Richard Whately Quotes

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.

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. Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism.

After a long, impartial enquiry of the truth, and after much and earnest calling upon God, to give unto me the spirit and revelation in the knowledge of Him, I find myself obliged, both by the principles of reason and Scripture, to embrace the opinion I now hold forth.

Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility. It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission.

He who has religion will speak poetry. But philosophy is the tool with which to seek and discover religion.

When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man.

Some like to understand what they believe in. Others like to believe in what they understand.

Faith is a poison that paralyzes the mind. In all the days of your life, seek knowledge!

We honor revelation too highly to make it the antagonist of reason, or to believe that it calls us to renounce our highest powers.

To believe and to understand are not diverse things, but the same things in different periods of growth.

Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to the honest. They are the first knock at our door of things that are not yet, but have to be, understood. . . . Doubts must precede every deeper assurance; for uncertainties are what we first see when we look into a region hitherto unknown, unexplored, unannexed.

I do not try, Lord, to attain Your lofty heights, because my understanding is in no way equal to it. But I do desire to understand Your truth a little, that truth that my heart believes and loves. I do not seek to understand that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand. For I believe this also, that unless I believe, I shall not understand.

There are subjects where reason cannot take us far and we have to accept things on faith. Faith then does not contradict reason but transcends it. Faith is a kind of sixth sense which works in cases which are without the purview of reason.

so it is with human reason, which strives not against faith, when enlightened, but rather furthers and advances it.

There are secrets to our world that only practice can reveal, and no opinion or analysis will ever capture in full.

Ignorance worships mystery; reason explains it; the one grovels, the other soars.

And is there anything more closely connected with wisdom than truth?

It isn't necessary to trust God when we have full understanding and knowledge of what He is doing on our behalf... Trust is needed in those times when, for whatever reason, we are not hearing from God as clearly as we would like.

What, concretely, is Enlightenment ?" "Seeing Reality as it is," said the Master. "Doesn't everyone see Reality as it is?" "Oh, no! Most people see it as they think it is." "What's the difference?" "The difference between thinking you are drowning in a stormy sea and knowing you cannot drown because there isn't any water in sight for miles around.

We are as much as we see. Faith is sight and knowledge. The hands only serve the eyes.

You can read ten books and finally come across one detail, and it's like, "now everything else makes sense. Now I know where I am."

You can't discover light, by analyzing the dark.

I believe in order that I may understand.

Science and religion, religion and science, put it as it may, they are the two sides of the same glass, through which we see darkly until these two focus together, reveal the truth.

Whatever you love opens its secrets to you.