If I was telling that story in a '50s style, it would have been a melodrama, ... a story of 'An innocent girl falls into the seedy, sordid world of bondage and then sees the light and is born again.' If I were telling it now in an urban, sophisticated way, you would have a story about a girl who is a free spirit, who does these lighthearted bondage photos, then she crashes and she turns to religion which would be the tragedy in the modern view, because it's so polarized now that people see any religion as representing the horrible forces of puritanism. I was trying to comment on the sad confusion surrounding sex at that time, present it in a complex way, and give her religion a fair hearing too.
Religions & Spirituality Quotes (2350 Quotes)
Let any man turn to God in earnest, let him begin to exercise himself unto godliness, let him seek to develop his powers of spiritual receptivity by trust and obedience and humility, and the results will exceed anything he may have hoped in his leane.
True religion is not a narrow dogma. It is not external observance. It is faith in God and living in the presence of God. It means faith in a future life, in truth and Ahimsa. There prevails today a sort of apathy towards these things of the Spirit.
Some time ago a member of my family sent to me a critical article written by Mr. Edmund Fuller in a publication called Saturday Review. The criticism of the writer is directed against the effort made to satisfy what the author designates as 'general religious hunger,' with books, articles, and public appearances of nationally advertised individuals, carrying on a propaganda for what is characterized as (these are quotes) 'the good life,' 'peace of mind,' 'positive thinking,' and 'successful' or 'confident living.' What the author objects to most strenuously is not so much that propaganda should be issued for the optimism of 'peace of mind' and 'positive thinking,' but that this psychological optimism should be held out in any form as an interpretation of or a substitute for the real Christian religion.
There are some forms of religion that are bad, just as there's bad cooking or bad art or bad sex, you have bad religion too.
It isn't until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are - not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within - that you can begin to take control.
Over time people's relationships with each other change, ... Friends are no longer friends. People divorce. They might find religion. So those people who didn't give information before might now be willing.
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.
For me, the other thing is not just a strong sense of spirituality.
What went wrong in this case was that the school failed to appreciate that by its action it was infringing on the claimant's Article 9 right to manifest her religion.
What we have today is a different kind of enemy - it's not a country, it's not a particular society, it's not a religion. It has an unknown face.
I was told to challenge every spiritual teacher, every world leader to utter the one sentence that no religion, no political party, and no nation on the face of the earth will dare utter: 'Ours is not a better way, ours is merely another way.
With reference to other religions, the Church sees a great difference between them and herself. The other religions are expressions of the human soul seeking God, with some beautiful spiritual insights, but also not without errors. Christianity is rather God seeking humanity.
One great remedy against all manner of temptation, great or small, is to open the heart and lay bare its suggestion, likings, and dislikings before some spiritual adviser for, ... the first condition which the Evil One makes with a soul, when he wants to entrap it, is silence.
The flames of freedom which were lighted across this great land of ours in Thomas Jeffersons day have continued to burn with an intense and magnetic light for nearly 200 years. They have been fed by the spiritual fuel which abounds only in a land where an abiding faith in God and recognition of Him as the true Author of Liberty prevail.
'As for that,' said Waldenshare, 'sensible men are all of the same religion.' 'Pray, what is that' inquired the Prince. 'Sensible men never tell.'
What can the love in my soul be compared to another wonderful soul which is so far and yet so close of my self What can this symbiosis between two souls can be What can love be when you feel you cannot sleep at night, that every drop of dew becomes a crystal in your heart, when every breeze of wind has magical meanings What can love be when you feel that you want nothing more in this world that to be with the soul you love But what can love be in other transcendental realities What about our souls Are our souls a waterfall, a true Niagara or a smile, a flirt of an angel Are our souls a mere mood of a fairy or a lightening in a summer rain; Our souls could be all of this and much more. But what really happens in that transcendental reality when we feel we are truly in love, that we love so much that it hurts That the air in the room is unbreathable, that the sentimental, spiritual or physical distances kill us What happens when dawn find us sadder than ever, looking for an excuse or an argument for the person we love so much, our Great Love What are all thses What are the looks lost in the desert horizons of unfulfilment or those in the eyes that deeply loose each other in the others inside the souls.
However, if the religions in essence merely repeat statements from the United Nations Human Rights Declaration, such a Declaration becomes superfluous; an ethic is more than rights.
The memory of my own suffering has prevented me from ever shadowing one young soul with the superstition of the Christian religion.
In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced, and both by precept and example inculcated on mankind.
REVERENCE, n. The spiritual attitude of a man to a god and a dog to a man.
Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.
Cruel persecutions and intolerance are not accidents, but grow out of the very essence of religion, namely, its absolute claims.
Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.
Religion is the sign of the oppressed... It is the opium of the people.
A woman who could always love would never grow old and the love of mother and wife would often give or preserve many charms if it were not too often combined with parental and conjugal anger. There remains in the face of women who are naturally serene and peaceful, and of those rendered so by religion, an after-spring, and later an after-summer, the reflex of their most beautiful bloom.
Plato's philosophy is a dignified preface to future religion.
The same person has come to Me seeking success at the examination, then a job, then a father-in-law, then a child, then a rise in the salary, a transfer in a cheaper place and a seat in the Medical College for his son - a never ending series of wants, until at last he comes seeking My Grace for an end to worldly pursuits and for initiation into the path of spirituality.
I see why people think it is, and sometimes I do. And sometimes I don't think it's selfish. I'm probably an atheist, though I was raised a Catholic - and that whole religion is based on the first suicide, in many ways.
We don't confer government power on religions, and we don't give religious organizations government power.
It is coming. A vast war. A war no citizen of any country can stop, except those who are supposed to represent citizens. It will be war to buttress the next few hundred years of nation-state politics it is a defining moment in world history. It has been boiling for millenia, simmering for the last few generations, and shall be a meal for the masses who have t. v. or who experience causalities. It is the only avenue left for peace. Who is to say that a multi-nation state war based on economics, religion and politics is a bad thing It could lead to the destruction of those conditions that created such misery and death. It could lead to humanity. But then again, should humanity be a growing process are we still infantile Maybe every soldier who serves in the name of their country is a modern day Christ. Perhaps we have replaced Christ, an individual who sacrificed for the sake of humanity, for those individuals who fight for a nation-state. It is a degredation of ideals. Perhaps people are too colored by their immediate culture and responsibilities to notice the suffering of humanity. Perhaps they're not allowed to care. Perhaps there's not enough time to make an effort to care. But who needs wisdom or hope when war is the answer and motivation to peace. Individuals have allowed their power to be consolidated into a handful of humans who manipulate perception for their own individual ends. Is it those few who bear responsibility Or is it just foolish to believe that one human can represent another Is the upcoming war good to find the solution for humanity or is it just another folly of a stupid species What is the solution What is the end to all this silliness.
Religion and science both profess peace (and the sincerity of the professors is not being doubted), but each always turns out to have a dominant part in any war that is going or contemplated.
To devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness of all is religion. Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion.
I think what happened today in Bangladesh is another tragic example that there is no protection against terrorism, ... You're not protected by religion. You're not protected by national boundary. You're not protected by political orientation.
If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!
Fundamentalism represents a rebellion against modern secular society, the separation of religion and politics. Basically, fundamentalists want to drag religion andor God from the sidelines to which they've been relegated in modern secular society and bring them back to center stage. And, in this, they've enjoyed considerable success in some ways, though in other ways... it can represent a defeat for religion.
Religion is too often talked of, but too little known.
Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized nor should any organisation be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. (J.
The spiritual path - is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just don't know it.
For those who wish to climb the mountain of spiritual awareness, the path is selfless work. For those who have attained the summit of union with the Lord, the path is stillness and peace.
The future of mankind seems to be a religious one, and religion can be a way for the modern man or the man of the future to save himself, if it used appropriately and wrongfully as it was done by now. Religion must no and is not allowed to become a dictatorship of a divinity behind which interests alien to the scared self of the Man are hidden. Religion must be the mirror of the sacred self in which it can see its true splendour. Through religion we have to understand the way through which the human being finds its true freedom when it is referenced to the society to which he belongs. This path will lead the man to re-find himself in his own religion and not religion to re-find itself in man by force, by humiliating him and deeming him as null in front of the divinity.
Those who instigate and plan these attacks evidently wish to poison our relations, making use of all means, including religion, to oppose every attempt to build a peaceful, fair and serene life together.
The increase of territory and power of empires by force of arms has been the policy of all great powers, and it has always been possible to get the approval of their state religion.
Well, one of the problems of working on a story with a character that sacred in the religions of the world or in a picture about that person, is that you have to forget about that and play it as real as you can because you can't look at yourself and judge yourself.
I don't think there's any doubt that people derive enormous comfort from religion, and they should continue to do that. What they shouldn't expect is that religious activity is going to promote their health.
Catholicism is not a soothing religion. It's a painful religion. We're all gluttons for punishment.
It's a big victory for separation of religion and state and a huge defeat for Islamic fundamentalism.
I think Catholic Americans had better believe there's truth in all religions, because the Second Vatican Council said that. We don't believe that we have a monopoly on truth. We believe what we have is true, but it's not the whole truth. And we can learn a lot from the other religions if we listen to them respectfully.
If religion is only human, and its form is man's form, it follows that everything in religion is true.