Mark Twain Quotes

Morality may exist in an atheist without any religion, and in a theist with a religion quite unspiritual.

The sheep-people don't think for themselves anymore. You can say anything and it's the gospel truth and they don't have to go research it or anything, and they believe everything the news tells them. People don't go and do their own investigations if it's relationships or politics or anything.

Faith is important to me. It's important to millions of Australians. It helps to shape who I am. It helps to shape my values. But it must never, never dictate my politics.

My faith has been the driving thing of my life. I think it is important that people who are perceived as liberals not be afraid of talking about moral and community values.

People watch movies - and it's vague ideas, it's vague notions, but people pick up on these things, that they are supposed to think certain ways or that they're not supposed to think, basically, and they don't.

Culture has worked by coming to exercise a form of mind control over us. We willingly accept and even embrace this mind control, and probably without even knowing it.

My faith informs everything I think and do. It's part of my value system. And to suggest that I can somehow separate and divorce that from the rest of me is not possible.

A decent man who doesn't consider himself a bigot can indeed be trained to behave like a bigot if he welcomes feedback exclusively from those who consider bigotry no big deal or, indeed, an attribute to be admired.

Moderates tend more than ideologues to be other-directed types who respond to external pressure.

And the inner dynamics of Hollywood are like politics. Say you give a script to a group of executives - they all sit around, afraid to voice an opinion, saying nothing, waiting to know what the consensus is. Just like focus groups, opinion polls or a cabinet.

Among politicians the esteem of religion is profitable; the principles of it are troublesome.

The profound influence of religion on American politics is vital, but it is best when indirect: on the morals, habits, and souls of individual Americans; on the political climate and the principals that should guide policy, rather than on specific policies themselves…

Every individual wishes the rest to live after his own mind, and to approve what he approves, and reject what he rejects.

What is a value? Obviously, normal and healthy people are able to appreciate something as a high value for which to live and if necessary, to die, for no other reason than that it was evolved in cultural ritualization and handed down to them by a revered elder.

One must be very naïve or dishonest to imagine that men choose their beliefs independently of their situation.

There is a noble future for Islam as a personal faith, not a political doctrine

It is society which, fashioning us in its image, fills us with religious, political, and moral beliefs that control our actions.

No one can escape the influence of a prevailing ideology.

My faith is my life. It defines me. My faith doesn’t influence my decisions; it drives them.

I am ultimately convinced that people must first be told that so and so is great, and then, after a period of given time, they come to believe it for themselves.

Politics is chiefly a function of culture, at the heart of culture is morality, and at the heart of morality is religion.

People are so brainwashed by the rules that they don't know what really matters.

Religion, politics, society are exploiting you, and you are being conditioned by them; you are being forced in a particular direction. You are not human beings; you are mere cogs in a machine.

Most men are followers, and implicitly rely upon the judgment of others. They mistake solemnity for wisdom, and regard a grave countenance as the title page and Preface to a most learned volume. So they are easily imposed upon by forms, strange garments, and solemn ceremonies. And when the teaching of parents, the customs of neighbors, and the general tongue approve and justify a belief or creed, no matter how absurd, it is hard even for the strongest to hold the citadel of his soul. In each country, in defence of each religion, the same arguments would be urged.

I feel about politics the same way I do about religion: I find the best I can from different things.