Quotes
Quotes about Man
If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there'd be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it.
Idolatry is in a man's own thought, not in the opinion of another.
In every pang that rends the heart the Man of Sorrows has a part.
The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.
The devil personifies not the nature that is around us but the nature that is within us- the infinitely ferocious and cunning prehuman creature that is still within us, sealed in the subconscious cellars of the psyche.
In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced with vehemence and extremism, for we have to convince ourselves that what we took as second choice is the best there ever was. Thus blind faith is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves; insatiable desire a substitute for hope; accumulation a substitute for growth; fervent hustling a substitute for purposeful action; and pride a substitute for an unattainable self-respect.
Pray as if everything depended on God, and work as if everything depended upon man.
A devotee who can call on God while living a householder's life is a hero indeed. God thinks: 'He is blessed indeed who prays to me in the midst of his worldly duties. He is trying to find me, overcoming a great obstacleâpushing away, as it were, a huge block of stone weighing a ton. Such a man is a real hero.'.
Mother goddesses are just as silly a notion as father gods. If a revival of the myths of these cults gives woman emotional satisfaction, it does so at the price of obscuring the real conditions of life. This is why they were invented in the first place.
You forget that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence: and the kingdom of heaven is like a woman.
No human beings more dangerous than those who have suffered for a belief: the great persecutors are recruited from the martyrs not quite beheaded. Far from diminishing the appetite for power, suffering exasperates it.
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.
No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.
I won't take my religion from any man who never works except with his mouth and never cherishes any memory except the face of the woman on the American silver dollar.
To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.
We are born believing. A man bears beliefs, as a tree bears apples.
Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.
Man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe.
How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable.
In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concern is charity.
It doesn't matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it's important to realize that whatever you're doing, it's your first attempt at it.
When we debunk a fanatical faith or prejudice, we do not strike at the root of fanaticism. We merely prevent its leaking out at a certain point, with the likely result that it will leak out at some other point. Thus by denigrating prevailing beliefs and loyalties, the militant man of words unwittingly creates in the disillusioned masses a hunger for faith. For the majority of people cannot endure the barrenness and futility of their lives unless they have some ardent dedication, or some passionate pursuit in which they can lose themselves. Thus, in spite of himself, the scoffing man of words becomes the precursor of a new faith.
