Henry David Thoreau Quotes

My personal belief is we should not bow to any object. But Islam was aware of this human weakness and fulfilled that need through Haj to kiss a stone. A stone is a stone but the vacuum was filled and it became the holiest object. I have performed Haj and seen the devotion of people braving stampedes only to kiss that stone.

I didn't go to church, I didn't go to synagogue; I went to temple, Hindu temple, where I prayed to my Hindu gods - whether or not I believe in it is another story.

I hope that increasing numbers of Christians adopt the practice of wearing a cross in a simple and discreet way as a symbol of their beliefs.

I'm not very religious at all - I was raised Catholic, but probably haven't gone to church since my Holy Communion when I was about 6 or 7.

I hate to see them take that creche out of the capitol. It could be the only chance we'll ever have to get three wise men in that building.

Secular thinkers have a separation between thinking and doing. They don't have a grasp of the balance sheet. The doers are selling us potted plants and pizzas while the thinkers are a little bit unworldly. Religions both think and do.

All organized religions are basically the same.

We are a temple-building and a temple-attending people.

It's hard to rest knowing that millions of people merely carry on religious traditions but don't actually reach God.

When people sugarcoat Christianity, arrange it all nicely, they have, in effect, taken away the Cross.

A religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing those conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.

The problem I have with all this religion stuff is that I can't relate to it. I think most people got into 'cos it gave them something to do on a Sunday, but since all the shops are now open it isn't required as much.

It was never in my heart to slight any man, but only that man should be kept in his place and not sit in the room of God.

We have grown so accustomed to the idea of divine love...that we no longer sense the awe that God's coming should awaken in us.

We tend to believe in the modern secular world that if you tell someone something once, they'll remember it. ... Religions go, "Nonsense. You need to keep repeating the lesson 10 times a day. So get on your knees and repeat it." That's what all religions tell us: "Get on your knees and repeat it 10 or 20 or 15 times a day." Otherwise our minds are like sieves.

In culture after culture, people believe that the soul lives on after death, that rituals can change the physical world and divine the truth, and that illness and misfortune are caused and alleviated by spirits, ghosts, saints ... and gods.

Sacredness binds people together, and then blinds them to the arbitrariness of the practice.

Most people think that God wants us to demonstrate our love for God by having churches and by having symbols - and I think that's a huge error.

One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean anything horrible. It is not the mother of harlots.

Do you know what religion is, Martin, my friend? -I can barely remember Lord's Prayer. -A beautiful and well-crafted prayer. Poetry aside, a religion is really a moral code that is expressed through legends,myths, or any type of literary device in order to establish a system of beliefs, values , and rules with which to regulate a culture or a society.

Then, when people saw you strolling around at high noon holding your rosary beads, they’d think, ‘Well, that can’t be a vampire.

Many people get what they need from church attendance because the Word is preached, and the rituals are carried on, and God works, but it's drift more than anything else. And that's why the churches keep reaching for some programmatic formula that will make people come and give money. It's just really very sad.

Catholicism believes in the Virgen de Guadalupe. The mother of God is worshipped, especially in Latin America. I find her very empowering. I find that the Virgen de Guadalupe allowed me to return to parts of my upbringing I had disregarded.

Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world.

Only two people have been on the cover of Time Magazine in bare feet. I'm one, the other is Gandhi.