernatural, And we won't have it kicking over the traces again.

64

If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world.

65

Why do humans exist? A major part of the answer: because Pikaia Gracilens survived the Burgess decimation.

66

In the ordinary moral universe, the good will do the best they can, the worst will do the worst they can, but if you want to make good people do wicked things, you’ll need religion.

67

Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.

68

If I could do just one thing, it would be to dissociate faith from virtue, now and for good, and to expose it for what it is, a servile weakness, a refuge in cowardice, and a willingness to follow, with credulity, people who are in the highest degree unscrupulous.

69

The discovery there is no god is a great relief, because if there were, it would be like living in a celestial North Korea if there was one. You would never be able to escape.

70

Redemption is promised at the low price of surrender of your critical faculties.

71

Religion, it is true, still possesses the huge if cumbersome and unwieldy advantage of having come first.

72

Religion gets its morality from us. We don't get our morality from religion.

73

So much of religion is exegesis. I would rather follow in the footprints of Christ than all of the dogma.

74

According to new statistics, Pope Francis is the most talked about person on the Internet. And not only that, he has the most viewed profile on Christian Mingle.

75

I have come to the conclusion that whether or not a person is a religious believer does not matter. Far more important is that they be a good human being.

76

It is God's design to use reluctant servants to usher in glory.

77

It's the old shell game.

78

You can't get through seminary and come out believing in God!

79

I even agree that the concept of god helps some people lead better lives. That does happen. Don't ever forget it. I just think there are better ways to help people lead better lives.

80

Islam has some of the best defenses against other god viruses and has the potential to be more parasitically aggressive when consolidating political power with a society.

81

If there really is a God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, and He decides to deliver a message to humanity, He will not use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.

82

Hobbies of any kind are boring except to people who have the same hobby. This is also true of religion, although you will not find me saying so in print.

83

Science ever has been, and ever must be, the safeguard of religion.

84

I don't think that people accept the fact that life doesn't make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable. It seems like religion and myth were invented against that, trying to make sense out of it.

85

The little religion that I have clung to-that what matters most is the continuity of life, and its improvement from one generation to another.

86

Lucifer comes to give to us the final gift of wholeness. If we accept it then he is free and we are free. This is the Luciferic initiation. It is one that many people now, and in the days ahead, will be facing, for it is an initiation in the New Age.

87

Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.

88

Scepticism is the first step towards truth.

89

Why should I hate someone on the basis of their religion, when I can take a little time to get to know them and hate them for a myriad of real reasons.

90

God's love is too great to be confined to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion.

91

One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.

92

What the feminists want of me is something they haven't examined because it comes from religion. They want me to bear witness.

93

[W]hen the martyr's righteous forebrain is exploded by the executioner's bullet and his mind disintegrates, what then? Can we safely assume that all those millions of neural circuits will be reconstituted in an immaterial state, so the conscious mind carries on?

94

In fact, nothing in science as a whole has been more firmly established by interwoven factual information, or more illuminating than the universal occurrence of biological evolution. Further, few natural processes have been more convincingly explained than evolution by the theory of natural selection, or as it has been popularly called, Darwinism.

95

Old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.

96

The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology.

97

The majority of mankind think that they think; they acquiesce, and suppose that they argue; they flatter themselves that they are holding their own, when they have actually grown up to manhood, with scarcely a conviction that they can call their own. So it was, and so it ever shall be.

98

We must be truthful and fair in the ordinary affairs of life before we can be truthful and fair in patriotism and religion.

99

We have to assess: Are we making disciples along the way as we draw people to our churches?

100

If there were a god, don't you think he would have flicked Hitler's head off?

More Religion quotes

This is the short list. The full religion quotes collection holds every quote on the subject in the archive, and the picture quotes are ready to share as images.

Share This Page