George R. R. Martin Quotes

Revealed religion is one thing, revealed legislation, another.

It is often said by religious people that without its framework, there is no sense of right or wrong. My view is that religion comes after ethics.

The ten commandments and the sermon on the mount contain my religion.

The state dictates and coerces; religion teaches and persuades. The state enacts laws; religion gives commandments. The state is armed with physical force and makes use of it if need be; the force of religion is love and benevolence.

religion and morality are a much better whip to keep people in submission than even the club and the gun.

If it be true, as I believe it is, that morality is dependent upon religion, then religion is not only the most practical thing in the world, but the first essential.

The Church does not invent sins but recognizes the will of God and has to declare it. Of course, the great thing.. is that upon the Church, which has to declare the will of God in its full magnitude, in its unconditional rigor, so that man should know his true measure, is bestowed as a gift, at the same time, the task of forgiving.

This is the Book. I have read the Bible through many times, and now make it a practice to read it through once every year. It is a book of all others for lawyers, as well as divines; and I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and of rules for conduct. It fits man for life--it prepares him for death.

Man has made 32 million laws since THE COMMANDMENTS were handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai more than three thousand years ago, but he has never improved on God's law. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS are the principles by which man may live with God and man may live with man. They are the expressions of the mind of God for His creatures. They are the charter and guide of human liberty, for there can be no liberty without the law.

This is God's standards [against same-sex marriage and abortions]. And just because public opinion may have changed or somebody takes a poll - this is just one of the issues. And it doesn't matter what people say or what people think. It doesn't matter about the opinion polls. It's what God says, and God says this is a sin. And it's a sin against him, and he's going to judge sin.

What is Scripture? The Hebrew word is torah. Torah means teaching, learning.

In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal god.

Do we need more laws? God forbid! We need more righteousness, more freedom, and more godly men -- and fewer laws.

...It would be more consistent that we call [the Bible] the work of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.

Islam as a religion focuses primarily on the immutable aspects of life and existence, whereas a political system concerns only social aspects of our worldly life.

Religion is not just incongruent with morality, but in essential ways incompatible with it.

The law is an expression of God 's holy will and as such must be honored and loved," said the preacher piously. "Rubbish," said the Master. "The law is a necessary evil and as such must be cut down to the barest minimum. Show me a lover of the law and I will show you a muttonheaded tyrant .

Catholic doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground.

The Sins of Scripture is an interesting title; most people don't put sins and scripture together in the same title. It jars people.

No law made by man can overturn that of the Creator without dramatically affecting society in its very foundation.

Religion is the most gentlemanly thing in the world. It alone will gentilize, if unmixed with cant.

The most important of all the commandments of God is that one that you are having the most difficulty keeping today.

Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appears to me so pure as that of Jesus....I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.

As a rule of thumb I say, if Socrates, Jesus and Tolstoy wouldn't do it, don't.

Shouldn't the commandments be re-written? No, they should be re-read!