I appeal now to the convictions of the communicants, and ask such persons whether they have not been occasionally conscious of a p...ainful confusion of thought between the worship due to God and the commemoration due to Christ.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is not enough for us to prostrate ourselves under the tree which is Creation, and to contemplate its tremendous branches filled... with stars. We have a duty to perform, to work upon the human soul, to defend the mystery against the miracle, to worship the incomprehensible while rejecting the absurd; to accept, in the inexplicable, only what is necessary; to dispel the superstitions that surround religion--to rid God of His Maggots.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I can turn from that slow embrace to worship mortal, the summoned... god who has speech, who has wit to wreathe all words, who laughs wrapped in sad pelt and without hope of heaven....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As a particularly dramatic gesture, he throws wide his arms and whacks the side of the barn with the heavy cane he uses to stab at... contesting bidders. With more vehemence than grammatical elegance, he calls upon the great god Caveat Emptor to witness with what niggardly stinginess these flinty sons of Scotland make cautious offers for what is beyond any question the finest animal ever beheld.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
All the scientists hope to do is describe the universe mathematically, predict it, and maybe control it. The philosopher, by contr...ast, seems unbecomingly ambitious. He wants to understand the universe; to get behind phenomena and operation and solve the logically prior riddles of being, knowledge, and value. But the artist, and in particular the novelist, in his essence wishes neither to explain nor to control nor to understand the universe. He wants to make one of his own, and may even aspire to make it more orderly, meaningful, beautiful, and interesting than the one God turned out. What's more, in the opinion of many readers of literature, he sometimes succeeds.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... so large a portion of those who hold much capital, instead of using their various advantages for the greatest good of those ar...ound them, employ the chief of them for mere selfish indulgences; thus inflicting as much mischief on themselves, as results to others from their culpable neglect. A great portion of the rich seem to be acting on the principle, that the more God bestows on them, the less are they under obligation to practise any self-denial, in fulfilling his benevolent plan of raising our race to intelligence and holiness.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"When the sun rises, do you not see a round disc of fire somewhat like a guinea?" O no, no, I see an innumerable company of the he...avenly host crying "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"What," it will be questioned, "When the sun rises, do you not see a round disc of fire somewhat like a guinea?" O no, no, I see a...n innumerable company of the heavenly host crying "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"English! they are barbarians; they don't believe in the great God." I told him, "Excuse me, Sir. We do believe in God, and in Jes...us Christ too." "Um," says he, "and in the Pope?" "No." "And why?" This was a puzzling question in these circumstances.... I thought I would try a method of my own, and very gravely replied, "Because we are too far off." A very new argument against the universal infallibility of the Pope.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »