GOD QUOTES XIII

quotations about God

The prerogative of God extendeth as well to the reason as to the will of man: so that as we are to obey His law, though we find a reluctation in our will, so we are to believe His word, though we find a reluctation in our reason.

FRANCIS BACON

The Advancement of Learning

Tags: Francis Bacon


Remember the perfections of that God whom you worship, that he is a Spirit, and therefore to be worshipped in spirit and truth; and that he is most great and terrible, and therefore to be worshipped with seriousness and reverence, and not to be dallied with, or served with toys or lifeless lip-service; and that he is most holy, pure, and jealous, and therefore to be purely worshipped; and that he is still present with you, and all things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do. The knowledge of God, and the remembrance of his all-seeing presence, are the most powerful means against hypocrisy.

RICHARD BAXTER

Christian Ethics

Tags: Richard Baxter


Those who are crafty, think the wisdom of God warrants him to deceive; those who are revengeful, think the goodness of God permits him to be cruel; those who are arbitrary, think the sovereignty of God is the account of his actions. Everyone attributes to God, what he finds in himself: but that cannot be a perfection in God, which is a dishonesty in Man.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms

Tags: Benjamin Whichcote


God's merits are so transcendent that it is not surprising his faults should be in reasonable proportion.

SAMUEL BUTLER

Note-Books


A God wise enough to create me and the world I live in is wise enough to watch out for me.

PHILIP YANCEY

Where Is God When It Hurts?


I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, and I have been circling for a thousand years, and I still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm, or a great song.

RAINER MARIA RILKE

The Book of Hours


God has made it possible for us to come to know Him through the visible and tangible things of our world. Have you ever looked at a sunset and been reminded of who's really in charge in this world? Have you ever gawked at majestic mountain peaks and been jerked back into the reality of how much bigger God is than you and your problems? Have you ever shaken your head at the brilliant lines, patterns and colors on the wings of a butterfly and contemplated the stunningly detailed imagination of the Creator? Then you've seen God's glory and encountered the efforts of a Father longing to be recognized by His children.

CHRIS SEIDMAN

Little Buddy

Tags: Chris Seidman


God, a born extremist, is the diplomat's worst enemy. Quite apart from the fact that His decrees are irrevocable, the Absolute will not allow anyone to relativize matters.

RéGIS DEBRAY

God: An Itinerary

Tags: Regis Debray


The ethical is the universal, and as such it is again the divine. One has therefore a right to say that fundamentally every duty is a duty toward God; but if one cannot say more, then one affirms at the same time that properly I have no duty toward God. Duty becomes duty by being referred to God, but in duty itself I do not come into relation with God. Thus it is a duty to love one's neighbor, but in performing this duty I do not come into relation with God but with the neighbor whom I love. If I say then in this connection that it is my duty to love God, I am really uttering only a tautology, inasmuch as "God" is in this instance used in an entirely abstract sense as the divine, i.e. the universal, i.e. duty. So the whole existence of the human race is rounded off completely like a sphere, and the ethical is at once its limit and its content. God becomes an invisible vanishing point, a powerless thought, His power being only in the ethical which is the content of existence.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD

Fear and Trembling


Men fail to find God because they curiously reverse the position -- the natural, legitimate, rightful position -- between the soul and God. There is a word common in theology, though not very familiar in ordinary intercourse, -- theodicy, which means justifying the ways of God to man. When a man begins to justify the ways of God to man, he has entered on a very dangerous process. For example, it is said, " If there is a God, he must be omnipotent and omniscient; and an omnipotent and omniscient God could and would make a world without sin and without suffering; but the world is not without sin nor without suffering, therefore there is no God." Such a man frames in his own mind his notion of what a God must be, and then brings God himself to that standard, and measures him by it. Theodicy! Justifying the ways of God to man! Sit, my soul, on the judgment throne, and summon God to stand before thee. "Now, Almighty One, I will see whether thou art righteous. Why didst thou allow famine in India? What right hast thou to allow a deluge in Japan? What right hast thou to allow man to go to war with his fellow-man in Europe? Justify thyself; explain thyself; answer for thyself." No man will ever find his way to the heart of God in that spirit.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Seeking After God

Tags: Lyman Abbott


If God existed, only in one way could he serve human liberty -- by ceasing to exist.

MIKHAIL BAKUNIN

God and the State

Tags: Mikhail Bakunin


God never made his work for man to mend.

JOHN DRYDEN

Epistle to John Driden of Chesterton, 1700

Tags: John Dryden


We seem to think that God speaks by seconding the ideas we've already adopted, but God nearly always catches us by surprise. If it's God's Spirit blowing, someone ends up having feathers ruffled in an unforeseen way. God tends to confound, astonish, and flabbergast.

SUE MONK KIDD

When the Heart Waits

Tags: Sue Monk Kidd


God is not only fatherly,
God is also mother
who lifts her loved child
from the ground to her knee.
The Trinity is like a mother's cloak
wherein the child finds a home
and lays its head on the maternal breast.

MECHTILD OF MAGDEBURG

attributed, Soul Weavings

Tags: Mechtild of Magdeburg


God speaks silently, he speaks in your heart; if your heart is noisy, chattering, you will not hear.

CARYLL HOUSELANDER

This War is the Passion

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God's commandments are the iron door into himself. To keep them is to have it opened and his great heart of love revealed.

SAMUEL WILLOUGHBY DUFFIELD

Fragments


You are as close to God in your own sitting room as in the basilica; but the basilica has worth if it strengthens your faith.

SIMON MAWER

The Gospel of Judas


Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad'st it pregnant: What is in me dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the heighth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.

JOHN MILTON

Paradise Lost


They are always saying God loves us. If that's love I'd rather have a bit of kindness.

GRAHAM GREENE

The Captain and the Enemy

Tags: Graham Greene


God Himself is simple, and employs simple men to shape the world.

JOHN UPDIKE

Terrorist