FAITH QUOTES III

quotations about faith

Without faith to act as a governor, the human mind is a runaway worry generator, a dynamo of negative expectations.

DEAN KOONTZ

Odd Apocalypse

Tags: Dean Koontz


We must not make a false faith by hiding from our thoughts the causes of doubt, for faith is the highest achievement of the human intellect, the only gift man can make to God, and therefore it must be offered in sincerity.

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

"Anima Hominis", Per Amica Silentia Lunae

Tags: William Butler Yeats


A man who cannot stand upright, cannot, of course, walk. And a man whose faith has no backbone to it, can do nothing but crawl or float about, to and fro, with the advancing and receding tide.

REUEN THOMAS

Thoughts for the Thoughtful

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Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.

HERMAN MELVILLE

Moby Dick

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Faith makes it possible to achieve that which man's mind can conceive and believe.

BRUCE LEE

Tao of Jeet Kune Do

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The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

JAMES BALDWIN

The Fire Next Time

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The struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith.

RONALD REAGAN

speech for National Association of Evangelicals, March 8, 1983

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The cherubim of love are better far
Than pillared wisdom's most seraphic star.
And knowledge cannot bring the sweet delight
Of childhood's faith that pierces darkest night.

EDWIN LEIBFREED

"The Quest for God"

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We may still say perhaps "faith governs the world"--but the faith of the present is no longer in revelation or in the priest--it is in reason and science.

HENRI-FREDERIC AMIEL

Journal Intime

Tags: Henri-Frederic Amiel


Faith is a pair of spectacles fitted by God in a dispensary for the poor, whereby the near-sighted can see truth at a distance, and get rid of pain from eye-strain.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought

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A faithful person sees life from the perspective of trust, not fear. Bedrock faith allows me to believe that, despite the chaos of the present moment, God does reign; that regardless of how worthless I may feel, I truly matter to a God of love; that no pain lasts forever and no evil triumphs in the end. Faith sees even the darkest deed of all history, the death of God's Son, as a necessary prelude to the brightest.

PHILIP YANCEY

Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find?

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How necessary it is for our happiness now, and to come, that we possess faith. The dog has faith in its master, the child in its parent, then why have we not more childlike faith in God? Let us try and bear in mind the implicit faith of Abraham, and strive more to imitate the partriarch of old. We are too apt to put faith in man, and how often we have to bitterly regret it when too late; and man only turns to God when he has tried every other source and found it fail. Why not, from the beginning, trust in God, and God alone; for he who puts his trust in man, God help him. May God give us strength, then, to nourish in all its perfection and simplicity, the faith of the patriarchs who feared and trusted God alone.

T. AUGUSTUS FORBES LEITH

"On Faith", Short Essays


Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood.

ARTHUR MILLER

The Crucible

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I will not doubt, though sorrows fall like rain,
And troubles swarm like bees about a hive;
I shall believe the heights for which I strive
Are only reached by anguish and by pain;
And though I groan and tremble with my crosses,
I yet shall see, through my severest losses,
The greater gain.

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

"Faith"

Tags: Ella Wheeler Wilcox


A golden thread, woven into the Old Testament history, renders the various lives whose stories it recounts only different phases of the same experience. That golden thread is faith.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Old Testament Shadows of New Testament Truths

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As a reason is superior to sense, so faith has the preeminence over reason. Be reason reverenced in matters that fall within her sphere; but when she ventures into deeps of God, the seas where faith has all the sovereignty, when acting like herself, she lowers her sails. As sense would seem to tell us many things which reason contradicts, so faith will rectify the fond mistakes of reason: nor ought she to be dissatisfied. Faith only shuts the eye of reason, not picks it out. Nor these alone submit themselves before this noble grace; even others her fellow virtues do obeisance. Though, as a gracious quality, she stands upon a level with the rest; yet, as an instrument, she far excels in glory. She cannot boast indeed of her intrinsic worth, but of the post of honor which she fills by heaven's appointment. She only is the general receiver of all the blessings of the gospel. By her we call heaven's rich unfathomable mines our own. Because she humbleth herself, therefore hath God highly exalted her, and given her a name above every grace. Even charity herself is only greater in duration: for, she abideth when faith shall fail, as to its actings; and die like Moses, in the mount. Such is her humble nature, that even the jealous God, who will not give his glory to another, even he is found to give his glory unto her. We are saved by faith; we are justified by faith. She faithfully returns the glory to her object. He has regarded the low estate of his handmaid, because himself has said, them that honor me, I will honor.

WILLIAM MCEWEN

"On Faith", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity


I believe faith is a human universal. We are endowed at birth with nascent capacities for faith. How these capacities are activated and grow depends to a large extent on how we are welcomed into the world and what kinds of environments we grow in. Faith is interactive and social; it requires community, language, ritual and nurture. Faith is also shaped by initiatives from beyond us and other people, initiatives of spirit or grace. How these latter initiatives are recognized and imaged, or unperceived and ignored, powerfully affects the shape of faith in our lives.

JAMES W. FOWLER

introduction, Stages of Faith

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I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning.

ALEISTER CROWLEY

The Book of Lies

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Through faith we are restored to paradise and created anew. We have no need of works in order to be righteous; however, in order to avoid idleness and so that the body might be cared for an disciplined, works are done freely to please God.

MARTIN LUTHER

The Freedom of a Christian

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Faith doesn't mean that you don't have doubts.

BARACK OBAMA

speech, Jun. 28, 2006

Tags: Barack Obama