Quotes about religion

The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyDemonsPart 3, chapter 7 ("Stepan Trofimovitch's Last Wandering"), section 3Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky

If the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 5, chapter 4 ("Rebellion")Ivan Karamazov

Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 5, chapter 5 ("The Grand Inquisitor")The Grand Inquisitor, in Ivan's prose poem

If there is no God, then I am God.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyDemonsPart 3, chapter 6 ("A Busy Night"), section 2Kirillov

Go at once, this very minute, stand at the cross-roads, bow down, first kiss the earth which you have defiled, and then bow down to all the world and say to all men aloud, 'I am a murderer!'

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyCrime and PunishmentPart 5, chapter 4Sonia Marmeladova

Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 6, chapter 3 ("Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zossima"), section (g) ("Of Prayer, of Love, and of Contact with other Worlds")Father Zosima

There are three powers, three powers alone, able to conquer and to hold captive for ever the conscience of these impotent rebels for their happiness: miracle, mystery and authority.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 5, chapter 5 ("The Grand Inquisitor")The Grand Inquisitor, in Ivan's prose poem

If someone proved to me that Christ is outside the truth, and it really were so that the truth is outside Christ, I would rather remain with Christ than with the truth.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyLettersLetter to Natalya Fonvizina, end of January to late February 1854Fyodor Dostoevsky

If it were mathematically proved to you that the truth excludes Christ, you'd prefer to stick to Christ rather than to the truth.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyDemonsPart 2, chapter 1 ("Night"), section 7Ivan Shatov

We are each responsible to all for all.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 6, chapter 2, section (c) ("Recollections of Father Zossima's Youth before he became a Monk. The Duel")Markel, Zosima's elder brother, as remembered by Father Zosima

It's not God that I don't accept, only I most respectfully return Him the ticket.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 5, chapter 4 ("Rebellion")Ivan Karamazov

The higher harmony is not worth the tears of one tortured child.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 5, chapter 4 ("Rebellion")Ivan Karamazov

What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 6, chapter 3 ("Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zossima"), section (i) ("Of Hell and Hell Fire, a Mystic Reflection")Father Zosima

Neither a person nor a nation can exist without some higher idea.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyA Writer's DiaryDecember 1876, chapter 1, section 3 ("Unfounded Assertions")