fave spirituality-related quotes

[Simon Bar Sinister]

I'm an atheist, but I heard Michael Eric Dyson say this in an interview a couple of hours ago and it struck a chord:

"When you close the Bible, you don't close God's mind or shut God's mouth."

[ManicQueen]

"Let God into your head before you get in there"

[Scales]

"All paths lead nowhere, follow the path with heart."

-- Carlos Castaneda.

Edited May 16, 2009 by Scales

[Slogo]

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

He's a total dick but I love him

[Scary Guy]

I'm sorry, I have nothing.

This is the only thing I could think of.

[phee]

Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man -- living in the sky -- who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you.

-- George Carlin

[phee]

From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite of the tapeworm.

-- Edward Abbey

[Homicidalheathen]

“Let my soul smile through my heart and my heart smile through my eyes, that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts.”

"Success should be measured by the yardstick of happiness; by your ability to remain in peaceful harmony with cosmic laws."

“Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.”

“There are always two forces warring against each other within us.”

Paramahansa Yogananda quotes

[Guest Megalicious]

"The good, say the mystics of spirit, is God, a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive- a definition that invalidates man's consciousness and nullifies his concepts of existence...Man's mind, say the mystics of spirit, must be subordinated to the will of God... Man's standard of value, say the mystics of spirit, is the pleasure of God, whose standards are beyond man's power of comprehension and must be accepted on faith....The purpose of man's life...is to become an abject zombie who serves a purpose he does not know, for reasons he is not to question"~ Ayn Rand

[Guest Megalicious]

Another one I love from her...

Question asked:Has no religion, in your estimation, ever offered anything of constructive value to human life?

Ayn:Qua religion, no - in the sense of blind belief, belief unsupported by, or contrary to, the facts of reality and the conclusions of reason. Faith, as such, is extremely detrimental to human life: it is the negation of reason. But you must remember that religion is an early form of philosophy, that the first attempts to explain the universe, to give a coherent frame of reference to man's life and a code of moral values, were made by religion, before men graduated or developed enough to have philosophy. And, as philosophies, some religions have very valuable moral points. They may have a good influence or proper principles to inculcate, but in a very contradictory context and, on a very - how should I say it? - dangerous or malevolent base: on the ground of faith

Edited May 16, 2009 by Megalicious

[Scary Guy]

"Do you believe in God, Andrei? No. Neither do I. But that's a favorite question of mine. An upside-down question, you know. What do you mean? Well, if I asked people whether they believed in life, they'd never understand what I meant. It's a bad question. It can mean so much that it really means nothing. So I ask them if they believe in God. And if they say they do -- then, I know they don't believe in life. Why? Because, you see, God -- whatever anyone chooses to call God -- is one's highest conception of the highest possible. And whoever places his highest conception above his own possibility thinks very little of himself and his life. It's a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own." - Ayn Rand

"When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts and bars and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world, not even in infinite space. I was free--free to think, to express my thoughts--free to live my own ideal, free to live for myself and those I loved, free to use all my faculties, all my senses, free to spread imagination's wings, free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope, free to judge and determine for myself... I was free! I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously faced all worlds." - Robert G. Ingersoll

"Losing your faith is a lot like losing your virginity; you don’t realize how irritating it was ‘til it’s gone." - Anyonomous

"I don't believe in life after death, but I'd like to believe in life before death." - Natalie Angier

"Thus that which is the most awful of evils, death, is nothing to us, since when we exist there is no death, and when there is death we do not exist." - Epicurus, 300BC

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose." - Robert Byrne

"If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul." - Isaac Asimov

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.” — Benjamin Franklin

"Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment." — Dag Hammarskjöld

"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence." — Hal Borland

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." — Carl Jung

“Nature can refuse to speak but she cannot give a wrong answer.” — Dr. Charles Brenton Huggins

“This dead of midnight is the noon of thought, And Wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars.” — Anna Letitia Barbauld

“Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.” — James Thurber

“Big machines are the awe-inspiring cathedrals of the 20th century.” — Daniel Kleppner

“The test and the use of man’s education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind.” — Jacques Barzun

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke

“If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton

“A dwarf sees farther than the giant when he has the giant’s shoulder to mount on.” — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.” — Michelangelo Buonarroti

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn.” — Jack Kerouac

“People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which the most insignificant success is achieved.” — Anne Sullivan Macy

“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!” — Dolores Ibarruri

“A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.” — Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking.” — John Maynard Keynes

“In the end, you’re measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish.” — Donald Trump

“So that is what hell is. I would never have believed it. You remember: the fire and brimstone, the torture. Ah! the farce. There is no need for torture: hell is the other.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

“To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.” — Jorge Luis Borges

“So far as we are human, what we do must be either evil or good: so far as we do evil or good, we are human: and it is better, in a paradoxical way, to do evil than to do nothing: at least we exist.” —T.S. Eliot

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."

"The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth."

"The brighter the light, the greater the shadow cast."

"I'd rather have a life than a living."

"If you live to be a hundred. I want to live to be 100 minus one day... so that i never have to live a day without you" - Winnie the Pooh

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." - Calvin and Hobbes

"The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they're still alive"

"There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart, pursue those."

"If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive." - Audre Lorde

"My importance to the world is relatively small. On the other hand, my importance to myself is tremendous. I am all I have to work with, to play with, to suffer and to enjoy. It is not the eyes of others that I am wary of, but of my own... The fewer illusions I have about myself or the world around me, the better company I am for myself." - Noel Coward

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." - Robert Frost

"You live and learn. At any rate, you live." - Douglas Adams

"Pure morality is only an instinctive adjustment which the soul makes." - D. H. Lawrence

"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes." - Hugh Downs

"Life itself cannot give you joy unless you really will it. Life just gives you time and space, it's up to you to fill it." - Chinese Proverb

"The elevator to success is out of order. You'll have to use the stairs... one step at a time." - Joe Girard

"Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster, but sooner or later the person who wins is the person who thinks they can." - Vince Lombardi

"You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength." - Marcus Aurelius

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." - Marcus Aurelius

"Whoever values peace of mind & health of the soul will live the best of all possible lives." - Marcus Aurelius

"We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne." - Marcus Aurelius

"Shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased. Thus we refute entropy." - Spider Robinson

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - T.S. Eliot

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." - Victor Borge

"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy." - Cynthia Nelms

"To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead." - Bertrand Russell

"Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency." - Natalie Goldberg

"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." - Jackson Brown

"Throughout history, the most common debilitating human ailment has been cold feet."

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you cant see from the center." - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

"The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision something, you can do it." - Arnold Schwarzenegger

"To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist." - Gail Sheehy

"Reality is that which when you stop believing in it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick

"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him and to let him know that you trust him." - Booker T. Washington

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it." - W. M. Lewis

"The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." - Viktor Frankl, M.D.

"We cannot change anything unless we accept it." - Carl Jung, M.D.

“Freedom Requires eternal vigilance and fresh ammunition. While, exercise builds strength and practice makes perfect.” - Joseph Callewaert

"Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live." - Henry Van Dyke

"Death is feared as birth is forgotten." - Doug Horton

"A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist." - Steward Alsop

"Men fear death as children fear to go into the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other." - Francis Bacon

"Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to

disappear into the endless night forever." - Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross

"Death is one of the few things that can be done as easily as lying down. The difference between sex and death is that with death you can do it alone and no

one is going to make fun of you." - Woody Allen

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh." - George Bernard Shaw

[Slogo]

You never hear in the news, "200 killed today when Atheist rebels took heavy shelling from the Agnostic stronghold in the North."

Doug Stanhope

[prick]

The one who smiles rather then rages is always the strongest.

[TitsMcGee]

1 Corinthians 13

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

This is my favorite bible verse.

Edited May 17, 2009 by TitsMcGee

[Oh_My_Goth]

"I Have Always Found It More Productive To Stand Next To God, Rather Than Follow Behind"

~Me

[StormKnight (1)]

Thought on religion:

"May God save us from false religion."

"What makes a religion false? If any religion is right, then maybe they all have to be right. Maybe God doesn't care how you say your prayers, just as long as you say them." --Dr. Stephen Franklin and CDR Jeffrey Sinclair, Babylon 5:"Believers"

When religion fails?

"Who asked you to play God?"

"Every damn patient who comes through that door, that's who! People come to doctors because they want us to be gods. They want us to make it better, or make it not so. They want to be healed and they come to me when their prayers aren't enough. Well, if I have to take the responsibility, then I claim the authority too. I did good. And we both know it. And no one is going to take that away."

--CDR Jeffrey Sinclair and Dr. Stephen Franklin in Babylon 5:"Believers"

Values:

"What we value gives our lives meaning" --CDR Jeffrey Sinclair, Babylon 5

Earth's Dominant Religions

^This brings a tear to the eye once you realize it.

And in the great scheme of things:

"The choice is with us still, but the civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity. As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky. In our tenure of this planet we've accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage — propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders — all of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we've also acquired compassion for others, love for our children and desire to learn from history and experience, and a great soaring passionate intelligence — the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet Earth. But up there in the immensity of the Cosmos, an inescapable perspective awaits us. There are not yet any obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and this makes us wonder whether civilizations like ours always rush implacably, headlong, toward self-destruction. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars. Travel is broadening." --Carl Sagan, "Cosmos"

Edited May 17, 2009 by StormKnight

[Troy Spiral (13)]

“We can live without religion, but we cannot survive without human affection.”

- Tenzin Gyatso (The 14th, and current Dali Lama)

I wouldn't say that is a "favorite" it is just one that poped to mind. If I was to post too directly I'd be frozen at the keyboard for a week trying to decide. (Also I admit i skimmed over one particularly long post above, despite my usual practice, and might duplicate one that is already posted. Will have to wait till I have more focus.)

[phee]

"I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. "

---Richard Dawkins

[Rev.Reverence]

From the TORA (best read in the light of the Zohar & Sepher Yetziriah):

Ephesians 6:10-20 (New International Version)

(The Armor of God)

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

[Msterbeau]

"God, we made this stuff, so thanks for nothing."

Bart Simpson saying "grace" at Thanksgiving dinner.