# Quotes about god - Quotes: 28 - Authors: 14 - Broader topic: [Quotes about religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god ## Quotes > The body of all true religion consists, to be sure, in obedience to the will of the Sovereign of the world, in a confidence in His declarations, and in imitation of His perfections. Reflections on the Revolution in France Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > Stephen jerked his thumb towards the window, saying: > > — That is God. > > Hooray! Ay! Whrrwhee! > > — What? Mr Deasy asked. > > — A shout in the street, Stephen answered, shrugging his shoulders. [James Joyce](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce.md) · [Ulysses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses/stephen-jerked-his.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > [My father] impressed upon me from the first, that the manner in which the world came into existence was a subject on which nothing was known: that the question, "Who made me?" cannot be answered, because we have no experience or authentic information from which to answer it; and that any answer only throws the difficulty a step further back, since the question immediately presents itself, "Who made God?" Autobiography · p. 42 Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > Though they may think the proof incomplete that the universe is a work of design, and though they assuredly disbelieve that it can have an Author and Governor who is absolute in power as well as perfect in goodness, they have that which constitutes the principal worth of all religions whatever, an ideal conception of a Perfect Being, to which they habitually refer as the guide of their conscience; and this ideal of Good is usually far nearer to perfection than the objective Deity of those, who think themselves obliged to find absolute goodness in the author of a world so crowded with suffering and so deformed by injustice as ours. Autobiography · p. 46 Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > [M]y father's rejection of all that is called religious belief, was not, as many might suppose, primarily a matter of logic and evidence: the grounds of it were moral, still more than intellectual. He found it impossible to believe that a world so full of evil was the work of an Author combining infinite power with perfect goodness and righteousness. Autobiography · p. 39 Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > Granny had counted the temples with a thoughtful look in her eyes; gods were always demanding that their followers acted other than according to their true natures, and the human fallout this caused made plenty of work for witches. [Terry Pratchett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett.md) · [Equal Rites](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/equal-rites.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/equal-rites/granny-had-counted.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > "Gods are all right," said Granny, as they ate their lunch and looked at the view. "You don't bother gods, and gods don't come bothering you." [Terry Pratchett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett.md) · [Equal Rites](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/equal-rites.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/equal-rites/gods-are-all.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. > > I would also want a God who would not allow a Hell. Infinite torture can only be a punishment for infinite evil, and I don’t believe that infinite evil can be said to exist even in the case of Hitler. Besides, if most human governments are civilized enough to try to eliminate torture and outlaw cruel and unusual punishments, can we expect anything less of an all-merciful God? > > I feel that if there were an afterlife, punishment for evil would be reasonable and of a fixed term. And I feel that the longest and worst punishment should be reserved for those who slandered God by inventing Hell. > > But all that is just playing. I am firm in my beliefs. I am an atheist and, in my opinion, death is followed by an eternal and dreamless sleep. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov.md) · p. 338 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/if-i-were.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > The false logic involved is: “We exist; therefore something—call it X—created us.” Once this assumption is made, the properties of the hypothetical X can be fantasied in an unlimited number of ways. > > But the entire process is obviously fallacious; for by the same logic something must have created X—and so on. We are immediately involved in an infinite regress, which can have no meaning in the real universe. [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke.md) · p. 878 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/the-false-logic.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > Their little universe is very young, and its god is still a child. But it is too soon to judge them; when We return in the Last Days, We will consider what should be saved. p. 88, Epilogue [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [3001 The Final Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey/their-little-universe.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > The hypothesis you refer to as God, though not disprovable by logic alone, is unnecessary for the following reason. > > If you assume that the universe can be quote explained unquote as the creation of an entity known as God, he must obviously be of a higher degree of organization than his product. Thus you have more than doubled the size of the original problem, and have taken the first step on a diverging infinite regress. William of Ockham pointed out as recently as your fourteenth century that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily. I cannot therefore understand why this debate continues. [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The Fountains Of Paradise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-fountains-of-paradise.md) · p. 95 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-fountains-of-paradise/the-hypothesis-you.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > Belief in God is apparently a psychological artifact of mammalian reproduction. [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The Fountains Of Paradise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-fountains-of-paradise.md) · p. 190 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-fountains-of-paradise/belief-in-god.md) Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > Perhaps this impure infidel faith that puts everything in order, cleans everything up, repairs and embellishes everything only in order suddenly and violently to demolish and destroy, might spread through the whole world; it might make of all God's world an empty field for its senseless building and criminal destruction, a pasturage for its insatiable hunger and incomprehensible demands? Anything might happen. But one thing could not happen; it could not be that great and wise men of exalted soul who would raise lasting buildings for the love of God, so that the world should be more beautiful and man live in it better and more easily, should everywhere and for all time vanish from this earth. Should they too vanish, it would mean that the love of God was extinguished and had disappeared from the world. That could not be. [Ivo Andric](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ivo-andric.md) · [The Bridge on the Drina](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ivo-andric/the-bridge-on-the-drina.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ivo-andric/the-bridge-on-the-drina/perhaps-this-impure.md) Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods. If such a board actually exists it operates precisely like the board of a corporation that is losing money. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [Minority Report](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/it-is-impossible.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > Why assume so glibly that the God who presumably created the universe is still running it? It is certainly perfectly conceivable that He may have finished it and then turned it over to lesser gods to operate. In the same way many human institutions are turned over to grossly inferior men. This is true, for example, of most universities, and of all great newspapers. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [Minority Report](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/why-assume-so-glibly.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > Creator — A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [A Mencken Chrestomathy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy/creator-a-comedian.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos: He will set them above their betters. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [Minority Report](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/god-is-the.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > When the throne of God is overturned, the rebel realizes that it is now his own responsibility to create the justice, order, and unity that he sought in vain within his own condition, and in this way to justify the fall of God. Then begins the desperate effort to create, at the price of crime and murder if necessary, the dominion of man. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Rebel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/when-the-throne.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md) > Nothing can discourage the appetite for divinity in the heart of man. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Rebel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/nothing-can-discourage.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > Can one be a saint without God?, that's the problem, in fact the only problem, I'm up against today. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Plague](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-plague.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-plague/can-one-be-a-saint.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > Life cannot be reconciled with the idea that back of the universe is a Supreme Being, all merciful and kind, and that he takes any account of the human beings and other forms of life that exist upon the earth. Whichever way man may look upon the earth, he is oppressed with the suffering incident to life. It would almost seem as though the earth had been created with malignity and hatred. If we look at what we are pleased to call the lower animals, we behold a universal carnage. We speak of the seemingly peaceful woods, but we need only look beneath the surface to be horrified by the misery of that underworld. Hidden in the grass and watching for its prey is the crawling snake which swiftly darts upon the toad or mouse and gradually swallows it alive; the hapless animal is crushed by the jaws and covered with slime, to be slowly digested in furnishing a meal. The snake knows nothing about sin or pain inflicted upon another; he automatically grabs insects and mice and frogs to preserve his life. The spider carefully weaves his web to catch the unwary fly, winds him into the fatal net until paralyzed and helpless, then drinks his blood and leaves him an empty shell. The hawk swoops down and snatches a chicken and carries it to its nest to feed its young. The wolf pounces on the lamb and tears it to shreds. The cat watches at the hole of the mouse until the mouse cautiously comes out, then with seeming fiendish glee he plays with it until tired of the game, then crushes it to death in his jaws. The beasts of the jungle roam by day and night to find their prey; the lion is endowed with strength of limb and fang to destroy and devour almost any animal that it can surprise or overtake. There is no place in the woods or air or sea where all life is not a carnage of death in terror and agony. Each animal is a hunter, and in turn is hunted, by day and night. No landscape is beautiful or day so balmy but the cry of suffering and sacrifice rends the air. When night settles down over the earth the slaughter is not abated. Some creatures are best at night, and the outcry of the dying and terrified is always on the wind. Almost all animals meet death by violence and through the most agonizing pain. With the whole animal creation there is nothing like a peaceful death. Nowhere in nature is there the slightest evidence of kindness, of consideration, or a feeling for the suffering and the weak, except in the narrow circle of brief family life. The Story Of My Life · p. 383 Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md), [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md) > Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God. [Francis Bacon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon.md) · [The Advancement of Learning](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning/cleanness-of-body.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > "I do not believe in God," I told him. "For if there is a God, then tell me, Uncle, why is there poverty and baldness? Why do some men go through life immune to a thousand mortal enemies of the race, while others get a migraine that lasts for weeks? Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?" [Woody Allen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/woody-allen.md) · [Getting Even](https://www.leafyquotes.com/woody-allen/getting-even.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/woody-allen/getting-even/i-do-not.md) Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > And so he took Isaac to a certain place and prepared to sacrifice him but at the last minute the Lord stayed Abraham's hand and said, > > "How could thou doest such a thing?" > > And Abraham said, "But thou said-" > > "Never mind what I said," the Lord spake. "Doth thou listen to every crazy idea that comes thy way?" > > And Abraham grew ashamed. "Er-not really... no." > > "I jokingly suggest thou sacrifice Isaac and thou immediately runs out to do it." > > And Abraham fell to his knees, "See, I never know when you're kidding." > > And the Lord thundered, "No sense of humor. I can't believe it." [Woody Allen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/woody-allen.md) · [Without Feathers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/woody-allen/without-feathers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/woody-allen/without-feathers/and-so-he-took.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank. [Woody Allen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/woody-allen.md) · [Without Feathers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/woody-allen/without-feathers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/woody-allen/without-feathers/if-only-god.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > "Immortals are what you wanted," said Thor in a low, quiet voice. "Immortals are what you got. It is a little hard on us. You wanted us to be for ever, so we are for ever. Then you forget about us. But we are still for ever. Now at last, many are dead, many are dying," he then added in a quiet voice, "but it takes a special effort." > > "I can't even begin to understand what you're talking about," said Kate, "you say that I, we —" > > "You can begin to understand," said Thor, angrily, "which is why I have come to you. Do you know that most people hardly see me? Hardly notice me at all? It is not that we are hidden. We are here. We move among you. My people. Your gods. You gave birth to us. You made us what you would not dare to be yourselves. Yet you will not acknowledge us. If I walk along one of your streets in this... world you have made for yourselves without us, then barely an eye will once flicker in my direction." > > "Is this when you're wearing the helmet?" > > "Especially when I'm wearing the helmet!" [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-long-dark-tea-time-of-the-soul.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-long-dark-tea-time-of-the-soul/immortals-are-what.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > The greatness of our God lies in the fact that He is both toughminded and tenderhearted. [Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr.md) · [Strength to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/the-greatness-of-our.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > First, Communism is based on a materialistic and humanistic view of life and history. According to Communist theory, matter, not mind or spirit, speaks the last word in the universe. Such a philosophy is avowedly secularistic and atheistic. Under it, God is merely a figment of the imagination, religion is a product of fear and ignorance, and the church is an invention of the rulers to control the masses. Moreover, Communism, like humanism, thrives on the grand illusion that man, unaided by any divine power, can save himself and usher in a new society.... Cold atheism wrapped in the garments of materialism, Communism provides no place for God or Christ. [Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr.md) · [Strength to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/first-communism-is-based.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md)