W. H. Auden Quotes

Man is not a machine that can be remodelled for quite other purposes as occasion demands, in the hope that it will go on functioning as regularly as before but in a quite different way. He carries his whole history with him; in his very structure is written the history of mankind.

Faith is not a sense, nor sight, nor reason, but taking God at His work.

Faith is the virtue by which, clinging-to the faithfulness of God, we lean upon him, so that we may obtain what he gives to us.

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.

The ultimate ground of faith and knowledge is confidence in God.

I believe in God, but I am not sure to trust Him so much.

It's a strange thought that sometimes God trusts us more than we trust Him. God trusts you - can you trust Him?

This is true faith, a living confidence in the goodness of God.

It don't matter if you believe in God Nick, he believes in you.

I have faith in faith. God is there, whether we have faith or not, so why not have faith in him?

More people are reading poetry now than at any time in the history of the human race.

I have never lost my faith in God.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

I do have faith. I don't have faith that a God exists, nor do I have faith that one does not; I have absolute faith that I do not know, cannot know, am only human, am an infinitesimal creature packed onto a cramped planet crowded with seven billion bodies, and as many yearning hearts, and as many questioning minds.

It is in the very nature of things human that every act that has once made its appearance and has been recorded in the history of mankind stays with mankind as a potentiality long after its actuality has become a thing of the past.

Christianity is usually called a religion. As a religion it has had a wider geographic spread and is more deeply rooted among more peoples than any other religion in the history of mankind.

Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent.

So the history of discovery, particularly cosmic discovery, but discovery in general, scientific discovery, is one where at any given moment, there's a frontier. And there tends to be an urge for people, especially religious people, to assert that across that boundary, into the unknown, lies the handiwork of God. This shows up a lot.

Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions.

The history of mankind is confined within a limited period, and from every quarter brings an intimation that human affairs have had a beginning.

It's a common part of the narrative of the history of Christianity that it was 'real' religion that involved real spirituality and real faith, and that's why it's completely superseded the more pagan polytheistic practices.

I never really had the classic struggle. I had faith.

No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.

In general, the human race is still a young organism.