Religious Quotes

"My father was very outwardly religious"

"The left and right are not religious categories. They're often not even value categories"

"No, we are not the master of the state, said King. We are not the servant of the state. We are the conscience of the state. The churches or the religious community should be, I think, the conscience of the state. We're not just service providers"

Jim Wallis, Writer

"I don't know of any cases where as a result of religious precepts a population have found themselves enjoying less food than they would have if they didn't follow this particular religion"

Marvin Harris, Scientist

"This is appalling. The idea that a person could be punished because of their religious belief and the idea they might be executed is just beyond belief"

John Howard, Statesman

"I suppose you could sum up the religious aspects of my boyhood by saying it was a time of life when I was taught the difference between right and wrong as it specifically applied to Catholicism"

Robert Vaughn, Actor

"There is nothing in the genius of America more precious today than the spirit of religious and political tolerance in its application to our own people"

Paul Harris, Entertainer

"Descendants of New England pioneers are proud of their ancestry and glad to proclaim the fact that so far as the United States are concerned, New England is in deed the cradle of religious liberty"

Paul Harris, Entertainer

"There is a continuum of values between the churches and the general community. What distinguishes the handling of these values in the churches is mainly the heavier dosage of religious vocabulary involved"

Peter L. Berger, Sociologist

"Some people seem to gravitate from one fundamentalism to another, from some kind of secular fundamentalism into a religious fundamentalism or the other way around, which is not very helpful"

Peter L. Berger, Sociologist

"You're basing your laws and your whole outlook on natural life on mythology. It won't work. That's why you have all these problems in the world. Name them: India, Pakistan, Ireland. Name them-all these problems. They're all religious problems"

Jack Kevorkian, Activist

"I'm religious. I think this is something God had planned for me"

Clay Aiken, Musician

"Religious suffering is at once the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of the heartless world, as it is the soul of soulless condition. It is the opium of the people"

John Desmond Bernal, Scientist

"Am I a criminal? The world knows I'm not a criminal. What are they trying to put me in jail for? You've lost common sense in this society because of religious fanaticism and dogma"

Jack Kevorkian, Activist

"From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people"

Howard Dean, Politician

"Every major question in history is a religious question. It has more effect in molding life than nationalism or a common language"

Hilaire Belloc, Poet

"Bunch together a group of people deliberately chosen for strong religious feelings, and you have a practical guarantee of dark morbidities expressed in crime, perversion, and insanity"

H. P. Lovecraft, Novelist

"I was aware of it, but I grew up in a very a-religious family. My mother never went to church, she never had any religious training or background. It was never a part of our social interaction"

Donald Johanson, Scientist

"I'm a very religious person"

Chuck Norris, Actor

"Adherents of the new religious right reject the separation of politics and religion, but they bring no spiritual insights to politics"

Christopher Lasch, Historian

"There is a great difference between Christianity and religion at the south. If a man goes to the communion table, and pays money into the treasury of the church, no matter if it be the price of blood, he is called religious"

Harriet Ann Jacobs, Writer

"Too many religious organizations are in the business of enforcing beliefs"

Charley Pride, Athlete

"The whole schizophrenia angle interested me. When I first started working on it, I thought I would play up that angle more than I ended up doing. The religious aspect of the story was also a draw"

Chester Brown, Cartoonist

"The only way to be true to our American tradition is to maintain absolute governmental neutrality regarding religious beliefs and practices"

Bill Bradley, Politician

"The Republic of Macedonia is being built on democratic ideals and values, not on ethnic groups. Those ideals and values include economic opportunities, language and educational opportunities, religious rights, and political processes"

Boris Trajkovski, Statesman

"The point is that there is tremendous hypocrisy among the Christian right. And I think that Christian voters should start looking at global warming and extreme poverty as a religious issue that speaks to the culture of life"

Al Franken, Comedian

"Those who wish to cause religious conflict are small in number but often manage to dominate the headline"

Tony Blair, Statesman

"A good meditation, even when it is interrupted by occasional nodding, is much more beneficial than many outward religious exercises"

Johannes Tauler, Theologian

"There is a species of person called a 'Modern Churchman' who draws the full salary of a beneficed clergyman and need not commit himself to any religious belief"

Evelyn Waugh, Author

"In Holland, they have come to precisely the same conclusion. There they have adopted a system of secular education, because they have found it impracticable to unite the religious bodies in any system of combined religious instruction"

Richard Cobden, Businessman

"I confess that for fifteen years my efforts in education, and my hopes of success in establishing a system of national education, have always been associated with the idea of coupling the education of this country with the religious communities which exist"

Richard Cobden, Businessman

"Both Christians and religious Jews are finding it increasingly difficult to practice their faiths through college groups on so-called mainline campuses in the United States"

Paul Weyrich, Critic

"No white group has founded a major religion on this planet. The major religious were started in the Orient and the Middle East, not in Greece and Rome. I always knew you racists didn't have a prayer"

Jane Elliot, Actress

"The standpoint of the man who relies on religious experience for capturing Reality must always remain individual and incommunicable"

Muhammed Iqbal, Poet

"The facts are plain: Religious leaders who preside over marriage ceremonies must and will be guided by what they believe. If they do not wish to celebrate marriages for same-sex couples, that is their right. The Supreme Court says so. And the Charter says so"

Paul Martin, Politician

"Mr. Speaker, I am deeply concerned that many regions of this world are suffering from the effects of armed conflicts with religious aspects. I believe that the differences of faith are not the real reason for these conflicts"

Alcee Hastings, Politician

"Buddhism has become a socially recognized religious philosophy for Americans, whereas it used to be considered an exotic religion"

Thurston Moore, Musician

"The ultimate purpose of religious life is to make this evolution move in a direction far more important to the destiny of the ego than the moral health of the social fabric which forms his present environment"

Muhammed Iqbal, Poet

"Another way of judging the value of a prophet's religious experience, therefore, would be to examine the type of manhood that he has created, and the cultural world that has sprung out of the spirit of his message"

Muhammed Iqbal, Poet

"I know that we shall meet problems along the way, but I'd far rather see for myself what's going on in the world outside, than rely on newspapers, television, politicians and religious leaders to tell me what I should be thinking"

Michael Palin, Comedian

Page 5 of 12