Quotes · Skopia

44 quotes

By religion, then, I understand a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life.

James George Frazer

1922

★ 0.8

Lecture

The experience of the irrationality of the world has been the driving force of all religious revolution.

Max Weber

1917

★ 1.0

Political literature · Philosophical literature

All religion, however, is nothing but the fantastic reflection in men's minds of those external forces which control their daily life.

Friedrich Engels

Anti-Duhring · 1878

★ 1.1

Play

There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.

George Bernard Shaw

1898

★ 1.2

Political literature

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America · 1835

★ 1.3

Anti-colonial literature

In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals.

Mahatma Gandhi

1909

★ 1.3

Essay · Scientific literature

The priest persuades humble people to endure their hard lot; the politician urges them to rebel against it; and the scientist thinks of a method that does away with the hard lot altogether.

Max Perutz

1989

★ 1.7

It has often been said, very truly, that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary; it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary man feel ordinary.

G.K. Chesterton

1906

★ 1.8

Newspaper

Faith is something you die for; a doctrine is something you kill for: there is all the difference in the world.

Tony Benn

1989

★ 1.8

Play · Tragedy (play)

I count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but ignorance.

Christopher Marlowe

The Jew of Malta · 1593

★ 1.9

Historical literature

The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.

Edward Gibbon

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · 1776

★ 1.9

Essay

A cult is a religion with no political power.

Tom Wolfe

1980

★ 1.9

Film · Comedy

I always say, religion is a fine thing, taken in moderation.

Coleman

Trading Places · 1983

★ 1.9

Treatise · Philosophical literature

Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

David Hume

A Treatise of Human Nature · 1739

★ 2.0

Novel · Magazine · Modernist literature

It is a curious thing, do you know, Cranly said dispassionately, how your mind is supersaturated with the religion in which you say you disbelieve.

James Joyce

The Egoist · 1915

★ 2.0

Travel writing

The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little by way of example.

Mark Twain

A Tramp Abroad · 1880

★ 2.1

Speech

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Albert Einstein

1940

★ 2.1

Scientific literature

There are reverent minds who ceaselessly scan the fields of Nature and the books of Science in search for gaps-gaps which they will fill up with God. As if God lived in gaps?

Henry Drummond

1894

★ 3.5

Lecture

The religious vision, and its history of persistent expansion, is our one ground for optimism. Apart from it, human life is a flash of occasional enjoyments lighting up a mass of pain and misery, a bagatelle of transient experience.

Alfred North Whitehead

Religion and Science · 1925

★ 3.5

Letter

I think it was a generous thought, and one that flowed from an exalted mind, that it was not improbable but God might be delighted with the various methods of worshipping him, which divided the whole world.

Alexander Pope

1716

★ 3.5

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