I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than read more

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is.

God brings men into deep waters not to drown them, but to cleanse them.

God brings men into deep waters not to drown them, but to cleanse them.

An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.

An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; which proceed sciences which may read more

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; which proceed sciences which may be called "sciences as one would." For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride; things not commonly believed, out of deference to the opinion of the vulgar. Numberless in short are the ways, and sometimes imperceptible, in which the affections color and infect the understanding.

What men usually ask for when they pray to God is, that two and two may not make four.

What men usually ask for when they pray to God is, that two and two may not make four.

I hope I never get so old I get religious.

I hope I never get so old I get religious.

To speak of God, to think of God, is in every respect to show what one is made of. I read more

To speak of God, to think of God, is in every respect to show what one is made of. I have always wagered against God and I regard the little that I have won in this world as simply the outcome of this bet. However paltry may have been the stake (my life) I am conscious of having won to the full. Everything that is doddering, squint-eyed, vile, polluted and grotesque is summoned up for me in that one word: God!

Only he who handles his ideas lightly is master of his ideas, and only he who is master of his read more

Only he who handles his ideas lightly is master of his ideas, and only he who is master of his ideas is not enslaved by them.

I admit that the generation which produced Stalin, Auschwitz and Hiroshima will take some beating; but the radical and universal read more

I admit that the generation which produced Stalin, Auschwitz and Hiroshima will take some beating; but the radical and universal consciousness of the death of God is still ahead of us; perhaps we shall have to colonize the stars before it is finally borne in upon us that God is not out there.