In this section, you'll find quotations and proverbs about the following topics: religious, gods, religions, goddesses, beliefs, believers, believing, creeds, faith, religion, religious, atheism, atheists, lord, saints, angels, christ, christening, christians, christianity, theology, theological, catechism, bible, church, confession, baptism, parsons, priests, praying, prayers, heaven, demons (or daemons), and devils. Check out our main page for more high quality quotes on other subjects and categories.
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. F. Bacon, 1st Baron Verulam, Essays. 16. Of Atheism
One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Bible, Peter, 3, 8
God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh. The Unauthorized VersionAmbrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Arrest
Canonize, v. t. To make a saint out of a dead sinner. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Canonize
Catechism, n. A form of theological riddles in which universal and eternal doubts are resolved by local and fugitive answers. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Catechism
Christen, v. t. To ceremoniously afflict a helpless child with a name.
This is in christening the only trick:
The child is wetted so the name will stick.
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Christen
Christian, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin. [...] Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Christian
Church, n. A place where the parson worships God and the women worship the parson. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Church
Confession, n. A place where the priest sits to forgive the big sins for the pleasure of hearing about the little ones. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Confession
Decalogue, n. A series of commandments, ten in number - just enough to permit an intelligent selection for observance, but not enough to embarrass the choice. Following is the revised edition of the Decalogue, calculated for this meridian.
Thou shalt no God but me adore;
'Twere too expensive to have more.
No images nor idols make
For Robert Ingersoll to break.
Take not God's name in vain; select
A time when it will have effect.
Work not on Sabbath days at all,
But go to see the teams play ball.
Honor thy parents. That creates
For life insurance lower rates.
Kill not, abet not those who kill;
Thou shalt not pay thy butcher's bill.
Kiss not thy neighbor's wife, unless
Thine own thy neighbor doth caress.
Don't steal; thou'lt never thus compete
Successfully in business. Cheat.
Bear not false witness - that is low -
But "hear 'tis rumored so and so."
Covet thou naught that thou hast not
By hook or crook, or somehow, got.
G. J.
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Decalogue
Deluge, n. A notable first experiment in baptism which washed away the sins (and sinners) of the world. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Deluge
Divine, n. A bird of pray. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Divine
Hygeia, n. In Grecian mythology the goddess of health - the only one of the goddesses whom it was healthy to have anything to do with. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Hygeia
Idolater, n. One who professes a religion which we do not believe, with a symbolism different from our own. A person who thinks more of an image on a pedestal than of an image on a coin. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Idolater
Infidel, n. In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does. (See Giaour.) A kind of scoundrel imperfectly reverent of, and niggardly contributory to, divines, ecclesiastics, popes, parsons, canons, monks, mollahs, voodoos, presbyters, hierophants, prelates, obeah-men, abbés, nuns, missionaries, exhorters, deacons, friars, hadjis, high-priests, muezzins, brahmins, medicine-men, confessors, eminences, elders, primates, prebendaries, pilgrims, prophets, imaums, beneficiaries, clerks, vicars-choral, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, preachers, padres, abbotesses, caloyers, palmers, curates, patriarchs, bonzes, santons, beadsmen, canonesses, residentiaries, diocesans, deans, subdeans, rural deans, abdals, charm-sellers, archdeacons, hierarchs, classleaders, incumbents, capitulars, sheiks, talapoins, postulants, scribes, gooroos, precentors, beadles, fakeers, sextons, reverences, revivalists, cenobites, perpetual curates, chaplains, mudjoes, readers, novices, vicars, pastors, rabbis, ulemas, lamas, sacristans, vergers, dervises, lectors, church wardens, cardinals, prioresses, suffragans, acolytes, rectors, curés, sophis, mutifs and pumpums. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Infidel
Irreligion, n. The principal one of the great faiths of the world. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Irreligion
Magic, n. The art of converting superstition into coin. There are other arts serving the same high purpose, but the discreet lexicographer does not name them. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Magic
Mammon, n. The god of the world's leading religion. [...] Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Mammon
Pantheism, n. The doctrine that everything is God, in contradistinction to the doctrine that God is everything. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Pantheism
Pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Pray
Pre-Adamite, n. One of an experimental and apparently unsatisfactory race that antedated Creation and lived under conditions not easily conceived. Melsius believed them to have inhabited "the Void" and to have been something intermediate between fishes and birds. Little is known of them beyond the fact that they supplied Cain with a wife and theologians with a controversy. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Pre-Adamite
Predestination, n. The doctrine that all things occur according to programme. This doctrine should not be confused with that of foreordination, which means that all things are programmed, but does not affirm their occurrence, that being only an implication from other doctrines by which this is entailed. The difference is great enough to have deluged Christendom with ink, so say nothing of the gore. With the distinction of the two doctrines kept well in mind, and a reverent belief in both, one may hope to escape perdition if spared. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Predestination
Preternatural, adj. The re-appearance of a borrowed umbrella. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Preternatural
Probable, adj. That, when we get to heaven, we shall find some men have grabbed all the best locations, as "desert land." Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Probable
Pulpit, n. An elevated box, into which the person gets, for fear that people would not otherwise notice his superiority over his congregation. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Pulpit
Puritan, n. A pious gentleman, who believed in letting all people do as - he - liked. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Puritan
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. [...] Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Saint
Tedium, n. Ennui, the state or condition of one that is bored. Many fanciful derivations of the word have been affirmed, but so high an authority as Father Jape says that it comes from a very obvious source - the first words of the ancient Latin Te Deum Laudamus. In this apparently natural derivation there is something that saddens. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Tedium
A Fact is the end or last issue of spirit. The visible creation is the terminus or. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Language, IV
In my utter impotence to test the authenticity of the report of my senses, to know whether the impressions they make on me correspond with outlying objects, what difference does it make, whether Orion is up there in heaven, or some god paints the image in the firmament of the soul? Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Idealism, VI
We are as much strangers in nature as we are aliens from God. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Spirit, VII
[On Jesus Christ] The idioms of his language and the figures of his rhetoric have usurped the place of his truth; and churches are not built on his principles, but on his tropes. Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge. Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838
[On Jesus Christ] Having seen that the law in us is commanding, he would not suffer it to be commanded. Boldly, with hand, and heart, and life, he declared it was God. Thus is he, as I think, the only soul in history who has appreciated the worth of man. Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge. Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838
In this point of view we become sensible of the first defect of historical Christianity. Historical Christianity has fallen into the error that corrupts all attempts to communicate religion. As it appears to us, and as it has appeared for ages, it is not the doctrine of the soul, but an exaggeration of the personal, the positive, the ritual. It has dwelt, it dwells, with noxious exaggeration about the person of Jesus. Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge. Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838, 1
That which shows God in me, fortifies me. That which shows God out of me, makes me a wart and a wen. There is no longer a necessary reason for my being. Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge. Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838, 1
Men have come to speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge. Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838, 2
There is a good ear, in some men, that draws supplies to virtue out of very indifferent nutriment. There is poetic truth concealed in all the commonplaces of prayer and of sermons, and though foolishly spoken, they may be wisely heard; for each is some select expression that broke out in a moment of piety from some stricken or jubilant soul, and its excellency made it remembered. The prayers and even the dogmas of our church are like the zodiac of Denderah and the astronomical monuments of the Hindoos, wholly insulated from anything now extant in the life and business of the people. They mark the height to which the waters once rose. Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge. Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838, 2
Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone; to refuse the good models, even those which are sacred in the imagination of men, and dare to love God without mediator or veil. Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge. Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838
Faith makes us, and not we it, and faith makes its own forms. Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge. Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838
Here lie I, Martin Elginbrodde:
Hae mercy o' my soul, Lord God;
As I wad do, were I Lord God,
And ye were Martin Elginbrodde.
G. MacDonald, David Elginbrod, Book 1, Ch. 13
God, with all the powers attributed to spirit, is but the perfection of matter. E. A. Poe, Mesmeric Revelation
All created things are but the thoughts of God. E. A. Poe, Mesmeric Revelation
As some to church repair,
Not for the doctrine, but the music there.
A. Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 342
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
W. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, 1, 3, 93
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? W. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, 3, 1, 49
There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.
A. Tennyson, 1st Baron, In Memoriam A. H. H., 96
'Tis not the dying for a faith that's so hard, Master Harry - every man of every nation has done that - 'tis the living up to it that is difficult. W. M. Thackeray, Henry Esmond, Book 1, Ch. 6
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"Who wants to be a millionaire?" Fr. Rawley Myers asked as he began the opening address, The Saints Show Us Christ at the third Pacific Northwest Regional Wanderer Forum, held Saturday, May 27 in Seattle. And went on to show us what it means to be millionaires spiritually, in the religious sense.
The road to personal sanctity starts with individuals who take their faith seriously, Father said. He gave as an example a woman in his parish. "This woman, through her perseverance, got adoration of the Blessed Sacrament after daily Mass in the morning until the evening Mass. I go there and I see the love of Jesus in the eyes of these old women, usually grandmothers, who spend so much time before the Blessed Sacrament. Where do I get my inspiration? Just look at the face at one of these old grandmothers praying on her knees for an hour before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Oh, what faith they have, these women! People say that the Church is falling apart. The theologians are falling apart, not the faith of the people," Father Myers said. He urged prayer and Eucharistic piety as the foundation for a solid spiritual life and said the direction for this comes from reading the lives of the saints.
"For if parents do not know the saints their children will not know the saints. And that is tragic," he said, and added: "Read the life of a saint."
That's his advice to all who wish to know what having faith really means.
