quotations about miracles
Miracles are like all the other phenomena of nature, viz. that they are the effects of a will that possesses a creative energy and universal sovereignty; in other respects they differ widely from the ordinary operations of nature--as the sudden stoppage or reversal of a steam engine differs from its ordinary motion. They are effects aside from common occurrences, attracting attention by their novelty. Their design is to prove that God is interposing, or has interposed; and to this end, they must bear the unmistakable divine signature.
LEMUEL PORTER
The Christian Review, June 1847
Every believer is God's miracle.
PHILIP JAMES BAILEY
Festus
We cannot but believe that all miracles, whether wrought by angels or by other means, so long as they are so done as to commend the worship and religion of the one God in whom alone is blessedness, are wrought by those who love us in a true and godly sort, or through their means, God Himself working in them.
ST. AUGUSTINE
The City of God
Miracles are marvelous works, but that which is marvelous to one, may not be so to another.
THOMAS HOBBES
Leviathan
Miracles are like Bigfoot, thousands of people claim to see them, but no one seems to be able to video tape the damn things.
ADAM COCHRAN
Still Pitying the Fool
The days of miracles have passed. I do not believe, of course, that there was ever any day of actual miracles. I cannot understand that there were ever any miracles at all. My guide must be my reason, and at thought of miracles my reason is rebellious.
THOMAS EDISON
interview, Columbian, 1911
Miracles are like wine: they are of little use unless they be venerably old. We pay no attention to a miracle happening under our nose; but, if the same miracle had been said to have happened in remote ages in an obscure part of the world, and vouched for by convicted and self-admitted liars like the Christian Fathers, we should have believed in it and been ready to apply the rack and fagot to all who doubted. A profane falsehood becomes a sacred truth, if it be only told long enough and by pious enough imposters, better educated and better placed than the fools upon whom they exercise their imposition.
SALADIN
The Secular Review, January 16, 1886
Miracles are like the pedal to the playing of the Divine musician. God does not by these means correct his instrument Nature; He makes it subservient in an exceptional manner to the superior needs of man.
FREDERIC LOUIS GODET
Lectures in Defence of the Christian Faith
The human spirit was the strongest medicine on earth. And sometimes all it needed was a little encouragement to pull off a miracle.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Forgotten
Miracles are instantaneous, they cannot be summoned, but come of themeselves, usually at unlikely moments and to those who least expect them.
KATHERINE ANNE PORTER
Ship of Fools
It is far easier for the God of the universe to perform what we call a miracle, than for the signalman from his box to shunt great engines and their trains. Rationalists who deny miracles are like men who, knowing nothing of the working of a railway system, affirm that trains must always run on fixed lines--that they run of themselves--and can never be diverted from their ordinary track. Such ignorance, were it possible, would simply mean that they knew nothing about the signal-box.
ADA R. HABERSHON
The Study of Miracles