FAITH QUOTES V

quotations about faith

Christianity, just as much as Islam, teaches children that unquestioned faith is a virtue. You don't have to make the case for what you believe. If somebody announces that it is part of his faith, the rest of society, whether of the same faith, or another, or of none, is obliged, by ingrained custom, to "respect" it without question; respect it until the day it manifests itself in a horrible massacre like the destruction of the World Trade Center, or the London or Madrid bombings.

RICHARD DAWKINS

The God Delusion

Tags: Richard Dawkins


Faith, not Knowledge, builds for every man,
In his own spiritual consciousness,
The ultimate, bright Heaven of his hope,
The realm of joy, the goal of his desire.
No weaker hand can lead the errant soul
From Doubt's dark labyrinth into the light,
And up the starry heights whereon is God.

ANDREW DOWNING

"The Sphinx"

Tags: Andrew Downing


At bottom, knowledge of God in faith is always this indirect knowledge of God, knowledge of God in His works, and in these particular works in the determining and using of certain creaturely realities to bear witness to the divine objectivity. What distinguishes faith from unbelief, erroneous faith and superstition is that it is content with this indirect knowledge of God.

KARL BARTH

Church Dogmatics


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

Tags: Martin Luther


All the answers you may wish for lie within faith, but it demands a complete and incontinent surrender, an immersion as total as any baptism. Indeed baptism is a kind of enactment of the surrender: you bathe in faith, you swim in it, you live by it, surrounded by it, buoyed up by it, engulfed by it. You drown in it, for at times it takes your breath away as entirely as any lungful of water.... All the answers lie in faith; and when you lose your faith you have no choice but to substitute for if a philosophy that deliberately and coldly offers no answers at all.

SIMON MAWER

The Gospel of Judas

Tags: Simon Mawer


If faith ever rises to manly vigour, it must be by enlarging the mind's acquaintance with the whole extent of saving truth. Believers who would be strong and healthy, must not be detained upon the milk of babes, but must aspire to strong meat, and go on unto perfection. For faith to be strong and conquering, we must have variety of food. The entire truths of religion must enter into the regimen.

JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDER

Faith

Tags: James Waddel Alexander


Scepticism has never founded empires, established principles, or changed the world's heart. The great doers of history have always been men of faith.

E. H. CHAPIN

Living Words

Tags: E. H. Chapin


Faith is like a floodlight that lights our path and provides illumination to our dark world.

MEL CURTISS

Inkspirations: Devotions for a Lifetime


In the isolation of his clear, cold intellect, the sceptic abides in a glacial and spectral universe. No glow from the affections lights up the frost and shadow of the grave. He feels no prophecy in the thrill of the human heart--in the incompleteness of nature. He believes merely in things tangible, and sees only in the daytime. He will not confess the authenticity of that paler light of faith which was meant to shine when the sunshine of reason falls short, and the firmament of mystery is over our heads.

E. H. CHAPIN

Living Words

Tags: E. H. Chapin


The shade of faith and the cloak of true godliness is the best equipage for the storm of adversity.

WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY

Proverbs

Tags: William Scott Downey


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


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

Tags: Ronald Reagan


Faith may have removed mountains way off somewhere, a long time ago, but it won't remove a wart at home this week.

EDGAR WATSON HOWE

Country Town Sayings

Tags: Edgar Watson Howe


No man can be any greater of any stronger, in Christianity, than his faith.

JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDER

Faith

Tags: James Waddel Alexander


For, no: not faith by fable lives,
But from the faith the fable springs
-- It never is the song that gives
Tongue life, it is the tongue that sings;
And sings the song.

ROBERT PENN WARREN

Love's Voice

Tags: Robert Penn Warren


When men are about to commit, or sanction the commission of some injustice, it is not uncommon for them to express pity for the object either of that or some parallel proceeding, and to feel themselves, at the time, quite virtuous and moral, and immensely superior to those who express no pity at all. This is a kind of upholding of faith above works, and is very comfortable.

CHARLES DICKENS

Nicholas Nickleby

Tags: Charles Dickens


Faith and optimism are contagious.

THOM S. RAINER

Surprising Insights from the Unchurched

Tags: Thom S. Rainer


Faith doth both admit and reject disputation with difference.

FRANCIS BACON

The Advancement of Learning

Tags: Francis Bacon


Faith ... is a conscious apprehension of something inevident, something which unlike this desk and this chair is not seen to be there, even if it enters into the fabric of our personal relations to reality with at least as much force, relevance, and moment as things which are seen to be there.

BERNARD LONERGAN

A Second Collection

Tags: Bernard Lonergan


We may define "faith" as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of "faith". We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. The substitution of emotion for evidence is apt to lead to strife, since different groups substitute different emotions.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

Human Society in Ethics and Politics

Tags: Bertrand Russell