Richard Whately Quotes

Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism.

Prayer can never be in excess.

There is nothing in religion but fiction.

Whenever I hear somebody go, "I feel so religious right now!" I'm like, "Well, you're tying yourself up in knots, are you?" There's no spiritual connotation to that word whatsoever. And while it binds you to a rope, because it's about belonging, it alienates you to others. That can't be part of God's plan, if there is a God.

I do pray. I pray to something...up there. I have a God sense. It's not religious so much as superstitious. It's part of being human, I guess.

A man should be religious, not superstitious.

The idea of "karma" reeks of primitive religious superstition, so I don't place a lot of stock in it.

Superstition! that horrid incubus which dwelt in darkness, shunning the light, with all its racks, and poison chalices, and foul sleeping draughts, is passing away without return. Religion cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky; but the stars are there and will reappear.

I resist all established beliefs. My religion basically is to be immediate, to live in the now. It's an old cliche, I know, but it's mine. I envy people of faith. I'm incapable of believing in anything supernatural. So far, at least. Not that I wouldn't like to. I mean, I want to believe. I do pray. I pray to something ... up there. I have a God sense. It's not religious so much as superstitious. It's part of being human, I guess ... Do unto others: How much deeper into religion do we really need to go?

Yet, if he would, man cannot live all to this world. If not religious, he will be superstitious. IF he worship not the true God, he will have his idols.

True material welfare is never inconsistent with performance of religious obligations.

I wouldn't say that I'm overly religious, but I have a pretty good relationship with my spiritual being.

Belief in God is an act of faith. But so is believing our existence is simply the result of chance.

A peasant can no more help believing in a traditional superstition than a horse can help trembling when be sees a camel.

You get religion as your hair turns grey.

Life is the question and life is the answer, and God is the reason and love is the way.

What does God mean to me? I guess I was made the way I am for some reason, and I've been able to find the talent I have, and I've been able to use it, so I'm grateful for that. I believe in God; [but] I'm not saying I'm highly religious.

Religion is not removed by removing superstition.

God knows there's a heaven.

The downtrodden are more religious than the satisfied.

Mythology may, in a real sense, be defined as other people's religion. And religion may, in a sense, be understood as popular misunderstanding of mythology. (8)

They tell you that a tree is only a combination of chemical elements. I prefer to believe that God created it, and that it is inhabited by a nymph.

The real truth, I thought, in terms of what faith is and what Christianity is.

Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky.

In those fifty, the Old Man made me take religion seriously. I'd never been religious, but he told us that religion is important whether or not we believed in one, the same way that historical events are important whether or not you personally lived through them.