John Irving Quotes

I believe in religion against the religious; in the pitifulness of orisons, and in the sublimity of prayer.

I am a religious person, although I am not a believer.

If you are part of a religion that very strongly insists that you believe then to decide not to do that is quite a big hurdle to jump over. You never forget the thought process you went through. It becomes part of your whole intellectual picture.

I have my own faith which I've developed. It's non-denominational. I don't even know if it's about God.

I do not belong to any religion. Everything is between God and myself.

I'm not an atheist, but I'm not a Christian, either.

I believe in God, but I wasn't living my life for God.

You know, a lot of people give up their religion, but, oh, my goodness, they go through such agonies. I never did.

It's almost inevitable that we become religious people. The question is, what kind of religion is it?

I've never thought of myself as a religious person.

I am a Catholic not like someone else would be a Baptist or a Methodist, but like someone else would be an atheist.

God knows, I'm not the thing I should be, Nor am I even the thing I could be, But twenty times I rather would be An atheist clean, Than under gospel colours hid be Just for a screen.

I now consider myself quite religious and spiritual although that sounds like a terrible cliche.

I'm not religious, but I like God and he likes me.

I believe in God, and that's a personal relationship that I have, but I'm not religious in any way.

I guess I stayed with the faith. I mean, organized religion is not something that I've maintained a direct connection to in my life, but the spirituality of it has had an indelible impact on my life and remains with me.

Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker, in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle.

I'm spiritual. I'm religious. I'm a strong Christian and I'm a Catholic but I go to a Presbyterian Church. Occasionally I go to the Catholic church too. I take communion. I haven't transferred my membership or anything.

I am not religious in the dogmatic sense... I neither believe nor disbelieve in anything.

I don't know whether God exists or not. ... Some forms of atheism are arrogant and ignorant and should be rejected, but agnosticism—to admit that we don't know and to search—is all right. ... When I look at what I call the gift of life, I feel a gratitude which is in tune with some religious ideas of God. However, the moment I even speak of it, I am embarrassed that I may do something wrong to God in talking about God.

I do think that religion has turned a lot of people off. Part of it is because it was all about the rules and was political. I think now people have a hunger for God, they want to have a relationship, but they don't want to be called religious. I'm not trying to get them to join my religion, I'm just trying to plant a seed of hope in their heart.

I am extremely spiritual. I've not gone into this before because it's personal, but faith is the core of my life.

I think that religion is an integral part of human needs, but the question also is how you understand religion.

Me and Jesus got our own thing going on. We don't need anybody to tell us what it's all about.

You may be Catholic or Protestant or Buddhist or Baptist or Muslim or Mormon or Jewish or Jain, or you have no religion at all. I'm not interested in your religious background. Because God did not create the universe for us to have religion. He came for us to have a relationship with him.