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 GOD & GOING HOME . . . GOD see "RELIGION" for related links All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all. --Cecil Frances Alexander (18181895) English hymnwriter. "All Things Bright and Beautiful" [1848] st. 1 Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know he is. --Jean [-Marie-Lucien-Pierre] Anouilh (19101987) French playwright. _L'Alouette_ (The Lark) [1952] When a pious visitor inquired sweetly, 'Henry, [David Thoreau] have you made your peace with God?' he replied 'We have never quarelled.' --Brooks Atkinson (18941984) American journalist and critic. _Henry Thoreau, The Cosmic Yankee_ [1927] If God is, whence come evil things? If He is not, whence come good? --Boethius [Anicius Manlius Severinus] (480?524) Roman scholar and Christian philosopher. _The Consolation of Philosophy_ Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist there is no God. --Heywood Broun (18881939) American journalist & father of Heywood Hale Broun. God is usually on the side of the big squadrons and against the small ones. --Roger Bussy-Rabutin (16181693) French soldier and poet. _Letter to the Comte de Limoges_ [18 October 1677]. When I was young, I said to God, 'God, tell me the mystery of the universe.' But God answered, 'that knowledge is for me alone.' So I said, 'God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.' Then God said, 'Well, George, that's more nearly your size.' --George Washington Carver (18641943) American agricultural chemist and agronomist. If I did not believe in God, I should still want my doctor, my lawyer and my banker to do so. --G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (18741936) English essayist, novelist, and poet. The celestial order and the beauty of the universe compel me to admit that there is some excellent and eternal Being, who deserves the respect and homage of men. --Marcus Tullius Cicero (10643 BC) Roman orator and statesman. Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith's door And heard the anvil sing the vesper chime; Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor Old hammers, worn with blasting years of time. "How many anvils have you had," said I, "To wear and batter all these hammers so?" "Just one," said he; and then, with twinkling eye, "The anvil wears the hammers out, you know." And so I thought, the anvil of God's Word For ages, skeptic blows have beat upon. Yet tho' the noise of falling blows was heard The anvil is unharmed the hammers gone. --John Clifford, "The Advil Of God's Word" And almost everyone when age, Disease, or sorrows strike him, Inclines to think there is a God, Or something very like Him. --Arthur Hugh Clough (18191861) English poet. "Dipsychus" [1865] - The blasphemous words whereof Arabella was found guilty were spoken in great passion occasioned by the spilling of some scalding pitch upon one of his feet. By an act passed in Maryland, 30 Oct. 1704, to punish Blasphemy, for the first offense the offender is to be bored through his tongue and fined 20 pounds sterling to H.M. [Queen Anne] towards defraying the County charge where such offense was committed, or if ye party hath not an estate sufficient to answer that sum, then to suffer six months imprisonment ... the said Charles Arabella in having been bored through the tongue and lain in prison six months has thereby fully suffered ye penalty of the Law for such his offense ... The premises considered, if H.M. shall judge him a fit object of her royal compassion and shall be graciously pleased to order that he be released out of prison. --Council of Trade and Plantations to Lord Dartmouth, secretary of state, Whitehall, [19 December 1710]. - God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform --William Cowper (17311800) English poet and hymnodist. "Light Shining out of Darkness" [1779 hymn] - Where does the world come from? She hadn't the faintest idea. Sophie knew that the world was only a small planet in space. But where did space come from? It was possible that space had always existed, in which case she would not also need to figure out where it came from. But could anything have always existed? Something deep down inside her protested at the idea. Surely everything that exists must have had a beginning? So space must sometime have been created out of something else. But if space had come from something else, then that something else must also have come from something. Sophie felt she was only deferring the problem. At some point, something must have come from nothing. But was that possible? Wasn't that just as impossible as the idea that the world had always existed? They had learned at school that God created the world. Sophie tried to console herself with the thought that this was probably the best solution to the whole problem. But then she started to think again. She could accept that God had created space, but what about God himself? Had he created himself out of nothing? Again there was something deep down inside her that protested. Even though God could create all kinds of things, he could hardly create himself before he had a "self" to create with. So there was only one possibility left: God had always existed. But she had already rejected that possibility! Everything that existed had to have a beginning. --Jostein Gaarder (1952 ) Norwegian author. _Sophie's World_ [1996], "The Garden of Eden" - I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use. --Galileo Galilei (15641642) Tuscan astronomer and physicist. All gods and devils that have ever existed are within us. --Hermann Hesse (18771962) German novelist, poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. _Reflections_ [1974], #307 Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on. --Julia Ward Howe (18191910) American Unitarian lay preacher. "Battle Hymn of the Republic" [1862] God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars. --Elbert Hubbard (18591915) American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania." All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours. --Aldous Huxley (18941963) English novelist (grandson of T.H. Huxley.) - Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one, He must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. Letter to Peter Carr [10 August 1787]. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. _Notes on Virginia_ [1787] Query 17, in Joyce Appleby & Terence Ball {eds.} _Jefferson: Political Writings_ [1999] p. 394. - 'Twas only fear first in the world made gods. --Ben Jonson (c.15731637) English dramatist and poet. _Sejanus_, II, ii [1603] - If you want to make God laugh, tell him what you're doing tomorrow. --The Rev. Mychal Judge, 68, of New York, a Franciscan monk and New York Fire Department chaplain, was killed by debris falling from the World Trade Center. Judge, a 68-year-old Franciscan priest, died while giving last rites to a firefighter who perished when the twin towers collapsed after two hijacked passenger jets rammed into them on Tuesday. The Franciscan priest had removed his fire hat to pray when he was hit by falling debris. The funeral Mass for Judge took place at St. Francis of Assisi Church, across from the firehouse of Engine Co. 1/Ladder Co. 24, which lost seven firefighters in the disaster. - For if the God does not exist it would of course be impossible to prove it: and if he does exist it would be folly to attempt it....the paradox is the source of the thinker's passion, and the thinker without paradox is like a lover without feeling; a paltry mediocrity. --Sφren Kierkegaard (18131855) Danish philosopher. "Philosophical Fragments" [1844] I'd always suspected that there was a God, even when I thought I was an atheist just in case. --John Lennon (19401980) English pop singer and songwriter. In _The Beatles Anthology_ [2000], "John Lennon." The human race has suffered for centuries and is still suffering from the mental disorder known as religion, and atheism is the only physician that will be able to effect a permanent cure. --Joseph Lewis Abide with me: fast falls the eventide; The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide: When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me. --Henry Francis Lyte (17931847) British hymn-writer. "Eventide" [1847] If an all-good and all-powerful God created the world, why did he create evil? The monks said, so that man by conquering the wickedness in him, by resisting temptation, by accepting pain and sorrow and misfortune as the trials sent by God to purify him, might at long last be made worthy to receive his grace. It seemed to me like sending a fellow with a message to some place and just to make it harder for him you constructed a maze that he had to get through, then dug a moat that he had to swim and finally built a wall that he had to scale. I wasn't prepared to believe in an all-wise God who hadn't common sense. I didn't see why you shouldn't believe in a God who hadn't created the world, but had to make the best of the bad job he'd found, a being enormously better, wiser and greater than man, who strove with the evil he hadn't made and who might be hoped in the end to overcome it. But on the other hand I didn't see why you should. --W. Somerset Maugham (18741965) English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. _The Razor's Edge_ [1944], ch. 4 Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but on what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him. --Napoleon I (17691821) Emperor of France [18041815]. What is it: is man only a blunder of God, or God only a blunder of man? --Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (18441900) German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture. _Twilight of the Idols_ [1888] God is Spanish and fights for our nation these days. --Olivares, Gaspar de Guzmαn y Pimentel (15871645) Spanish prime minister [1623-1643]. [Expedit esse deos, et, ut expedit, esse putemus] It is convenient that there be gods, let us believe that there are. --Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.18 A.D.) Roman poet. _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1 l. 637 'God is or he is not.' But to which side shall we incline? . . . Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate the two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is. (known as Pascal's wager.) --Blaise Pascal (16231662) French mathematician, physicist, and moralist. _Pensιes_ [1670] Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man. --Alexander Pope (16881744) English poet. _Essay on Man_ [1733], epistle II You see many stars at night in the sky but find them not when the sun rises; can you say that there are no stars in the heaven of day? So, O man! because you behold not God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God. --Ramakrishna (18361886) Hindu religious leader, founder of the school of religious thought that became the Ramakrishna Order. As the custom, although without legal warrant, had grown up, I might have felt at liberty to keep the inscription (In God we trust) had I approved of its being on the coinage. But as I did not approve of it, I did not direct that it should again be put on. ... very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins . . . not only does no good but does positive harm. ... In all my life I have never heard any human being speak reverently of this motto on the coins or show any sign of its having appealed to any high emotion in him, the existence of this motto on the coins was a constant source of jest and ridicule. --Theodore Roosevelt (18581919) American Republican statesman and President [19011909]. I would rather believe that God did not exist than believe that He was indifferent. --George Sand [pseudonym of Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin] (18041876) French author. That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject. --George Santayana (18631952) Spanish-born philosopher and critic. _The Life of Reason_ [1905], ch. 3, "Reason in Religion" God helps those who help themselves. --Algernon Sidney (16221683) English Whig politician. _Discourses Concerning Government_ [1698], Ch. 2 If you tell your troubles to God, you put them into the grave; they will never rise again when you have committed them to Him. If you roll your burden anywhere else, it will roll back again like the stone of Sisyphus. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (18341892) English nonconformist preacher. God heard the embattled nations sing and shout 'Gott strafe England!' and 'God save the King!' God this, God that, and God the other thing 'Good God!' said God, 'I've got my work cut out.' --J.C. Squire (18841958) English man of letters. _The Dilemma_ [1916] What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster! --Jeremy Taylor (16131667) English Anglican clergyman and writer. Cast all your cares on God; that anchor holds. --Alfred, Lord Tennyson (18091892) English poet. If man had created man, he would be ashamed of his performance. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. _Notebooks_ [1935] - I want my attorney, my tailor, my servants, even my wife to believe in God, and I think that then I shall be robbed and cuckolded less often. --Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (16941778) French writer and philosopher. _Philosophical Dictionary_ [1764] If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. --Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (16941778) French writer and philosopher. _Epξtres_, No. 96 [1770] - Where was God in all this? Was this another test, one more? Or a punishment? And if so, for what sins? What crimes were being punished? Was there a misdeed that deserved so many mass graves? Would it ever again be possible to speak of justice, of truth, of divine charity, after the murder of one million Jewish children? --Eliezer [Elie] Wiesel (1928 ) Romanian Jew and Holocaust survivor. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. "To Be a Jew" in _A Jew Today_, tr. Marion Wiesel [1978] So many gods, so many creeds, so many paths while just the act of being kind is all the world needs. --Ella Wheeler Wilcox (18501919) American author and poet. "The World's Need" In Kate Louise Roberts _Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations_, p. 665 [1922]. ^ [...] Which brings us to the most famous statement in all of modern philosophy: Nietzsche's "God is dead." The year was 1882. The book was Die Frohliche Wissenschaft (The Gay Science). Nietzsche said this was not a declaration of atheism, although he was in fact an atheist, but simply the news of an event. He called the death of God a "tremendous event," the greatest event of modern history. The news was that educated people no longer believed in God, as a result of the rise of rationalism and scientific thought, including Darwinism, over the preceding 250 years. But before you atheists run up your flags of triumph, he said, think of the implications. "The story I have to tell," wrote Nietzsche, "is the history of the next two centuries." He predicted (in Ecce Homo) that the twentieth century would be a century of "wars such as have never happened on earth," wars catastrophic beyond all imagining. And why? Because human beings would no longer have a god to turn to, to absolve them of their guilt; but they would still be racked by guilt, since guilt is an impulse instilled in children when they are very young, before the age of reason. As a result, people would loathe not only one another but themselves. The blind and reassuring faith they formerly poured into their belief in God, said Nietzsche, they would now pour into a belief in barbaric nationalistic brotherhoods. "If the doctrines ... of the lack of any cardinal distinction between man and animal, doctrines I consider true but deadly" he says in an allusion to Darwinism in Untimely Meditations - "are hurled into the people for another generation ... then nobody should be surprised when ... brotherhoods with the aim of the robbery and exploitation of the non- brothers ... will appear in the arena of the future." --Tom Wolfe (1931 ) American journalist and novelist. _Hooking Up_ [2000] (ellipis in original text.) ^ If oxen and horses and lions had hands and were able to draw with their hands and do the same things as men, horses would draw the shapes of gods to look like horses and oxen would draw them to look like oxen, and each would make the gods bodies have the same shape as they themselves had. --Xenophanes (c. 560478 B.C.), Greek philosopher and poet. - To those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary. To those who do not, no explanation is possible. --anon. ----- pantheon [PAN-thee-on; -uhn], noun: 1. A temple dedicated to all the gods; especially (capitalized), the building so called at Rome. 2. The collective gods of a people; as, a goddess of the Greek pantheon. 3. A public building commemorating and dedicated to the famous dead of a nation. 4. A group of highly esteemed persons.  . . see "HOME & FAMILY" for related links When I departed Hollywood forever, in 1940, I thought that getting away from the place would automatically cure me of its pestiferous disease, playfully referred to there as 'going Hollywood.' I retired first to my father's home in Wichita, but there I found that the citizens could not decide whether they despised me for having once been a success away from home or for now being a failure in their midst. --Louise Brooks (19061985) American motion-picture actress. _Lulu in Hollywood_ [1982] In sorrow he learned this truth: Though one may return to the place of his birth, He cannot go back to his youth. --John Burroughs (18371921) American naturalist and writer. "The Return" I learned ... that one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back that the essence of life is going forward. Life is really a one-way street, isn't it? --Agatha Christie (18901976) British crime fiction writer. ^ The Monterey Peninsula [ . . . ] is a beautiful place, clean, well run, and progressive. The beaches are clean where once they festered with fish guts and flies. The canneries which once put up a sickening stench are gone, their places filled with restaurants, antique shops, and the like. They fish for tourists now, not pilchards, and that species they are not likely to wipe out. And Carmel, begun by starveling writers and unwanted painters, is now a community of the well-to-do and the retired. If Carmel's founders should return, they could not afford to live there, but it wouldn't go that far. They would be instantly picked up as suspicious characters and deported over the city line. The place of my origin had changed, and having gone away I had not changed with it. In my memory it stood as it once did and its outward appearance confused and angered me. What I am about to tell must be the experience of very many in this nation where so many wander and come back. I called on old and valued friends. I thought their hair had receded a little more than mine. The greetings were enthusiastic. The memories flooded up. Old crimes and old triumphs were brought out and dusted. And suddenly my attention wandered, and looking at my ancient friend, I saw that his wandered also. And it was true what I had said to Johnny Garcia I was the ghost. My town had grown and changed and my friend along with it. Now returning, as changed to my friend as my town was to me, I distorted his picture, muddied his memory. When I went away I had died, and so became fixed and unchangeable. My return caused only confusion and uneasiness. Although they could not say it, my oId friends wanted me gone so that I could take my proper place in the pattern of remembrance and I wanted to go for the same reason. Tom Wolfe was right. You can't go home again because home has ceased to exist except in the mothballs of memory. --John Ernst Steinbeck (19021968) American novelist. _Travels With Charley_ [1962] ^ You can't go back home to your family To a young man's dream of fame and glory, To the country cottage away from strife and conflict, To the father you have lost, To the old forms and systems of things, Which seemed everlasting but are changing all the time. --Thomas Wolfe (19001938) American novelist. _You Can't Go Home Again_ [1940] end page | GAMBLING - GARDENS | GARFIELD - GENERATION GAP | GENEROSITY -GENTLEMEN | GEOGRAPHY - GERSHWIN | GHOSTS - GLASSES | GLOBALIZATION - GOALS | GOD & GOING HOME | GOLF | GOOD DEEDS - GOODBYES | GOODNESS - GOVERNMENT | GRACE - GRATITUDE | GRAVEYARDS - GROWING | GROWING OLDER - PAGE 1 (A-L) | GROWING OLDER - PAGE 2 (M-Z) | GROWING UP - GULLIBLE | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The End | The Reviews | Photos | |
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