Montesquieu Quotes

If a triangle could speak, it would say, in like manner, that God is eminently triangular, while a circle would say that the divine nature is eminently circular. Thus each would ascribe to God its own attributes, would assume itself to be like God, and look on everything else as ill-shaped.

… mortals suppose that the gods are born (as they themselves are), and that they wear man's clothing and have human voice and body. But if cattle or lions had hands, so as to paint with their hands and produce works of art as men do, they would paint their gods and give them bodies in form like their own—horses like horses, cattle like cattle.

The opposite of faith is not doubt: It is certainty. It is madness. You can tell you have created God in your own image when it turns out that he or she hates all the same people you do.

Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.

Of course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God.

The chief contribution of Protestantism to human thought is its massive proof that God is a bore.

Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.

If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion.

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?

If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.

God made man in his own image, and man returned the favour.

The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black, the Thracians that theirs have light blue eyes and red hair.

What kind of a god is it that's upset by a cartoon in Danish?

Since many, however, of those who profess to believe in Christ differ from each other, not only in small and trifling matters, but also on subjects of the highest importance, as, e.g., regarding God, or the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit; and not only regarding these, but also regarding others which are created existences, viz., the powers and the holy virtues; it seems on that account necessary first of all to fix a definite limit and to lay down an unmistakable rule regarding each one of these, and then to pass to the investigation of other points.

Congratulations.... In your re-election, God has graciously granted America — though she doesn't deserve it — a reprieve from the agenda of paganism.

I do not see God as an old man, sitting in the clouds, and watching my genitals.

If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.

The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.

This is a Christian country. Why, so is hell.

MONSIGNOR- A high ecclesiastical title, of which the Founder of our religion overlooked the advantages.

As for our gods, we have a few too many to be true.

Shall it any longer be said that a science [geology], which unfolds such abundant evidence of the Being and Attributes of God, can reasonably be viewed in any other light than as the efficient Auxiliary and Handmaid of Religion?

For my part I cannot believe in a God who is angry with me because I do not believe in him. I cannot believe in a God who is less tolerant than I. I cannot believe in a God who has neither humour nor common sense.

The barometer that shows "variable" is an ironic indictment of God.

We always believe God is like ourselves, the indulgent think him indulgent and the stern, terrible.