No religion can long continue to maintain its purity when the church becomes the subservient vassal of the state.

No religion can long continue to maintain its purity when the church becomes the subservient vassal of the state.

to be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me everybody else means, read more

to be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me everybody else means, to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.

In isolated societies creeds can be preserved. It is where people of different traditions, outlook and creeds mingle freely and read more

In isolated societies creeds can be preserved. It is where people of different traditions, outlook and creeds mingle freely and exchange ideas that religious beliefs begin to be eroded. No one changes his beliefs without some instigation, some novel experience, some modification of the customary course of things, and in a closed society people believe what all their fellows obviously believe. Only when they are brought into contact with persons whom they respect holding different views do they begin to look at their inherited beliefs critically.

It is not the fact that a person has riches that keeps them from heaven, but the fact that riches read more

It is not the fact that a person has riches that keeps them from heaven, but the fact that riches have them.

The mind never fully accepts any convictions that it does not owe to its own efforts.

The mind never fully accepts any convictions that it does not owe to its own efforts.

The fewer words the better prayer.

The fewer words the better prayer.

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't read more

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.

A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within.

I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within.