de Montaigne, French philosopher (1533–1592)
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He who gains an indulgence is not, strictly speaking, absolved from the debt of punishment, but is given the means whereby he may pay it.
Summa Theologica (1485)
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Italian Catholic priest (1225–1274)
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If the sun and moon should doubt, they’d immediately go out.
Auguries of Innocence (1863)
William Blake, English poet (1757–1827)
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Both read the Bible day and night,
But thou read’st black where I read white.
The Everlasting Gospel (c. 1818)
William Blake, English poet (1757–1827)
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It is a mistake to suppose that God is only, or even chiefly, concerned with religion.
William Temple, British theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury (1881–1944)
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I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Sir Winston Churchill, prime minister of the UK, historian and Nobel Prize winner (1874–1965)
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Even God is deprived of this one thing only: the power to undo what has been done.
Agathon, Greek poet (448–400 BC)
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God does not play dice.
The Born-Einstein Letters (1926)
Albert Einstein, German theoretical physicist (1879–1955)
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I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.
The Color Purple (1985)
Alice Walker, American writer and activist (1944–)
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In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
The Bible
Genesis 1:2
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God seems to have left the receiver off the hook, and time is running out.
The Ghost in the Machine (1967)
Arthur Koestler, Hungarian-British writer (1905–1983)
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My dear child, you must believe in God in spite of what the clergy tell you.
Benjamin Jowett, English educator and theologian (1817–1893)
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I cannot forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy he did his best to dispense with God. But he could not avoid making Him set the world in motion with a flick of His finger; after that he had no more use for God.
Pensées (1670)
Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and physicist (1623–1662)
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In all important questions, man has learned to cope without recourse to God as a working hypothesis.
[Letter to a friend, 1944]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian (1906–1945)
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By Night an Atheist half believes a God.
Night-Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality (1742–1745)
Edward Young, English poet (1683–1765)
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God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, A gauntlet with a gift in’t.
Aurora Leigh (1857)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (1806–1861)
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So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.
The World’s Need (1917)
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American writer and poet (1850–1919)
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God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.
Empedocles, Greek philosopher (495–444 BC)
Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.
The Transcendent Function (1916)
Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875–1961)
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No easy problems ever come to the president of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them.
Parade Magazine (1962)
Dwight D Eisenhower, 34th president of the US (1890–1969)
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Never stop because you are afraid — you are never so likely to be wrong. Never keep a line of retreat; it is a wretched invention. The difficult is what takes a little time; the impossible is what takes a little longer.
Fridtjof Nansen,
