Kathryn Stockett Quotes

Religion isn't in your DNA. you don't believe just because your parents believe.

All my life I'd been told what to believe about politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine's thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe.

What's the message in Metallica? There is no message, but if there was a message, it really should be look within yourself, don't listen to me, don't listen to James, don't listen to anybody, look within yourself for the answers.

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.

Religion works on some people but not on everyone, because it says, 'Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.' That's not valid for people who want to think and reflect.

And one of my other friends could not believe in God if he came down and tapped her on the shoulder. She's a biologist - a student at UCLA - and I don't judge her either, because I really believe that God is a personal opinion, and only that.

Just as no one can be forced into belief, so no one can be forced into unbelief.

Freedom is an internal achievement rather than an external adjustment.

Belief, like love, must be voluntary.

I don't disrespect anybody who espouses a particular religion or belief - that is their own right to do that. But I think it's terribly important to look beyond the comfort that religion gives.

If you ask me why I believe in human freedom, I don’t know. But it is the most important thing to me.

Doubt everything. Find your own light.

Faith accepts no commands. It accepts only what comes to it by way of reasoned conviction.

Do not lose your independent mind, unconditioned mind. You have by nature a very powerful mind. You can find everything for yourself; you can know everything for yourself.

In high school, I came to realize I had a second-hand faith, derived from my parents and family background. I had no actual reasons for believing it.

the identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute

Religion is believing someone else's experience, spirituality is having your own experience.

If you can't have faith in what is held up to you for faith, you must find things to believe in yourself, for a life without faith in something is too narrow a space to live.

You cannot always control the powers-that-be. You just have to have faith and stand by the things you believe in.

If it all just happened overnight, you would never learn to believe in what you cannot see.

You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go.

The fact that I have an ideology, however, doesn't mean I'm indoctrinated.

I know who I am and who I may be, if I choose.

I am learning that if I just go on accepting the framework for life that others have given me, if I fail to make my own choices, the reason for my life will be missing. I will be unable to recognize that which I have the power to change.

Obviously you live life for yourself and have your choice to believe what you want to believe in, but I know that the Bible can be used to appreciate life.