Quotes on faith and religion by men and women of faith, statesmen, and others.
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.—
Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal—it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. . . . It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.—
He is no fool that gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.—
The real conflict is the inner conflict…. [T]here are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?—
The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits. Let us strive, therefore, to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers.—
There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church. . . . If we Catholics believed all of the untruths and lies which were said against the Church, we probably would hate the Church a thousand times more than they do.—
The freedom to kill is not true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces the human being to slavery.—
I believe America’s greatest problem is not un-godliness. It is not spiritual darkness. It is an un-repentant church who has decided that it is more important to be politically correct than it is to proclaim the principles of the Word.—
For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.—
Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we’ve removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of people that these liberties are the gifts of God?—
Only the Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian [Nazi] onslaught on liberty. Up ’til then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty.—
It is only right, however, that at all times and in all places, the Church should have true freedom to preach the faith, to teach her social doctrine, to exercise her role freely among men, and also to pass moral judgment in those matters which regard public order when the fundamental rights of a person or the salvation of souls require it.— Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.—
As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.—
Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.—
If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!—
We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.—
Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could.—
You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all.—
Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.—
Pray, hope, and don’t worry.—
Conscience has rights because it has duties.—
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.— , Matthew 7:19-21 (RSV-CE)
What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.— , James 2:14-17 (RSV-CE)
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.— , Jude 1:17-19 (RSV-CE)
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.— , Matthew 22:37-40 (RSV-CE)
Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’— John 20:21-23 (RSV-CE)
God who gave us life gave us liberty.—
…the [Catholic Church] has not merely told this truth or that truth, but has revealed itself as a truth-telling thing. All other philosophies say the things that plainly seem to be true; only this philosophy has again and again said the thing that does not seem to be true, but is true.—
Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.—
I’ve lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing Proofs I see of this Truth: That God governs in the Affairs of Men.—
If Men are so wicked as we now see them with Religion what would they be if without it?—
I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.— , 1 Timothy 3:14-15 (RSV-CE)
I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same.— , as recorded by Adele Brise, 1859
Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause.—
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.— , The New York Sun, 1897
The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe. Contemplating it, we are invited to read something profound into it: the wisdom of the creator, the inexhaustible creativity of God.—
Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America’s gift to the world, it is God’s gift to humanity.—
Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.—
You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.—
Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you…. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.—
Just as it is better to illuminate than merely to shine, so to pass on what one has contemplated is better than merely to contemplate.—
Love the sinner and hate the sin.—
It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.—
An unjust law is no law at all.—
The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light…although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.—
Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.—
As a youth I prayed, ‘Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.’—
So material a difference does it make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers them. For, stirred up with the same movement, mud exhales a horrible stench, and ointment emits a fragrant odor.—
But it isn’t just a matter of faith, but of faith and works. Each is necessary. For the demons also believe and tremble, but their believing doesn’t do them any good. Faith alone is not enough, unless works too are joined to it: ‘Faith working through love,’ says the apostle.—
No one in the world can change truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it.—
Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.—
Much harm may result from bad company, and we are inclined by nature to follow what is worse than what is better.—
I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself.—
Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made.—
Comfort in tribulation can be secured only on the sure ground of faith holding as true the words of Scripture and the teaching of the Catholic Church.—
If Saint Paul exhorts us to pray for one another, and we gladly think it right to ask every poor man to pray for us, should we think it evil to ask the holy Saints in Heaven to do the same?—
The Devil never runs upon a man to seize him with his claws until he sees him on the ground, already having fallen by his own will.—
The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.—
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.— , Genesis 3:19 (RSV-CE)
But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?—
Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for superstition.—
Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.—
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.— , Matthew 5:3 (RSV-CE)
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.— , Matthew 5:4 (RSV-CE)
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.— , Matthew 5:5 (RSV-CE)
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.— , Matthew 5:6 (RSV-CE)
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.— , Matthew 5:7 (RSV-CE)
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.— , Matthew 5:8 (RSV-CE)
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.— , Matthew 5:9 (RSV-CE)
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.— , Matthew 5:10 (RSV-CE)
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.— , Matthew 5:11-12 (RSV-CE)
Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.— , Matthew 5:17-18 (RSV-CE)
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen— , Traditional English Rendering
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.— , Traditional English Rendering
A nation which kills its own children is a nation without a future.—
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.— , 1 John 1:8-9 (RSV-CE)
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him…— Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (RSV-CE)
Ever since the days of Adam, man has been hiding from God and saying, ‘God is hard to find.’—
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.— , 1 Corinthians 11:26-27 (RSV-CE)
Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true.—
I have attended public worship in all countries and with all sects and believe them all much better than no religion, though I have not thought myself obliged to believe all I heard.—
I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.— , (as recollected by Gilbert J. Greene)
Let us see life as it really is…. It is a moment between two eternities.—
God has created me to do him some definite service…. I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught.—
The history of every human being passes through the threshold of a woman’s motherhood.—
There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world.—
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.’— , Revelation 18:4-5 (RSV-CE)
I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.— , John 6:51 (RSV-CE)
Likewise, our churches should not be afraid to challenge the moral decay that surrounds them today—even if the righteous stance is unpopular or ‘offensive’ in some (or even all) circles.—
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Drive out the wicked person from among you.’— , 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (RSV-CE)
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.— , Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (RSV-CE)
I know that there is nothing better for [men] than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that it is God’s gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.— , Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 (RSV-CE)
Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work.— , Ecclesiastes 3:16-17 (RSV-CE)
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only…. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.— , Matthew 24:36,42 (RSV-CE)
Then if any one says to you, ‘Lo, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.— , Matthew 24:23-24 (RSV-CE)
I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.— , John 12:46 (RSV-CE)
You cannot please both God and the world at the same time, they are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions.—
Everything is grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father’s love. Everything is grace because everything is God’s gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events–to the heart that loves, all is well.—
Oh, how precious time is! Blessed are those who know how to make good use of it. Oh, if only all could understand how precious time is, undoubtedly everyone would do his best to spend it in a praiseworthy manner!—
He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.— , John 14:21 (RSV-CE)
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.— , Proverbs 9:8 (RSV-CE)
They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me.— , John 16:2-3 (RSV-CE)
Modern liberty means that nobody is allowed to discuss [religion]. Good taste, the last and vilest of human superstitions, has succeeded in silencing us where all the rest have failed.— , Heretics
Carlyle said that men were mostly fools. Christianity, with a surer and more reverent realism, says that they are all fools. This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of original sin. It may also be described as the doctrine of the equality of men.— , Heretics
But if we do revive and pursue the pagan ideal of a simple and rational self-completion we shall end where Paganism ended. I do not mean that we shall end in destruction. I mean that we shall end in Christianity.— , Heretics
I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.— , Matthew 12:36-37 (RSV-CE)
Salvation, while personal, is not private. To be incorporated into Christ is to be incorporated into his Church. You cannot sunder the two: it is not two in any case. It is one thing.— , On Being Catholic
O God, Present in this Most Holy Sacrament, O Bread of Angels, O heavenly food, I love Thee; but Thou art not, neither am I, satisfied with my love. I love Thee; but I love Thee too little.— , Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament
Thou art an infinite God, and I am a miserable worm. It would be little, did I die for Thee, or wear myself out for Thee, Who didst die for me, and dost sacrifice Thy entire self for me every day on the Altar.— , Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.— , Romans 12:21 (RSV-CE)
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.— , Galatians 5:13 (RSV-CE)
You ask me for a method of obtaining perfection. I know of Love and Love only! Our hearts are made for this alone.— , The Story of a Soul
O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith.— , 1 Timothy 6:20-21 (RSV-CE)
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.— , 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (RSV-CE)
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works…. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.— , James 2:21-22, 26 (RSV-CE)
But the devotion which we have to the Saints of God, whether living or dead, does not stop at them, but passes on to God, since we venerate God in God’s ministers.— , On Prayer and The Contemplative Life
If God exists, then He must be outside the natural world, and therefore the tools of science are not the right ones to learn about Him. Instead…the evidence of God’s existence would have to come from other directions, and the ultimate decision would be based on faith, not proof.— , The Language of God
The church is made up of fallen people. The pure, clean water of spiritual truth is placed in rusty containers, and the subsequent failings of the church down through the centuries should not be projected onto the faith itself, as if the water had been the problem.— , The Language of God
But do we not sometimes hear the thief contend that he is not guilty of sin, because he steals from the rich and the wealthy, who, in his mind, not only suffer no injury, but do not even feel the loss? Such an excuse is as wretched as it is baneful.— , The Catechism of the Council of Trent
Nothing is so efficacious in appeasing God, when His wrath is kindled; nothing so effectually delays or averts the punishments prepared for the wicked as the prayers of men.— , The Catechism of the Council of Trent
Who does not perceive how much we stand in need of the goodness and beneficence of God, if he but consider the extreme destitution and misery of man?— , The Catechism of the Council of Trent
We are to pray for all mankind, without exception of enemies, nation or religion; for every man, be he enemy, stranger or infidel, is our neighbour, whom God commands us to love, and for whom, therefore, we should discharge a duty of love, which is prayer.— , The Catechism of the Council of Trent
The confusing in-fighting, doctrinal disunity, and ‘a-la-carte’ nature of the greater church in the world today is what made it possible for atheism, moral relativism, and disbelief to wedge in and become the norm in western society. This ongoing fracture provides ammunition for those who seek to dismiss Christianity as outmoded superstition.—
Non-believers have a difficult (if not impossible) time coming to the truth because there are now so many variants of ‘truth’ to choose from. Believers have an easy time abandoning their faith for the same reason.—
You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.— , Matthew 5:43-45 (RSV-CE)
Each person matters; no human life is redundant.—
But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.— , Jeremiah 20:11 (RSV-CE)
Christianity doesn’t begin by telling people what they must do, but what God has done for them. Gift comes before duty.—
The Church does not derive from human will, from reflection, from man’s ability and organizational capacity…if that were so it would have become extinct a long time ago, like all human things.—
America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force…. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.— , 1925 Inaugural Address
Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.—
We concede—as we must—that so much of what [the Catholic Church says] is true: that the papacy has God’s word and the office of the apostles, and that we have received holy scriptures, baptism, the sacrament, and the pulpit from them. What would we know of these if it were not for them?—
Reason itself is a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.— , Orthodoxy
Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.—
Those who don’t love you will tell you what you want to hear; those who love you will lead you to the truth.—
Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.—
If God can work through me, He can work through anyone.—
Have you been calumniated, my friends? Have you been loaded with insults? Have you been wronged? So much the better! That is a good sign; do not worry; you are on the road that leads to Heaven.— , The Beloved Crosses
There can never be a contradiction between faith and science because both originate in God. It is God who gives us both the light of reason and of faith.—
Art is not freedom from discipline, but a disciplined freedom.—
Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, not even if your whole world seems upset. If you find that you have wandered away from the shelter of God, lead your heart back to Him quietly and simply.—
There are some people who seem to want to ask favors from God as a right. A pretty kind of humility that is! He Who knows us all does well in seldom giving things to such persons, He sees clearly that they are unable to drink of His chalice.— , The Way of Perfection
Pay no heed, then, to anyone who tries to frighten you or depicts to you the perils of the way. What a strange idea that one could ever expect to travel on a road infested by thieves, for the purpose of gaining some great treasure, without running into danger!—
You must practice simplicity and humility, for those are the virtues which achieve everything. You must say: ‘Fiat voluntas tua.’—
…perfect souls are in no way repelled by trials, but rather desire them and pray for them and love them.—
But I advise you once more, even if you think you possess it, to suspect that you may be mistaken; for the person who is truly humble is always doubtful about his own virtues; very often they seem more genuine and of greater worth when he sees them in his neighbors.—
I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties, in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by fair and flattering words they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.— , Romans 16:17-18 (RSV-CE)
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.— , 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (RSV-CE)
Few people deny the existence of heaven (though, oddly, some do), but there are many who deny the existence of hell. And their motivation for doing so is understandable, if not correct. The only doctrine of the Church I wish weren’t true is the doctrine that hell exists.—
For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.— , Romans 2:6-8 (RSV-CE)
[You] shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born.— , The Didache (ca. AD 100)
Whosoever, therefore, comes and teaches you all these things that have been said before, receive him. But if the teacher himself turns and teaches another doctrine to the destruction of this, hear him not.— , The Didache (ca. AD 100)
If he asks for money, he is a false prophet.— , The Didache (ca. AD 100)
And every prophet who teaches the truth, but does not do what he teaches, is a false prophet.— , The Didache (ca. AD 100)
If he who comes is a wayfarer, assist him as far as you are able…. But if he has no trade, according to your understanding, see to it that, as a Christian, he shall not live with you idle. But if he wills not to do, he is a Christ-monger. Watch that you keep away from such.— , The Didache (ca. AD 100)
Interpretation of Scripture can never be a purely academic affair, and it cannot be relegated to the purely historical. Scripture is full of potential for the future, a potential that can only be opened up when someone ‘lives through’ and ‘suffers through’ the sacred text.— , Jesus of Nazareth
The prevailing view today is that everyone should live by the religion—or perhaps by the atheism—in which he happens to find himself already. This, it is said, is the path of salvation for him. Such a view presupposes a strange picture of God and a strange idea of man and of the right way for man to live.— , Jesus of Nazareth
In a word, the true morality of Christianity is love. And love does admittedly run counter to self-seeking—it is an exodus out of oneself, and yet this is precisely the way in which man comes to himself.— , Jesus of Nazareth
Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.— , Matthew 5:19 (RSV-CE)
Normally, thought precedes word; it seeks and formulates the word. But praying the Psalms and liturgical prayer in general is exactly the other way round: The word, the voice, goes ahead of us, and our mind must adapt to it.— , Jesus of Nazareth
I love you, not because you have the power to give heaven or hell, but simply because you are you—my king and my God.—
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.— , Romans 8:38-39 (RSV-CE)
…[The] ancient world did in fact experience the birth of Christianity as a liberation from the fear of demons that, in spite of skepticism and enlightenment, was all-pervasive at the time. The same thing also happens today wherever Christianity replaces old tribal religions, transforming and integrating their positive elements into itself.— , Jesus of Nazareth
Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything.—
I can’t help but laugh when I am condemned for believing in Heaven, Hell, and an invisible God by people who believe in invisible matter and hidden dimensions. We’re saying almost the same thing…. If we could stop getting distracted by our different phraseology, we’d find that we’re basically on the same page.—
It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason.—
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.—
An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid.—
Exactly the same technology can be used for good and for evil. It is as if there were a God who said to us, ‘I set before you two ways: You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars. It’s up to you.’— , Cosmos
Be kind to everyone you meet, for every person is fighting a great battle.—
Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes!— , Matthew 18:5-7 (RSV-CE)
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.— , Politics
Those who understand freedom as the radically arbitrary license to do just what they want and to have their own way are living in a lie, for by his very nature man is part of a shared existence and his freedom is shared freedom.— , Jesus of Nazareth
Let us declare that God is dead, then we ourselves will be God…. At last we can do what we please. We get rid of God; there is no measuring rod above us; we ourselves are our only measure. The ‘vineyard’ belongs to us. What happens to man and the world next? We are already beginning to see it.— , Jesus of Nazareth
The cruel consequences of religiously motivated violence are only too evident to us all. Violence does not build up the kingdom of God, the kingdom of humanity. On the contrary, it is a favorite instrument of the Antichrist, however idealistic its religious motivation may be. It serves, not humanity, but inhumanity.— , Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week
God grants to evil and to evildoers a large measure of freedom–too large, we might think. Even so, history does not slip through his fingers.— , Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week
Unity does not come from the world: on the basis of the world’s own efforts, it is impossible. The world’s own efforts lead to disunion, as we can all see. Inasmuch as the world is operative in the Church, in Christianity, it leads to schisms.— , Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week
Don’t let your life be sterile. Be useful. Blaze a trail. Shine forth with the light of your faith and of your love.— , The Way
Among us there is no place for the lukewarm. Humble yourself, and Christ will kindle in you again the fire of love.— , The Way
If your character and that of those around you were soft and sweet like marshmallows, you would never become a saint.— , The Way
Don’t be afraid of the truth, even though the truth may mean your death.— , The Way
Be united to Christ in order to purify yourself, and together with him experience the insults, the spit, the blows and the thorns….— , The Way
When a layman sets himself up as an arbiter of morals, he frequently errs; laymen can be only disciples.— , The Way
Saints are not abnormal cases to be studied by a modernistic doctor. They were–they are–normal, with flesh like yours. And they conquered.— , The Way
Suffering overwhelms you because you take it like a coward. Meet it bravely, with a Christian spirit, and you will esteem it like a treasure.— , The Way
Conversion is a matter of a moment. Sanctification is the work of a lifetime.— , The Way
Compromising is a sure sign of not possessing the truth. When a man yields in matters of ideals, of honor or of faith, that man is without ideals, without honor, and without faith.— , The Way
Holy steadfastness is not intolerance.— , The Way
Don’t worry too much about what the world calls victories or defeats. How often the ‘victor’ ends up defeated!— , The Way
Don’t judge without having heard both sides. Even persons who think themselves virtuous very easily forget this elementary rule of prudence.— , The Way
The ‘prudent’ have always called the works of God madness.— , The Way
Let us not forget that unity is a symptom of life; disunion is decay, a sure sign of being a corpse.— , The Way
If God does not exist, everything is permissible.—
There are three kinds of people in the world; those who have sought God and found Him and now serve Him, those who are seeking Him but have not yet found Him, and those who neither seek Him nor find Him. The first are reasonable and happy, the second reasonable and unhappy, and the third unreasonable and unhappy.—
Brilliant minds often reject Christianity because they don’t want it to be true, because it is no longer fashionable or because it commands obedience, repentance and humility.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Americans’ deepest religion is often equality. The notion that Christ alone is God–superior, authoritative, supernatural–and that Christ’s teaching and person is far greater than Buddha’s, or Muhammad’s, or Moses’s, no matter how much great and good wisdom may be contained in those others, is scandalous.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
[The early Christians] willingly died for their ‘conspiracy.’ Nothing proves sincerity like martyrdom.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
The dispute between the modernist demythologizer and the traditional believer is neither a textual dispute nor a scientific dispute, but a philosophical and theological dispute. Modernists read their philosophy of naturalism into the text, not out of it. They read the miracles out of it, not because the text tells them to but because their philosophy tells them to.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
There is an implicit but astonishing arrogance in the idea that all the apostles, all the church fathers and all the millions of ordinary Christians were fundamentally mistaken about Christ for nineteen centuries, and only a few theologians, sitting at their desks, in a very different culture, nineteen centuries later, finally understood him.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Modernists have undermined faith far more effectively than atheists. The wolves in sheep’s clothing have carried away many more sheep than the honest wolves.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Once we stop believing that morality has a basis in objective reality, once we start believing that morality is nothing more than subjective feelings and wishes, once we reduce justice from a cosmic law to a private preference, we no longer see it as binding or fear to disobey it when it is inconvenient.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Judging God by human political categories is like judging a great symphony on which stanza of ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ it most resembles.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
The rhetoric about ‘progressive’ and ‘regressive’ hardly deserves comment. Those who tell truth by the clock or the calendar are practicing chronological snobbery.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
The Inquisition confused sin with sinners and judged both. Liberals make the same mistake and judge neither. But if you don’t judge the sin, you don’t care about the sinner. If you don’t hate the cancer, you don’t love the patient.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Indiscriminate inclusion or indiscriminate exclusion are equally unthinking.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Of all the symptoms of decay in our decadent civilization, subjectivism is the most disastrous of all. A mistake can possibly be discovered and amended if and only if truth exists and can be known and is loved and searched for.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Just as pragmatism is unpragmatic and empiricism is not empirical, rationalism is irrational. You can’t prove that truth is only what can be proved.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
If the burden of proof is always on the one who believes any idea, then that principle should also apply to the belief in the idea of skepticism.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
If all values are only subjective, so is the value of tolerance.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
If no set of moral ideas were truer or better than any other, there would be no sense in preferring civilized morality to savage morality, or Christian morality to Nazi morality. In fact, of course, we all do believe that some moralities are better than others.— , Mere Christianity
All want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.— , Mere Christianity
There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistake.— , Mere Christianity
There is nothing indulgent about the Moral Law. It is as hard as nails. It tells you to do the straight thing and it does not seem to care how painful, or dangerous, or difficult it is to do.— , Mere Christianity
If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning. Just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning.— , Mere Christianity
Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect.— , Mere Christianity
You can do a kind action when you are not feeling kind and when it gives you no pleasure, simply because kindness is right; but no one ever did a cruel action simply because cruelty is wrong–only because cruelty was pleasant or useful to him.— , Mere Christianity
Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Armada. None of us could prove them by pure logic as you prove a thing in mathematics…. A man who jibbed at authority in other things as some people do in religion would have to be content to know nothing all his life.— , Mere Christianity
It is, of course, quite true that God will not love you any the less, or have less use for you, if you happen to have been born with a very second-rate brain. He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have.— , Mere Christianity
Really great moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is quacks and cranks who do that. As Dr. [Samuel] Johnson said, ‘People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.’— , Mere Christianity
When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good; a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right.— , Mere Christianity
Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.— , Mere Christianity
If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not…. We are dealing with fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about.— , Mere Christianity
The more you obey your conscience, the more your conscience will demand of you.— , Mere Christianity
As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.— , Centesimus Annus
An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence.—
Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists.—
It makes little sense to condemn Christianity for its adherents’ and leaders’ hypocrisy; our faith is possibly the only one in the world that openly admits it is full of imperfect, sinful hypocrites.— , Guilt is a Good Thing
The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.— , Ethics
Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergymen or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon Earth.—
Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.— , Strength to Love
Every one, though born of God in an instant, yet undoubtedly grows by slow degrees.—
Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.—
When I was young I was sure of everything. In a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before. At present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to man.—
Beware you are not a fiery, persecuting enthusiast. Do not imagine that God has called you (just contrary to the spirit of Him you style your Master) to destroy men’s lives, and not to save them. Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think.— , The Nature of Enthusiasm
Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.— , Catholic Spirit
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.—
How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge…. We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t know.—
Jesus bluntly calls the evil person evil. If I am assailed, I am not to condone or justify aggression. Patient endurance of evil does not mean a recognition of its rights. That is sheer sentimentality, and Jesus will have nothing to do with it.—
The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on out traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil.—
Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God.—
There remains an experience of incomparable value. We have for once learned to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated—in short, from the perspective of those who suffer. Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behavior. Christians are called to compassion and to action.—
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.—
Every one who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.—
There can never be any real opposition between religion and science; for the one is the complement of the other.—
Religion and natural science are fighting a joint battle in an incessant, never-relaxing crusade against skepticism and against dogmatism, against disbelief and against superstition, and the rallying cry in this crusade has always been, and always will be: ‘On to God!’—
The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good.— Psalm 14:1 (RSV-CE)
You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him, and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and cleave to him.— Deuteronomy 13:4 (RSV-CE)
The excesses and atrocities of organized religion have no bearing whatsoever on the existence of God, just as the threat of nuclear proliferation has no bearing on the question of whether E = mc^2.— , There Is a God (Preface)
Natural selection does not positively produce anything. It only eliminates, or tends to eliminate, whatever is not competitive. A variation does not need to bestow any actual competitive advantage in order to avoid elimination; it is sufficient that it does not burden its owner with any competitive disadvantage.— , There Is a God
Science spotlights three dimensions of nature that point to God. The first is the fact that nature obeys laws. The second is the dimension of life, of intelligently organized and purpose-driven beings, which arose from matter. The third is the very existence of nature.— , There Is a God
My discovery of the Divine has been a pilgrimage of reason and not of faith.— , There Is a God
It is crazy to postulate a trillion (causally unconnected) universes to explain the features of one universe, when postulating one entity (God) will do the job.—
First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.— , Mere Christianity
If no set of moral ideas were truer or better than any other, there would be no sense in preferring civilized morality to savage morality, or Christian morality to Nazi morality. In fact, of course, we all do believe that some moralities are better than others.— , Mere Christianity
You make a thing voluntary and then half the people do not do it. That is not what you willed, but your will has made it possible.— , Mere Christianity
Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Armada. None of us could prove them by pure logic as you prove a thing in mathematics.— , Mere Christianity
But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people.— , Mere Christianity
How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.— , Mere Christianity
Our bodies are essentially the same kind of thing as ape bodies. If we have no souls or if our souls are also essentially the same as ape souls, then there is no reason to expect anyone to act essentially different from apes. (This may explain much current social history!) What makes a difference is not where the body came from, but whether there is a soul, and where it came from.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
There is no more contradiction between Christianity’s hard-nosed doctrines and its softhearted love than there is between the hard objective truths of anatomy and the surgeon’s compassion for the patient.— , Handbook of Christian Apologetics
I’m about fifty-fifty on believing in God. For most of my life, I’ve felt that there must be more to our existence than meets the eye.—
By pointing out the apostolic tradition and faith announced to mankind, which has been brought down to our time by successions of bishops, in the greatest, most ancient, and well known church, founded and established by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, at Rome, we can confound all who in any other way . . . gather more than they ought.— , Against the Heresies (ca. AD 180)
Avoid divisions, as the beginning of evil. Follow, all of you, the bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the father; and follow the presbytery as the apostles. Let no man do aught pertaining to the Church apart from the bishop. Wheresoever the bishop appears, there let the people be, even as wheresoever Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church.— , To the Smyrnaeans (ca. AD 115)
For though you think that heaven is still shut up, remember that the Lord left the keys of it to Peter here, and through him to the Church, which keys everyone will carry with him, if he has been questioned and made confession.— , Scorpiace (ca. AD 208)
There is one God, and one Christ, and one Church, and one chair founded by the voice of the Lord on the rock. Another altar cannot be set up, nor a new priesthood made, besides the one altar and the one priesthood. Whoever gathers elsewhere scatters.— , Treatise 1 (ca. AD 250)
He who deserts the chair of Peter, upon whom the Church was founded, does he trust himself to be in the Church?— , De Catholicae Ecclesiae Unitate (ca. AD 251)
There are many other things which rightly keep me in the bosom of the Catholic Church . . . The succession of the priests keeps me, from the very seat of the apostle Peter (to whom the Lord after his resurrection gave charge to feed his sheep) down to the present episcopate.— , Contra Epistolam Manichaei (AD 395)
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness.— , James 3:1 (RSV-CE)
As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.— , James 4:16-17 (RSV-CE)
My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.— , James 5:19-20 (RSV-CE)
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!— , Isaiah 5:20 (RSV-CE)
And this food is called among us the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ enjoined.— , First Apology (ca. AD 150)
The problem is not that we are sinners. The problem is that we are not ashamed for what we have done.—
Truth isn’t some malleable thing that changes with the times. It is truth. There is an objective reality, and an objective morality, that can be discerned with faith and reason.— , Liberal, Conservative, or Catholic?
