In better times the religion of the tribe or state has nothing in common with the private and foreign superstitions or magical rites that savage terror may dictate to the individual. – William Robertson Smith
Religion did not exist for the saving of souls but for the preservation and welfare of society, and in all that was necessary to this end every man had to take his part, or break with the domestic and political community to which he belonged. – William Robertson Smith
The dissolution of the nation destroys the national religion, and dethrones the national deity. – William Robertson Smith
Thus a man was born into a fixed relation to certain gods as surely as he was born into a relation to his fellow-men and his religion… was simply one side of the general scheme of conduct prescribed for him by his position as a member of society. – William Robertson Smith
We are so accustomed to think of religion as a thing between individual men and God that we can hardly enter into the idea of a religion in which a whole nation in its national organisation appears as the religious unit. – William Robertson Smith
The stability and peace which seemed to be so firmly established by the brilliant monarchy of Francis I vanished with the terrible outbreak of the Wars of Religion. – Lytton Strachey
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. – Lamar S. Smith
In both religion and science, some people are dishonest, exploitative, incompetent and exhibit other human failings. – Rupert Sheldrake
So I remember both medicine, because I frequently sick, particularly with asthma for which there was no proper treatment then, and in religion I had a strong sense of there being a patriarchy. – Thomas Keneally
The little religion that I have clung to-that what matters most is the continuity of life, and its improvement from one generation to another. – David O. Selznick
I think people often come to the synagogue, mosque, the church looking for God, and what we give them is religion. – Gene Robinson
I believe that what we are fighting here is not just a small group of people who have hijacked a religion, but it is a civilization bent on destroying ours. – Tom Tancredo
When theology erodes and organization crumbles, when the institutional framework of religion begins to break up, the search for a direct experience which people can feel to be religious facilitates the rise of cults. – Daniel Bell
I could almost say it is my religion. I guess that sounds pretentious, but I want to live and breathe cinema. – Giovanni Ribisi
The government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion. – John Paul Stevens
Neither the wording of the amendment itself nor common practice challenged the widely held belief that government guaranteed freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. – Linda Chavez
I wanted to show how a man of sensitive and noble character, born for religion, comes to throw off the orthodoxies of his day and moment, and to go out into the wilderness where all is experiment, and spiritual life begins again. – Mary Augusta Ward
What use is revelation or religion if it doesnt change anything? – Abu Bakar Bashir
Science may eventually explain the world of How. The ultimate world of Why may remain for contemplation, philosophy, religion. – Liberty Hyde Bailey
Nations are equal in respect to each other, and entitled to claim equal consideration for their rights, whatever may be their relative dimensions or strength or however greatly they may differ in government, religion or manners. – James Kent
