GOD QUOTES XIII

quotations about God

Men fail to find God because they curiously reverse the position -- the natural, legitimate, rightful position -- between the soul and God. There is a word common in theology, though not very familiar in ordinary intercourse, -- theodicy, which means justifying the ways of God to man. When a man begins to justify the ways of God to man, he has entered on a very dangerous process. For example, it is said, " If there is a God, he must be omnipotent and omniscient; and an omnipotent and omniscient God could and would make a world without sin and without suffering; but the world is not without sin nor without suffering, therefore there is no God." Such a man frames in his own mind his notion of what a God must be, and then brings God himself to that standard, and measures him by it. Theodicy! Justifying the ways of God to man! Sit, my soul, on the judgment throne, and summon God to stand before thee. "Now, Almighty One, I will see whether thou art righteous. Why didst thou allow famine in India? What right hast thou to allow a deluge in Japan? What right hast thou to allow man to go to war with his fellow-man in Europe? Justify thyself; explain thyself; answer for thyself." No man will ever find his way to the heart of God in that spirit.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Seeking After God

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God sinks into dust before man.

MAX STIRNER

The Ego and Its Own


Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

The Notebooks of Lazarus Long


A God wise enough to create me and the world I live in is wise enough to watch out for me.

PHILIP YANCEY

Where Is God When It Hurts?


God never made his work for man to mend.

JOHN DRYDEN

Epistle to John Driden of Chesterton, 1700

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If God existed, only in one way could he serve human liberty -- by ceasing to exist.

MIKHAIL BAKUNIN

God and the State

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My God is in the hearts of those that seek Him ... And in my heart I carry an assurance of His love that life cannot disturb. I know His love as the babe knows its mother's love, lying upon her breast. It knows her love though it neither understands her nature nor her ways.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Laicus: Or, The Experiences of a Layman in a Country Parish

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Those who are crafty, think the wisdom of God warrants him to deceive; those who are revengeful, think the goodness of God permits him to be cruel; those who are arbitrary, think the sovereignty of God is the account of his actions. Everyone attributes to God, what he finds in himself: but that cannot be a perfection in God, which is a dishonesty in Man.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms

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God is not only fatherly,
God is also mother
who lifts her loved child
from the ground to her knee.
The Trinity is like a mother's cloak
wherein the child finds a home
and lays its head on the maternal breast.

MECHTILD OF MAGDEBURG

attributed, Soul Weavings

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There is no duty in religion more generally agreed on, nor more justly required by God almighty, than a perfect submission to his will in all things: Nor is there any disposition of mind that can either please him more or become us better, than that of being satisfied with all he gives, and contented with all he takes away; none, I am sure, can be of more honour to God, nor more easy to ourselves; for if we consider him as our maker we cannot contend with him; if as our father we ought not to distrust him; so that we may be confident, whatever he does is intended for our good; and whatever happens that we may interpret otherwise, yet we cannot get nothing by repining, nor save anything by resisting.

WELLINS CALCOTT

Thoughts Moral and Divine


God, a born extremist, is the diplomat's worst enemy. Quite apart from the fact that His decrees are irrevocable, the Absolute will not allow anyone to relativize matters.

RéGIS DEBRAY

God: An Itinerary

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God has made it possible for us to come to know Him through the visible and tangible things of our world. Have you ever looked at a sunset and been reminded of who's really in charge in this world? Have you ever gawked at majestic mountain peaks and been jerked back into the reality of how much bigger God is than you and your problems? Have you ever shaken your head at the brilliant lines, patterns and colors on the wings of a butterfly and contemplated the stunningly detailed imagination of the Creator? Then you've seen God's glory and encountered the efforts of a Father longing to be recognized by His children.

CHRIS SEIDMAN

Little Buddy

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We seem to think that God speaks by seconding the ideas we've already adopted, but God nearly always catches us by surprise. If it's God's Spirit blowing, someone ends up having feathers ruffled in an unforeseen way. God tends to confound, astonish, and flabbergast.

SUE MONK KIDD

When the Heart Waits

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The ethical is the universal, and as such it is again the divine. One has therefore a right to say that fundamentally every duty is a duty toward God; but if one cannot say more, then one affirms at the same time that properly I have no duty toward God. Duty becomes duty by being referred to God, but in duty itself I do not come into relation with God. Thus it is a duty to love one's neighbor, but in performing this duty I do not come into relation with God but with the neighbor whom I love. If I say then in this connection that it is my duty to love God, I am really uttering only a tautology, inasmuch as "God" is in this instance used in an entirely abstract sense as the divine, i.e. the universal, i.e. duty. So the whole existence of the human race is rounded off completely like a sphere, and the ethical is at once its limit and its content. God becomes an invisible vanishing point, a powerless thought, His power being only in the ethical which is the content of existence.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD

Fear and Trembling


God's commandments are the iron door into himself. To keep them is to have it opened and his great heart of love revealed.

SAMUEL WILLOUGHBY DUFFIELD

Fragments


On all things created remaineth the half-effaced signature of God,
Somewhat of fair and good, though blotted by the finger of corruption.

MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER

Proverbial Philosophy


God Himself is simple, and employs simple men to shape the world.

JOHN UPDIKE

Terrorist


I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, and I have been circling for a thousand years, and I still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm, or a great song.

RAINER MARIA RILKE

The Book of Hours


They are always saying God loves us. If that's love I'd rather have a bit of kindness.

GRAHAM GREENE

The Captain and the Enemy

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God speaks silently, he speaks in your heart; if your heart is noisy, chattering, you will not hear.

CARYLL HOUSELANDER

This War is the Passion

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