quotations about miracles
Miracles do not happen.
MATTHEW ARNOLD
preface, Literature and Dogma
For we cannot listen to those who maintain that the invisible God works no visible miracles; for even they believe that He made the world, which surely they will not deny to be visible. Whatever marvel happens in this world, it is certainly less marvelous than this whole world itself.
ST. AUGUSTINE
The City of God
I don't believe in miracles, but if the need is great, a girl might make her own miracle.
JULIE BERRY
All the Truth That's in Me
A private man has always the liberty (because thought is free) to believe or not believe in his heart those acts that have been given out for miracles, according as he shall see what benefits can accrue by men's belief, to those that pretend, or countenance them, and thereby conjecture whether they be miracles or lies.
THOMAS HOBBES
Leviathan
Miracles are like pimples, because once you start looking for them, you'll find more than you ever imagined possible.
DANIEL HANDLER
as Lemony Snicket, The Lump of Coal
Miracles, when considered in a general, abstract manner--that is, when divested of all circumstances, and supposed to occur as disconnected facts, to stand alone in history, to have no explanations or reasons in preceding events, and no influence on those which follow--are indeed open to great objection, as wanton and useless violations of nature's order; and it is accordingly against miracles, considered in this naked, general form, that the arguments of infidelity are chiefly urged. But it is great disingenuity to class under this head the miracles of Christianity. They are palpably different. They do not stand alone in history, but are most intimately incorporated with it. They were demanded by the state of the world which preceded them, and they have left deep traces on all subsequent ages. In fact, the history of the whole civilized world, since their alleged occurrence, has been swayed and colored by them, and is wholly inexplicable without them.
WILLIAM E. CHANNING
Thoughts
You have to see the miracles for there to be miracles.
JANDY NELSON
I'll Give You the Sun
How grateful I am that the day of faith and the age of miracles are not past history but continue with us even now.
THOMAS S. MONSON
LDS Church News, January 3, 2018
The narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.
WALT WHITMAN
"Song of Myself", Leaves of Grass
Miracles don't happen. You make them happen. They're not wishes or dreams or candles on a cake.
JULIE ANNE PETERS
Far from Xanadu
In those parts of the world where learning and science has prevailed, miracles have ceased; but in such parts of it as are barbarous and ignorant, miracles are still in vogue; which is of itself a strong presumption that in the infancy of letters, learning and science, or in the world's non-age, those who confided in miracles, as a proof of the divine mission of the first promulgators of revelation, were imposed upon by fictitious appearances instead of miracles.
ETHAN ALLEN
Reason: The Only Oracle of Man
Miracles don't have to be huge and dramatic. They can be small and beautiful like flowers blooming in March, right after a snowfall. They can be a snowflake falling during a summer rain storm. It could be a lost cat finding refuge at your home.
STEPHEN J. NAPOLITANO
Bob Frost
Miracles are like winning the lottery, they always happen to other people.
YUNGSI ERNEST KIYAH
To Immigrate or To Live Happily Ever After?
A miracle is nothing more than dormant justice from another time arriving to compensate those it has cruelly abandoned.
MARK HELPRIN
Winter's Tale
The world was made of miracles, unexpected earthquakes, storms that came from nowhere and might reshape a continent. The boy beside her. The future before her. Anything was possible.
LEIGH BARDUGO
Crooked Kingdom
Since man cannot live without miracles, he will provide himself with miracles of his own making. He will believe in witchcraft and sorcery, even though he may otherwise be a heretic, an atheist, and a rebel.
FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY
The Brothers Karamazov
Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood.
GEORGE SANTAYANA
introduction, The Ethics of Spinoza
Miracles are like the credentials of an ambassador. They are proof of his authority. Because we accept the miracles of Jesus we can trust the truth of his teachings about God.
TIM DOWLEY
introduction, History of Christianity
Miracles are like sign language. To those blessed with an unexplainable cure, they are the means by which God communicates.
MAURA POSTON ZAGRANS
Miracles Every Day
The spirit which in the modern Church has sometimes sought to found Christian faith on signs and wonders appears to me to be almost as much one of unbelief as the spirit which outside the Church denies the miraculous altogether.
LYMAN ABBOTT
Letters to Unknown Friends