Famous quotes
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“That man should think of God as nothingness must at first sight seem astonishing, must appear to us a most peculiar idea. But, considered more closely, this determination means that God is absolutely nothing determined. He is the Undetermined; no determinateness of any kind pertains to God; He is the Infinite. This is equivalent to saying that God is the negation of all particularity.”
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, Lectures on the philosophy of religion, together with a work on the proofs of the existence of God. Vol 2 Translated from the 2d German ed. 1895 Ebenezer Brown Speirs 1854-1900, and J Bur…
“You must have heard about the beautiful Sufi legend of Majnu and Laila. It is not an ordinary love story. The word majnu means mad, mad for God. And laila is the symbol of God. Sufis think of God as the beloved; laila means the beloved. Everybody is a Majnu, and God is the beloved. And one has to open one’s heart, the eye of the heart.”
Rajneesh (1931–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When God is Socialism, God is love. [...] Socialism means that all the means of production that man has [...] are owned by the same people, the family of man, the family of God. There is only one source of ownership—love. No one can privately own the land. No one can privately own the air. It must be held in common. So then, that is love, that is God, Socialism”
Jim Jones (1931–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking to his followers, quoted in Walliss 2004, p. 48, Chidester 1988, p. 57
“The greatest, strongest, mightiest plea for the church of God in the world is the existence of the Spirit of God in its midst, and the works of the Spirit of God are the true evidences of Christianity. They say miracles are withdrawn, but the Holy Spirit is the standing miracle of the church of God to-day.”
Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I said God but you know what I mean!” “I do indeed. You are indulging in theology; I would rather see you take laudanum. Maureen, when anyone talks about ‘God’s will’ or ‘God’s intentions’ or Nature’s intentions if he is afraid to say ‘God,’ I know at once that he is selling a gold brick. To himself, in some cases, as you were just doing.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People think God is a man. People think God has got ears, nose, teeth and he rises daily in the morning, brushes his teeth and washes his mouth. And he is an old man and he has a beard. All these things people think. But no, God is energy. God is perfect and pure energy.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Central Hall, Westminster, London, UK, November 2, 1971
“Who is Guru? The highest manifestation of God is Guru. So when Guru is here, God is here, to whom will you give your devotion? I want that the general should sign some papers. I need not go to his office when he is sitting in my home. Is it necessary to go in his office when his is sitting in my home? When God has come here, then what is the need to give devotion to God there?”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (responding to a question about the word guru), Alta Loma Terrace Satsang, 1971 - reproduced from Elan Vital magazine, vol. II, issue 1
“People ask, “Do you say that you are God?” I say, “No, I am not God. I don't want to be God.” But what I do want to be is a humble servant of God so that I can teach people this Knowledge, so that I can give people this gospel of peace, love and Truth. That’s all I want to do. So all these lectures, all these speeches that I am giving are just for this purpose.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Johannesburg, South Africa, May 2, 1972
“Why should that be, LuAnn? Why should we be put into such a wonderful world and then have everything taken away from us? God’s will? No, LuAnn, God is love, and God wouldn’t have done such a cruel thing to us, so therefore there is no God, there’s only death, Death, whom we must reject.”
Robert Silverberg (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God by God flits past in thunder, till His glories turn to shades; God to God bears wondering witness how His gospel flames and fades. More was each of these, yet they were, than man their servant seemed: Dead are all of these, and man survives who made them while he dreamed.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Altar of Righteousness", in Harper's Monthly (June 1904)
“I rarely speak about God. To God yes. I protest against Him. I shout at Him. But open discourse about the qualities of God, about the problems that God imposes, theodicy, no. And yet He is there, in silence, in filigree.”
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a 1978 interview with John S. Friedman, published in The Paris Review 26 (Spring 1984); and in Elie Wiesel : Conversations (2002) edited by Robert Franciosi, p. 87
“Never gonna fall for Modern love — walks beside me. Modern love — walks on by. Modern love — gets me to the church on time. Church on time — terrifies me. Church on time — makes me party. Church on time — puts my trust in God and man. God and man — no confessions. God and man — no religion. God and man — don't believe in modern love.”
David Bowie (1947–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there's a God, I want to see Him. It's pointless to believe in something without proof, and Krishna consciousness and meditation are methods where you can actually obtain God perception. In that way you can see, hear and play with God. Perhaps this may sound weird, but God is really there next to you.”
George Harrison (1943–2001) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead (1970) by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
“I think about God, yes, and I wonder if there is a God. And if there is a God, will God please help me through my hard trips.”
Brian Wilson (1942–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God money I'll do anything for you. God money just tell me what you want me to. God money nail me up against the wall. God money don't want everything he wants it all.”
Trent Reznor (born 1965) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Head Like a Hole, from Pretty Hate Machine (1990).
“The prophets never taught that God and history are one, or that whatever happens below reflects the will of God above. Their vision is of man defying God, and God seeking man to reconcile with him.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's enough to have faith in one aspect of God. You have faith in God without form. That is very good. But never get into your head that your faith alone is true and every other is false. Know for certain that God without form is real and that God with form is also real. Then hold fast to whichever faith appeals to you.”
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1965) by Christopher Isherwood, p. 263
“It is better to deny God, than to defy God. Sometimes our weakness is considered strength, and we take delight in borrowed greatness. To profess to be a lover of God and then to be dishonest to God, to the world and to himself, is unparalleled hypocrisy. Difficulties give us the opportunity to prove our greatness by overcoming them.”
Meher Baba (1894–1969) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message dictated to Sanjeeva Reddy at Guruprasad (6 June 1960), as quoted in The God-Man : The Life, Journeys and Work of Meher Baba with an Interpretation of His Silence and Spiritual Teaching (1964) by Charles Benjami…
“We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval. God loves us without conditions but does not approve of every human behavior. God doesn’t approve of betrayal, violence, hatred, suspicion, and all other expressions of evil, because they all contradict the love God wants to instill in the human heart. Evil is the absence of God’s love.”
Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bread For the Journey (1996)
“That's why I can dream dreams that God Himself never dreamed. I'm that kind of person. I can believe the things even God can't believe. I can do things even God can't. That's why God hated me more than Satan hated me.”
Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Father's Words in Washington D.C. (2003-05-17)
“I’d have asked him [Tony Blair] about his faith, because we were told, when journalists asked about Blair’s faith, the reply was, “We don’t do God here.” Well, of course, he does do God, and he reports that his actions have been put before God and confirmed, as if somehow God has signed a chit for him.”
John le Carré (1931–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At bottom, knowledge of God in faith is always this indirect knowledge of God, knowledge of God in His works, and in these particular works in the determining and using of certain creaturely realities to bear witness to the divine objectivity. What distinguishes faith from unbelief, erroneous faith and superstition is that it is content with this indirect knowledge of God.”
Karl Barth (1886–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A lot of people seem to believe in a big-daddy-God or a big-cop-God or a big-king-God. They believe in a kind of superperson. A few believe God is another word for nature. And nature turns out to mean just about anything they happen not to understand or feel in control of.”
Octavia Butler (1947–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thank God for 9/11. Thank God that, five years ago, the wrath of God was poured out upon this evil nation. America, land of the sodomite damned. We thank thee, Lord God Almighty, for answering the prayers of those that are under the altar.”
Fred Phelps (1929–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God wanted a blood sacrifice. God had shed innocent blood to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. Cain knew God wanted a bloody animal sacrifice, a lamb to be precise. Cain thought that he could get favor with God by bringing the work of his own hands.”
Kent Hovind (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Say, He Whom God shall make manifest is indeed the Primal Veil of God. Above this Veil ye can find nothing other than God, while beneath it ye can discern all things emanating from God. He is the Unseen, the Inaccessible, the Most Exalted, the Best Beloved.”
Báb (1819–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God wants us to worship Him. He doesn't need us, for He couldn't be a self-sufficient God and need anything or anybody, but He wants us. When Adam sinned it was not he who cried, 'God, where art Thou?' It was God who cried, 'Adam, where art thou?'”
Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Worship: The Missing Jewel as quoted in Vernon K. McLellan (2000), Twentieth century thoughts that shaped the church p. 265.
“Maybe the growth of "God" signifies the existence of God. That is: if history naturally pushes people toward moral improvement, toward moral growth, and their God, as they conceive their God, grows accordingly, becoming morally richer, then maybe this growth is evidence of some higher purpose, and maybe — conceivably — the source of that purpose is worthy of the name divinity.”
Robert Wright (born 1957) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Evolution of God. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009, p. 286.
“In so far as men are prepared to prefer their own will to God’s will, they can be said to hate God: for of course they cannot hate Him in Himself. But they hate Him in the Commandments which they violate. But God is our life: God’s will is our food, our meat, our life’s bread.”
Thomas Merton (1915–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God is not a God of the edges, with a vested interest in beginnings. God is the God of the whole show.”
John Polkinghorne (1930–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If God is God, he is not good. If God is good, he is not God.”
Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dialogue from MacLeish's play J.B., an adaptation of the Bible's Book of Job, also quoted in The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates (2012) by Howard Bloom
“Members rise from CMG (known sometimes in Whitehall as "Call Me God") to KCMG ("Kindly Call Me God") to GCMG ("God Calls Me God").”
Anthony Sampson (1926–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no god but God and Muhammad (aws) is God’s prophet and messenger; the purpose of life is to establish a loving relationship with The One through a hermeneutic engagement with God’s signs (ayat) in revelation, creation, and in the human mind and heart; such a purpose requires a wholehearted commitment to learning in all its forms…”
Yakoub Islam first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Muslim Anarchist Charter (20 June 2005)
“... what is built today has as Saint Paul declared, all the earmarks of a homosexual culture. That is, a culture at war with God and God’s reality, and is therefore under the judgment of God, who, knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them.”
Rousas John Rushdoony (1916–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I should make clear first that I don’t think arguments are needed for rational belief in God. In this regard belief in God is like belief in other minds, or belief in the past. Belief in God is grounded in experience, or in the sensus divinitatis, John Calvin’s term for an inborn inclination to form beliefs about God in a wide variety of circumstances.”
Alvin Plantinga (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God in the depths of us receives God who comes to us: it is God contemplating God.”
John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) said by 1381 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in An Anthology of Mysticism and Mystical Philosophy' (1927) by William Kingsland, thumb|God is more interior to us than we are to ourselves. His acting in us is nearer and more inward than our own actions. God w…
“To die to sin is to live to God, thumb|If we would God discern, the world we must despise, his love and hate must learn, see all things with His eyes to be emptied of self and detached from all that pleases or displeases, leads to the Kingdom of God; heart and desire must close to things of earth to open to God and things eternal, if we desire to taste and see that the Lord is sweet”
John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) said by 1381 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not wish a love which may be described as for God, or in God. I cannot see those words, for and in, without their suggesting to me that something may intervene between God and me; and that is what pure and simple love, by reason of its purity and simplicity, is unable to endure. This purity and simplicity is as great as God is, for it is his own”
Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510) said by 1510 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of great importance is that the repetition of God’s Name increases daily. In this way your heart and mind will be purified. Only then you will find God in yourself. (…) The water to clean your heart is the Name of God. So teach everyone to repeat the Name of God – everywhere.”
Haidakhan Babaji (2000–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
John the Evangelist (10–98) said by 98 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the hour of reality approaches, the zero hour, wholeheartedly welcome death for the sake of God. Always be remembering God. Either end your life while praying, seconds before the target, or make your last words: There is no God but God, Muhammad is his messenger.”
Mohamed Atta (1968–2001) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Last Night (2001)
“I can’t say I have shed [ego] it completely. I have certainly given it up, up to 95 per cent. I believe until and unless I give up my ego, I can’t realise God. My whole ambition in life is to realise God or truth, whatever you may want to call it. Do you believe in God? It’s a fashion not to believe in God.”
Morarji Desai (1896–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The aim of such a religion is not merely to "glorify God"; rather, it is to glorify all souls, as all in the image of God; to glorify them by fulfilling for every one of them its vocation to repeat in a new way the life of universal love that is the life of God, and thus to attain, through the universal greatening, such a real glorification of God as other forms of religion seek after in vain.”
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unless the world is truly set apart from God and possesses a dependent but real liberty of its own analogous to the freedom of God, everything is merely a fragment of divine volition, and God is simply the totality of all that is and all that happens; there is no creation, but only an oddly pantheistic expression of God's unadulterated power.”
David Bentley Hart (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are people who think they're God. Thinking you're God transcends God Bosses play church. ...He is playing God to compensate for a tremendous lack of confidence.'”
John Hoover (consultant) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Sufi's love to God goes with God's love towards him. Sufis are folk who have preferred God to everything, so that God has preferred them to everything.”
Dhul-Nun al-Misri (796–861) said by 861 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The gnostic is the knower without knowledge, without sight, without information without apprehension, without description, without manifestation and without veil. If they are in themselves at all, they exist but in God, Their actions are held by God and their words are the words of God uttered by their tongues and their sight is the sight of God penetrated into their eyes.”
Dhul-Nun al-Misri (796–861) said by 861 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are only two loves, whence originate all our wishes and all our actions: the love of God which does all for God and which God rewards and the love of ourselves and of the world, which does not refer to God what should be referred to him and which for that very reason becomes evil.”
Pasquier Quesnel (1634–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 44th Proposition, as translated by Mary Ilford in The Bourgeois: Catholicism vs. Capitalism in Eighteenth-Century France (1968), pp. 118-119
“Jesus is said to have said on the cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Because Jesus was insane and the God he thought would rescue him did not exist. And he died on that cross like a fool. He fancied himself the son of God and he could barely convince twelve men to follow him at a time when the world was full of superstition.”
Cenk Uygur (born 1970) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: If You're a Christian, Muslim or Jew - You are Wrong", The Huffington Post (23 October 2005)
“Success comes on God’s terms, in His time, and in His way. God only allowed me to have success after I’d been broken after I’d stopped seeking success for myself, and after I’d come to terms with the idea that my labors for God might not ever bring me a penny. It was only after I’d lost everything that God was able to get my heart right to the point where He could trust me with success.”
Scott Cawthon (born 1978) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Scott Cawthon-Christian Developer Spotlight", Geeks Under Grace (October 25, 2014)