Inspirational Quotes on Religion

“The Christian religion is no mere form of mysticism, but is founded upon a body of facts; the facts are recorded in the Bible; and if the supposed facts were not facts at all, then Christianity and the Bible would certainly sink into a common ruin.”

“Those who know don't tell. Those who tell don't know. from 56”

“Debes haberte preguntado muchas veces por qué el Enemigo no hace más uso de Sus poderes para hacerse sensiblemente presente a las almas humanas. Para Él, sería inútil meramente dominar una voluntad humana. Las criaturas han de ser una con Él, pero también ellas mismas. Él quiere que aprendan a andar y debe, por tanto, retirar Su mano; y sólo con que de verdad exista en ellos la voluntad de andar, se siente complacido hasta por sus tropezones. De ahí que las oraciones ofrecidas en estado de sequía sean las que más le agradan.”

“Algunos piensan que después de esta vida, o tal vez después de varias vidas, las almas humanas serán «absorbidas» por Dios. Pero cuando tratan de explicar lo que quieren decir, parecen estar pensando en ser absorbidos por Dios como una cosa material es absorbida por otra. Dicen que es como una gota de agua que se desliza al mar. Pero, por supuesto, ese es el final de la gota. Si eso es lo que sucede con nosotros, ser absorbidos es lo mismo que dejar de existir. Son sólo los cristianos los que tienen una idea de cómo las almas humanas pueden ser incorporadas en la vida de Dios y sin embargo seguir siendo las mismas…, de hecho, siendo mucho más ellas mismas de lo que eran antes.”

“Una religión vaga —el hecho de sentir a Dios en la naturaleza, etc., — resulta tan atractiva porque es todo emociones y ningún trabajo, como mirar las olas desde la playa. Pero jamás llegaréis a Terranova disfrutando de ese modo del Atlántico, y no conseguiréis la vida eterna simplemente sintiendo la presencia de Dios en las flores o en la música. Tampoco llegaréis a ningún sitio estudiando los mapas sin echaros al mar. Y tampoco estaréis muy seguros echándoos al mar sin un mapa. En otras palabras: la teología es práctica, especialmente ahora.”

“Somos todos mais místicos do que acreditamos ou queremos crer (...). Temos visto mais do que deixamos transparecer, até para nós mesmos. Seja em momentos de beleza ou dor, seja por meio de alguma reviravolta sutil em nossa vida, ao menos vislumbramos o que cegou os santos; só que, ao contrário dos santos, seguimos em frente como se nada tivesse acontecido. Seguir em frente ciente de que algo aconteceu, apesar de não ter certeza do que foi, nem do que fazer com o que ocorreu, é entrar na dimensão da vida de que trata a palavra religião.”

“...but I don't need to go into a church and kiss a silver platter and reach into my pockets to fatten a pack of humbugs who eat better than we do! Because one can honor him just as well in a forest, in a field, or even by gazing up at the ethereal vault, like the ancients.”

“No, I'd better not speak of it. It's a secret for me alone, of vital importance for me, and not to be put into words. This new feeling has not changed me, has not made me happy and enlightened all of a sudden as I dreamed. Just like the feeling for my child, there was no surprise in this either. Faith—or not faith—I don't know what it is—but this feeling has come just as imperceptibly through suffering, and has taken firm root in my soul. I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly. There will be still the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife. I shall still go on scolding her for my own terror, and being remorseful for it. I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying. But my life now—my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me—every minute of it—is no more meaningless as it was before, but has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.”

“To begin with, he was struck by the idea that the comprehension of divine truths is not given to man as an individual but to the totality of men united by love--the church. He was particularly pleased by the thought that it was much easier to believe in an existing, living church embracing all the beliefs of men and having God as its head and, therefore, holy and infallible, and from it to accept belief in God, the creation, the fall and redemption, than to begin with some distant mysterious God, the creation, etc. But on reading afterward the history of the church by a Catholic writer and another by a Greek Orthodox writer and seeing that the two churches, both in their essence infallible, each repudiated the other, he became disappointed also in Khomyakov's doctrine of the church, and that edifice, too, crumbled into dust as the philosophers' edifices had done.”

“Although throughout these painful moments it had never occurred to him to seek guidance from religion, now that his decision coincided - so he thought - with the requirements of religion, the fact of there being a religious sanction for his decision gave him entire satisfaction and some comfort.”

“Don't you believe people when they tell you that people sought for a sign, and believed in miracles because they were ignorant. They did it because they were wise, filthily, vilely wise—too wise to eat or sleep or put on their boots with patience.”

“La intolerancia puede ser definida como la indignación de los hombres que no tienen opiniones.”

“Religion may be defined as that which puts first things first.” Illustrated London News, April 26, 1930”

“Wherever there is animal worship there is human sacrifice.”

“The Bible is a love story. Time and time again it illustrates how much God loves the world in spite of its sinful disobedience...The last book of the Bible, the Revelation of St John the Divine, creates a beautiful and yet terrifying picture of those last days when God will reveal Himself in judgment and in grace to all creation.”

“In God’s providence we have four gospels! For Jesus Christ is too great and glorious a person to be captured by one author or one perspective.”

“The essence of discipleship is union with Christ, which means identification with him in both his sufferings and his glory.”

“Souls are won for Christ by tears and sweat and pain, especially in prayer and in sacrificial personal friendship.”

“Worship may produce an outward change, but our inner condition will eventually be revealed”

“There is no choice for us; we must either deny self or deny Christ. Deliverance from self-life means to be a vessel overflowing with love to everybody all day.”