#religion

Yes indeed, both Muslim and Jewish!I, her father, am Muslim, at least on paper; her mother is Jewish, at least in theory. With us, religion is transmitted through the father; among Jews, through the mother. Therefore, according to the Muslims, Nadia was Muslim; according to the Jews, she was Jewish. She herself might have chosen one or the other, or neither, she chose to be both at once...Yes, both at once and more. She was proud of all the bloodlines that had converged in her, roads of conquest or exile from central Asia, Anatolia, the Ukraine, Arab, Bessarabia, Armenia, Bavaria...She refused to divide out her blood, her soul. ↗

— Amin Maalouf

#love #origins #religion #love

The naked man had lost hope now; he would never be able to return to the earth's surface;he would never leave the bottom of this shaft, and he would go mad there drinking blood and eating human flesh, without ever being able to die. Up there, against the sky, there were good angels with ropes, and bad angels with grenades and rifles, and a big old man with a white beard who waved his arms but could not save him. ↗

— Italo Calvino

#parable #religion-is-evil #love

So when modern-day religious conservatives wax nostalgic about how marriage is a sacred tradition that reaches back into history for thousands of uninterrupted years, they are absolutely correct, but in only one respect—only if they happen to be talking about Judaism. ↗

— Elizabeth Gilbert

#marriage #religion #marriage

The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. ↗

— Timothy Keller

#hope #love #religion #sin #love

…religious traditions build up meaning only over time and in a communal context. They can’t be purchased like a burger or a pair of shoes. ↗

— Kathleen Norris

#tradition #life

When I hear that "Possession is the grave of love," I remember that a religion may begin with the resurrection. ↗

— F.H. Bradley

#marriage #monogamy #possession #religion #resurrection

You must value something highly to go to war to improve it ↗

— Deborah Laake

#religion #women #marriage

A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. ↗

— Francis Bacon

#religion #men

When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left to himself with no light, as though lost in this corner of the universe without knowing who put him there, what he has to do, or what will become of him when he dies, incapable of knowing anything, I am moved to terror, like a man transported in his sleep to some terrifying desert island, who wakes up quite lost, with no means of escape. Then I marvel that so wretched a state does not drive people to despair. ↗

— Blaise Pascal

#blaise #pascal #philosophy #religion #men

These fools who haven't the slightest idea how to live the morals they espouse. These fools who proclaim themselves men of God, yet show not the slightest reverance to His word...Is it any different from a drunkard preaching temperance? A whore preaching modesty? ↗

— Seth Grahame-Smith

#religion #spirituality #men