Though it is possible to utter words only with the intention to fulfill the will of God, it is very difficult not to think about the impression which they will produce on men and not to form them accordingly. But deeds you can do quite unknown to men, only for God. And such deeds are the greatest joy that a man can experience.
—Leo Tolstoy
I recently invented a new theory: ambitheism. This is the doctrine that God both does and doesn't exist. I have noticed that when I try to believe in God, I am filled with sudden moments of despair that God is absent, but when I try to be an atheist, I slowly come to believe in a divine will. Thus, I have concluded that both ideas are true. God simultaneously is and isn't.
—Michael Gorelick
A person who believes… that there is a whole of which one is part, and that in being a part, one is whole: such a person has no desire whatever, at any time, to play God. Only those who have denied their being yearn to play at it.
—Ursula K. Le Guin
That life… that she had complained against, had murmured at, had raged at and defied—nonetheless she had loved it so, joyed in it so, both in good days and evil, that not one day had there been when it would not have seemed hard to give it back to God, nor one grief that she could have forgone without regret.
—Sigrid Undsetfs
It was quite incomprehensible to me… why in my evening prayers I should pray for human beings only. So when my mother had prayed with me and had kissed me goodnight, I used to add silently a prayer that I had composed myself for all living creatures. It ran thus: "O Heavenly Father, protect and bless all things that have breath; guard them from all evil, and let them sleep in peace. "
—Albert Schweitzer
God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through.
—Paul Valéry
They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.
—Emily Dickinson
Everyone is as God has made him, and oftentimes a great deal worse.
—Miguel de Cervantes
I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't.
—Jules Renard
What is sacred about all of our lives, even those of us who would never dream of using such a word for it, is that God speaks to us through what happens to us—even through such unpromising events as walking up the road to get the mail out of the mailbox, maybe, or seeing something in the news that brings you up short, or laughing yourself silly with a friend. If skeptics ask to be shown an instance of God speaking to them in their lives, I suggest that they pay closer attention to the next time when, for unaccountable reasons, they find tears in their eyes.
—Frederick Buechner
How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?
—Woody Allen
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
—George S. Patton
I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
—Frank Lloyd Wright
The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.
—George Bernard Shaw
If God lived on earth, people would break his windows.
—Jewish Proverb