#lit

What have I always believed? That on the whole, and by and large, if a man lived properly, not according to what any priests said, but according to what seemed decent and honest inside, then it would, at the end, more or less, turn out all right. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#decency #honesty #morality #religion #religion

You cannot exalt God and yourself at the same time. ↗

— Rick Warren

#religion #religion

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point. ↗

— Friedrich Nietzsche

#christianity #come #contact #into #morality

I wore black because I liked it. I still do, and wearing it still means something to me. It's still my symbol of rebellion -- against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to others' ideas. ↗

— Johnny Cash

#hypocrisy #individuality #religion #status-quo #religion

What has he found who has lost God? And what has he lost who has found God? ↗

— Ibn 'Ata' Allah Al-Iskandari

#religion #spirituality #sufism #religion

Nothing optional—from homosexuality to adultery—is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting (and exact the fierce punishments) have a repressed desire to participate. As Shakespeare put it in King Lear, the policeman who lashes the whore has a hot need to use her for the very offense for which he plies the lash. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#closeted #homosexuality #hypocrisy #prohibition #religion

I have learned that one should say "Peace!" to those who shout their hatred for one's being and presence or at one's passage. ↗

— Tariq Ramadan

#politics #islam

One of the greatest tragedies in mankind's entire history may be that morality was hijacked by religion. ↗

— Arthur C. Clarke

#organized-religion #religion #religion

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries. ↗

— James Madison

#organized-religion #politics #religion #separation-of-church-and-state #religion

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#organized-religion #philosophy #politics #religion #religion