Quotes about Religion / Politics

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. Galileo Galilei

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. Napoleon Bonaparte

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Pope John Paul II

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion. Thomas Paine

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. Dalai Lama

The God who existed before any religion counts on you to make the oneness of the human family known and celebrated. Desmond Tutu

We must seek the loving-kindness of God in all the breadth and open-air of common life. George A. Smith

Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs. Denis Diderot

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. Anais Nin

Religion is at its best when it is a long way from political power .... The founders of the Christian religion … Jesus and St. Paul -- were both clear about this. "Blessed are the meek." "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

St. Paul is perfectly clear that the highest Christian virtue is charity, not patriotism, not martial valor, not exalting your class, your group, your race above others, but charity ... When politics remembers that and acts accordingly, it does good.

But religion, at various points in human history … has acquired political power, and put its hands on the levers of social authority. It decides who shall live and who shall die. It decides how we shall dress, what we shall be allowed to read, whether we shall go to war, and so on.

In an age when nations and individuals routinely exchange murder for murder, when the healing grace of authentic spirituality is usurped by the divisive politics of religious organizations, and when broken hearts bleed pain in darkness without the relief of compassion, the voice of an exceptional poet producing exceptional work is not something the world can afford to dismiss. Aberjani

In Healing imagery, the goal becomes one of "getting along" better by being nicer and more tolerant toward one another, forgiving and forgetting, living in more authentic ways. … this goal ignores the fact that a lot of the trouble ... is embedded in structures of power and inequality that shape almost every aspect of life in this society, from economics to politics to religion to schools and the family. The idea that we’re going to get out of this by somehow getting to a place where we’re kinder and more sensitive to one another … sets us up to walk right past the trouble toward an alternative that doesn’t exist and can’t exist until we do something about what creates privilege and oppression in the first place. And that is something that needs to be changed, not healed.

I am willing to contribute for a grand tombstone for Political Correctness (PC). … It has stifled frank exchange of ideas and has made debates one-sided and pre-concluded. It has given strength to ideas which cannot defend themselves in an open debate. PC … is disastrous in public space as it makes that public space an oxymoron by making it restricted to only the "acceptable". Democracy is about competitive ideas and PC is undemocratic as it discounts the possibility of a level playing field. All growth of ideas is through cross fertilization and PC leads to degeneration of ideas by restricting the process to inbreeding. Only those who use weakness as leverage to gain advantage without effort or have a hidden agenda will root for PC. It is the tool of the lazy and the devious. R. N. Prasher

Genuine politics -- every politics worthy of the name -- the only politics I am willing to devote myself to -- is simply a matter of serving those around us: serving the community and serving those who will come after us. Its deepest roots are moral because it is a responsibility expressed through action, to and for the whole. Vaclav Havel

A politician is a fellow who will lay down “your life” for his country. Texas Guinan

Whenever you find yourself on the side if the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. Mark Twain

I claim that the human mind or human society is not divided into water tight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon each other. Mohandas K. Gandhi

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses. H. L. Mencken

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. Plato Mankind will never see an end of trouble until ... lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power ... become lovers of wisdom. Plato