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God

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“I saw that our nature is in God whole: in which He maketh diversities flowing out of Him to work His will: whom Nature keepeth, and Mercy and Grace restoreth and fulfilleth. And of these none shall perish: for our nature that is the higher part is knit to God, in the making; and God is knit to our nature that is the lower part, in our flesh-taking: and thus in Christ our two natures are oned.”
Julian of Norwich (1342–1500) said by 1500 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unmovable disinterest brings man into likeness of God. ... To be full of things is to be empty of God; to be empty of things is to be full of God.”
Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) said by 1328 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Men Who Have Walked with God (1992) by Sheldon Cheney, p. 198
“This passage from nothingness to real being, this quitting of oneself is a birth accompanied by pain, for by it natural love is excluded. All grief except grief for sin comes from love of the world. In God is neither sorrow, nor grief, nor trouble. Wouldst thou be free from all grief and trouble, abide and walk in God, and to God alone. As long as love of the creature is in us, pain cannot cease.”
Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) said by 1328 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Through the higher love the whole life of man is to be elevated from temporal selfishness to the spring of all love, to God: man will again be master over nature by abiding in God and lifting her up to God.”
Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) said by 1328 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For whoever has what he has from the God himself clearly has it at first hand; and he who does not have it from the God himself is not a disciple. Let us assume that it is otherwise, that the contemporary generation of disciples had received the condition from the God, and that the subsequent generations were to receive it from these contemporaries – what would follow?”
Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) said by 1855 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God is the great mysterious motivator of what we call nature and it has been said often by philosophers, that nature is the will of God. And, I prefer to say that nature is the only body of God that we shall ever see. If we wish to know the truth concerning anything, we'll find it in the nature of that thing.”
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Truth Against the World : Frank Lloyd Wright speaks for an organic architecture (1987) edited by Patrick J. Meehan
“I've been worrying about God a little bit lately. It seems as if he's been lashing out, you know, destroying cities, annihilating places. It seems like he's been in a bad mood. And I think it has to do with the quality of lovers he's been getting. If you look at the people who love God now, you know, if I was God, I'd need to destroy something.”
Salman Rushdie (born 1947) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Real Time with Bill Maher TV show (7 October 2005)
“God of Nations, at thy feet, In thy bonds of love we meet, Hear our voices, we entreat, God defend our free land. Guard Pacific's triple star From the shafts of strife and war, Make her presence heard afar, God Defend New Zealand!”
Thomas Bracken (1843–1898) first seen 1876 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: God Defend New Zealand" (circa 1876, now one of the two national anthems of New Zealand)
“We've got to help each other, seeing as God doesn't help us. Do you see how great Jesus' idea was? Imagine how much it must have irritated God. Forget the devil, Jesus was the only true enemy of God, and he's the only friend us poor wretches have.”
Umberto Eco (1932–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't want Church to be like all those dead pets! I don't want Church to ever be dead! He's my cat! He's not God's cat! Let God have His own cat! Let God have all the damn old cats He wants, and kill them all! Church is mine!”
Stephen King (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was in the death struggle with self: God and Satan fought for my soul those three long hours. God conquered — now I have only one doubt left — which of the twain was God?”
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Aceldama: A Place To Bury Strangers In (1898) Preface
“If I have to choose between an omnipotent God who leaves the world in this condition, and a God who has only a little bit of power but really cares and tries to make things better, I'll take you every time. Go on playing God, Hyrum. You're not bad at it. Sometimes you kind of get it right.”
Orson Scott Card (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Fascist State has never tried to create its own God, as at one moment Robespierre and the wildest extremists of the Convention tried to do; nor does it vainly seek to obliterate religion from the hearts of men as does Bolshevism: Fascism respects the God of the ascetics, of the saints, of the heroes, and also God as seen and prayed to by the simple and primitive heart of the people.”
Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Doctrine of Fascism, June 1932. Quoted in Charles Floyd Delzell, Mediterranean Fascism, 1919-45 Springer, 1971
“Whoever God is calling to govern must put God first, must know the people, must know what their aspirations are, must know what their needs are and address those needs. In that way they will be blessed, they will rejoice and God too will be honoured.”
Peter Akinola (born 1944) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (Interview in the Guardian newspaper, 24 January 2007)
“Some people say that without God, people would give themselves permission to do anything. [Yet] only with God, only with the view that God’s on your side, can people give themselves permission to do things that otherwise would be called satanic.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Freedom From Religion Foundation, 21/10/2007
“Let nothing disturb thee; Let nothing dismay thee: All things pass; God never changes. Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing: God alone suffices.”
Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) said by 1582 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poem IX", in Complete Works St. Teresa of Avila (1963) edited by E. Allison Peers, Vol. 3, p. 288
“GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Dr. Dobson, ...in the Daily Oklahoman, [you were] quoted saying, "Patrick Leahy is a God's people hater. I don't know if he hates God, but he hates God's people." Now, Dr. Dobson, that doesn't sound like a particularly Christian thing to say. Do you think you owe Senator Leahy an apology?”
James Dobson (1936–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God works, and therefore we work; God is with- us, and therefore we are with God, and stand on His side.”
Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is needless to ask of a saint the caste to which he belongs; For the priest, the warrior. the tradesman, and all the thirty-six castes, alike are seeking for God. It is but folly to ask what the caste of a saint may be; The barber has sought God, the washerwoman, and the carpenter — Even Raidas was a seeker after God.”
Kabir (1398–1518) said by 1518 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I say that man without the grace of God nonetheless remains the general omnipotence of God who effects, and moves and impels all things in a necessary, infallible course; but the effect of man's being carried along is nothing--that is, avails nothing in God's sight, nor is reckoned to be anything but sin.”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) said by 1546 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now, as the Word of God is the Son of God, so the love of God is the Holy Spirit.”
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) said by 1274 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The larger picture is really to swing people's awareness of what really is moral. ... There are great clergy-people who absolutely do not agree with this. It's not whether God is on our side or whether we're doing God's will, it's being so narcissistic as to think that God is telling you what to do.”
Lily Tomlin (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“BERISH: I resigned from membership in God—I resigned from God. Let Him look for another innkeeper, let Him find another people, let Him push around another Jew—I’m through with Him! MARIA: Don’t you worry, Master. You say things, but God isn’t angry How could He be? He isn’t even listening.”
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men will not understand … that when they fulfil their duties to men, they fulfil thereby God's commandments; that they are consequently always in the service of God, as long as their actions are moral, and that it is absolutely impossible to serve God otherwise.”
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in German Thought, From The Seven Years' War To Goethe's Death : Six Lectures (1880) by Karl Hillebrand, p. 207
“I think that if there were a God, there would be less evil on this earth. I believe that if evil exists here below, then either it was willed by God or it was beyond His powers to prevent it. Now I cannot bring myself to fear a God who is either spiteful or weak. I defy Him without fear and care not a fig for his thunderbolts.”
Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) said by 1814 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All religions concur in exalting the deep-seated wisdom and power of a divinity, but once its conduct is exposed, we find nothing but imprudence, weakness, and folly. God, we are told, created the world for himself, but so far he has failed to have the world honored appropriately. God created us to worship him, and we spend our days mocking him! What a wretched God he is!”
Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) said by 1814 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I seek the spread of freedom and democracy in the way that satisfies God. [Americans] have planned and paved the ways for a long time, but it is God who is the real planner -- and the proof of this is the fall of the American twin towers[...]a miracle from God.”
Muqtada Sadr (born 1974) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Iraqi cleric calls 9/11 'miracle from God', CNN, March 27, 2004.
“A man might say, "The things that are in the world are what God has made. ... Why should I not love what God has made?" ...Suppose, my brethren, a man should make for his betrothed a ring, and she should prefer the ring given her to the betrothed who made it for her, would not her heart be convicted of infidelity? ... God has given you all these things: therefore, love him who made them.”
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Second Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), pp. 275-276
“I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy — you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do”
Penn Jillette (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My God is a God of strength. HE does not like the smell of frankincense and the dishonoring crawl of the crowd. I stand before HIM proudly, with the head held high, as HE created me, and I profess gladly and freely before HIM. The true German seeks God for all of his life.”
Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Understanding human nature is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing it can we know God. It is also a fact that the knowledge of God is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing God can we understand human nature.”
Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“1. GOD CREATES THE COSMOS WITH LOVE. 2. WHEN WE CREATE WITH LOVE WE ALIGN OURSELVES WITH THE GOD FORCE. 3. THE COSMOS AND OUR WORLD IS GOD’S EVOLVING CREATION, AN UNFINISHED MASTERPIECE WE EACH CO-CREATE.”
Alex Grey (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fundamental principle of faith of Judeo Christian (belief) is there is a God, who is our heavenly Father and all the people on this earth and every speck of humanity on this earth is a creation of God … And every creation of humanity is a child of God.”
Mitt Romney (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We actually have a candidate for the mind of God. The mind of God we believe is cosmic music, the music of strings resonating through 11 dimensional hyperspace. That is the mind of God.”
Michio Kaku (born 1947) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Math is the Mind of God (29 December 2012)
“We know that our faith sometimes has been used as a wedge to divide us, but we also know that with a big God, with a loving and forceful God, if we unite in his name, we can finish his work on Earth. In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it. With a uniting faith, with a God powerful enough to empower us, we can take those bullets out.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We/I am a son/daughter of God. In fact, we are all expressions/projections of the Infinite Conciousness, which is love, that is what I mean when I say "I am a son of god "GOD"!”
David Icke (born 1952) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Terry Wogan, Wogan (1991).
“We must come to see that God is not so much the cause of moral obligation or the sanction of duty as the very substance of Good. Then what we call the moral proof brings us in one leap to the true God, revealing himself as God of Charity.”
Henri de Lubac (1896–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we rise out of [the night] into the new life and there begin to receive the signs, what can we know of that which — of him who gives them to us? Only what we experience from time to time from the signs themselves. If we name the speaker of this speech God, then it is always the God of a moment, a moment God.”
Martin Buber (1878–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Between Man and Man (1965), p. 15
“God ... desires His creature to be able to oppose Him. He has given that creature freedom. ... When man turns away from evil with that whole measure of power with which he is able to rebel against God, then he has truly turned to God.”
Martin Buber (1878–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is mistaken law that leads you to sacrifice. Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it. I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. Let him give his lie. Quail not before God's judgment in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride.”
Arthur Miller (1915–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I might do a work to put me in contact with the god Mercury. If the information I get from that is valuable to me, and new enough, it doesn’t really matter whether the god Mercury is there at all, does it? There is a channel that I have called the god Mercury, some sort of information source I have named.”
Alan Moore (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“May God inspire these men sometime to come to their senses in regard to God again, so that they may repent, however latter day, of their grave crimes, namely homicide against the brothers of the Lord, and that they free these baptized women whom they have taken, so that then they may deserve to live to God and be made whole once more, here, now and for eternity.”
Saint Patrick (385–461) said by 461 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's not necessary to be born again. You have your way to God, I have mine. I found eternal peace in a Shinto shrine … I've been to Shinto shrines and God is everywhere. … Christ is one of the ways! God is everywhere.”
Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On a Phil Donahue Show in 1984, as quoted in The Sword of the Lord (14 December 1984)
“I recall an old Sufi story of a good man who was granted one wish by God. The man said he would like to go about doing good without knowing about it. God granted his wish. And then God decided that it was such a good idea, he would grant that wish to all human beings. And so it has been to this day.”
Robert Fulghum (born 1937) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Christ came here for spiritual reasons, not secular war and boundaries and geography. And yet, we are now dedicating so much of our aggressive activity in the name of God, but God, he is the Prince of Peace. That is what I see from my God and through Christ. I vote for peace.”
Ron Paul (born 1935) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Values Voter Presidential Debate, September 17, 2007 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hCKZmkF0VU
“Leave the result to God. From God you have come and unto God you shall go. In between is a temporary passage through time and space. But you are never subject to time and space — you just pass through it. With Guru's blessing, you'll find the guide and the guidance.”
Harbhajan Singh Yogi (1929–2004) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark (14 July 1975), as quoted in Transitions to a Heart Centered World : Through the Kundalini Yoga and Meditations of Yogi Bhajan (1988) by Guru Rattana and Ann M. Maxwell, p. 134
“The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.”
Bono (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When Jesus was nailed to the cross — and hung there in torment - he cried out — "God, my God! Why hast thou forsaken me?" He cried out as loud as he could. He thought that his heavenly father had abandoned him. He believed everything he'd ever preached was a lie. The moments before he died, Christ was seized by doubt. Surely that must have been his greatest hardship? God's silence.”
Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Algot Frövik (Allan Edwall) in Winter Light (1962)
“AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharaoh's charioteers. AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals. It is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.”
Jerry Falwell (1933–2007) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1993, quoted in {{cite book