People who study the way religions develop have shown that if you have a charismatic teacher, and you don't have an institution develop around that teacher within about a generation to transmit succession within the group, the movement just dies.

I study religion because I find it fascinating and problematic. But I struggle with the idea of what religion is, what being religious means. A lot of people assume that if you write about early Christianity, you must be some kind of Sunday-school teacher.

I have sympathy for anyone who finds consolation anywhere we can. And many people do find it in religious tradition as it has been. I mean, I love much of that tradition. But somehow, that just didn't speak to me in the way that it does to some.

There's a generation of people I think without a strong connection to family, to religion, to civic duty. They have a real disassociation from the problems of the world.

Muslims must believe that all power, success and victory comes from God alone.

What are my sources of strength? My husband and my three kids, my health-care team, and my religion.

You don't have to have fought in a war to love peace.

The polls indicated that I was feisty, that I was tough, that I had a sense of humor, but they weren't quite sure if they liked me and they didn't know whether or not that I was sensitive.

Religion did not exist for the saving of souls but for the preservation and welfare of society, and in all that was necessary to this end every man had to take his part, or break with the domestic and political community to which he belonged.

The slugs are ascending this steep city staircase that leads up to a huge Catholic church, essentially signifying their slow crawl towards death. The work reminds us of religion, mortality, natural decay, and the slow suffocation of commercialized societies.

I make big objects that are simple, bright and clear, kind of ironic but hopefully funny because I love the shapes, and I get inspiration from toys and books, and I believe in art for everyone.

My sculptures cause an uproar, astonishment, and put a smile on your face.

The role of the federal government should be neutral toward culture just as it is toward religion.

Do not ghettoize society by putting people into legal categories of gender, race, ethnicity, language, or other such characteristics.

There are more effective ways of tackling environmental problems including global warming, proliferation of plastics, urban sprawl, and the loss of biodiversity than by treaties, top-down regulations, and other approaches offered by big governments and their dependents.

Early Islam was a time of great creativity. Scholars excelled in sciences and literature. Our religion should not be a shield behind which we hide from the world but a driving force that inspires us to innovate and contribute to our surroundings. This is the true spirit of Islam.

I don't think I can get into my deep inner thoughts about hitting. It's like talking about religion.

Racial history is therefore natural history and the mysticism of the soul at one and the same time; but the history of the religion of the blood, conversely, is the great world story of the rise and downfall of peoples, their heroes and thinkers, their inventors and artists.

I think one of the great historical contributions of science is to weaken the hold of religion. That's a good thing.

Maybe nature is fundamentally ugly, chaotic and complicated. But if it's like that, then I want out.

These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness and worship without awareness.

Superstitions and belief in magic are perennial in just the same way as religion, and something near to being universal among mankind; and why this is so may be interesting, but in most cases the beliefs themselves are devoid of interesting content, at least to me.

Let the professors of Christianity recommend their religion by deeds of benevolence - by Christian meekness - by lives of temperance and holiness.

The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.

It's also reflective of a young person's religion or faith in that it's highly charged with sacramental imagery and with country imagery, because I was in the seminary for so many years in the country.

One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible.

God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.

Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.

If we reject science, we reject the common man.

I love Sufism as I love beautiful poetry, but it is not the answer. Sufism is like a mirage in the desert. It says to you, come and sit, relax and enjoy yourself for a while.

First of all, the Jewish religion has a great deal in common with the Christian religion because, as Rabbi Gillman points out in the show, Christianity is based on Judaism. Christ was Jewish.

A great many people think that polysyllables are a sign of intelligence.

One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.

I find very often people like to confront rumors. It depends on how much they trust you. And you have to have a line between what is tasteful and what isn't.

Deep breaths are very helpful at shallow parties.

Before we had airplanes and astronauts, we really thought that there was an actual place beyond the clouds, somewhere over the rainbow. There was an actual place, and we could go above the clouds and find it there.

The sports page records people's accomplishments, the front page usually records nothing, but man's failures.

There must be freedom for all to live, to think, to worship, no book, no avenue must be closed.

The Godhead consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is a material being.

God the Father and God the Son cannot be everywhere present; indeed they cannot be even in two places at the same instant: but God the Holy Spirit is omnipresent - it extends through all space, with all other matter.

Each atom of the Holy Spirit is intelligent, and like all other matter has solidity, form, and size, and occupies space.

God is the King. In him exists all legal authority.

The kingdom of God is an order of government established by divine authority. It is the only legal government that can exist in any part of the universe.

Noah and his family were the only loyal and obedient subjects to the legal power: they alone were saved.

The true God He has extension, and form, and dimensions. He occupies space; has a body, parts, and passions; can go from place to place. He can eat, drink, and talk.

It was seldom that I attended any religious meetings, as my parents had not much faith in and were never so unfortunate as to unite themselves with any of the religious sects.

Give yourself entirely to God, enter and hide in the hidden ground of your soul.

God in His wisdom has decided that He will reward no works but His own.

Spiritually good people, pure in heart, who long for the Blessed Sacrament but cannot receive at the time, can receive spiritually... even a hundred times a day, in sickness and in health, with immeasurable grace and profit.

Because in the school of the Spirit man learns wisdom through humility, knowledge by forgetting, how to speak by silence, how to live by dying.