James McBride Quotes

Life is not yours to take.

Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.

I actually do believe in life after death.

Every religion implies that it treats the problem of being and nonbeing, life and death. Their languages are different, but they speak about the same things.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.

There is no means of proving it is preferable to be than not to be.

I have said often, and I am sure of it, that the greatest destroyer of peace in the world today is abortion. If a mother can kill her own child, what is there to stop you and me from killing each other? The only one who has the right to take life is the The One who has created it.

She is Living and I'm Dead, but I'd like to believe we're both human. Call me an idealist.

Nothing is more important than life. Nothing. You realise the simplicity of that point only when you confront death everyday.

A man is not completely born until he is dead.

Poetry will exist as long as there is a problem of life and death

The person who is worthiest to live, is fittest to die.

I'm asked so often whether I believe in life after death. I do believe in the sanctity of life, the continuity of life and of energy. I know the anonymity of death has no appeal for me. It is the now that I must face and want to face.

I believe in life after death.

There was a Greek philosopher who taught that, of all things, not to have been born is the sweetest state. But I believe sleep is the sweetest state. You're dead, yet alive. There's no sensation so exquisite.

"You don't believe in God," I said to Stein. "God is a word banging around in the human nervous system. He exists about as much as Santa Claus." "Santa Claus has had a tremendous influence, exist or not." "For children." "Lots of saints have died for God with a courage that's hardly childish." "That's part of the horror. It's all a fantasy. It's all for nothing."

Most people don't base their morality on religion in spite what they say. If you ask people, "If you didn't believe in God, would you go out and kill your neighbour?" Most people will say, "No".

I believe that the black-and-white photograph, or rather the gray zones in the black-and-white photograph, stand for this territory that is located between life and death.

Living is death; dying is life. We are not what we appear to be. On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that citizens; on this side orphans, on that children.

Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, nevertheless they give up their lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have, and we live it as we believe in living it, and then it's gone. But to surrender what you are, and live without belief - that's more terrible than dying - more terrible than dying young.

FIRST WATCHER Why do people die? SECOND WATCHER Perhaps because they don't dream enough.

Actually, I have only two things to worry about now: afterlife and reincarnation.

In my solitude I have pondered much on the incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and death.

But the issue is not only life and death but our existence before God and our being judged by him. All of us were sinners before him and worthy of condemnation.

Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.