Inspiring Words to Feed the Soul: Spiritual and Religious Quotes

"Christianity, with its doctrine of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the State, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishment, its wars."
- Leo Tolstoy

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."
- C.S. Lewis

"Peace of heart that is won by refusing to bear the common yoke of human sympathy is a peace unworthy of a Christian. To seek tranquility by stopping our ears to the cries of human pain is to make ourselves not Christian but a kind of degenerate stoic having no relation either to stoicism or Christianity."
- A. W. Tozer

"Christianity simply does not make sense until you have faced the sort of facts I have been describing. Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need forgiveness."
- C.S. Lewis

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."
- G. K. Chesterton

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
- C. S. Lewis

"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave."

"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes."

"A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act."

"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people."

"A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice."

"A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion."

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

"A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness."

"A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident."

"Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame."

"All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives."

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."

"I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe."

"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them."

"If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it."

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

"In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher."

"It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we cannot help others, the least we can do is to desist from harming them."

"It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come."

"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive."

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."

"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day."

"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them."

"Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent."

"The purpose of our lives is to be happy."

"A man served God for seventy years and then committed a sin which canceled the merit of his service. Afterwards he gave a loaf of bread to a poor man, so God pardoned his sin and gave him back the merit of his seventy years' service. His alms are vain who does not know that his need of the reward for giving is greater than the poor man's need of the gift."
-Muslim Saying

"He who is deprived of gentleness is deprived of good."
-Muhammad

"In the valley, on the mountain, I beheld only God. In hardship I saw Him by my side. In ease and well-being I beheld only God. Like a candle I melted in His flame. Amid the sparks of the flames, I beheld only God."
-Baba Kuhi of Shiraz, "Rabi'a the Mystic"

"A true Muslim is the one who does not defame or abuse others; but the truly righteous becomes a refuge for humankind, their lives and their properties."
-Hadith The Prophet Muhammad, narrated by Abd'Allah bin Amr

"Very high, very grand, and very wise is the ocean of God, the Water of Life. You went after the form and were lead astray. How can you see it? You abandoned the truth. Sometimes it is named "tree," sometimes "sun," sometimes "ocean," sometimes "cloud," one thing from which scores of discoveries arise, its slightest definition an everlasting life."
-Rumi

"Angels were created without lust and evil, the worst obstacles of humankind. Those who, despite their evil nature, remain pious excel angels in rank. Enthused by their purity angels denounced the human race, so God chose three angels to go to the earth and reform its inhabitants. One angel, espying the corruption, begged God to let him return. The other two, in their earthly form, gave in to lust and fell from grace. Thus God revealed to the other angels the superiority of the devout."
-Al-Hujwiri, "The Kashf al-Mahjub"

"O God, it would be impossible for me to distance myself from you; it would be impossible for you to distance yourself from me. In the certainty of our relationship, proximity and distance are the same."
-Hallaj, "Tawasin"

"When your heart is dark as iron, steadily polish yourself that the heart may become a mirror, a beautiful shine reflecting from within. Although iron is dark and dismal, polishing clears the darkness away."
-Rumi

"Keep to gentleness and avoid harshness and coarseness. Gentleness is not found in anything without adorning it, and is not withdrawn from anything without shaming it."
-Muhammad

"O Love, O pure deep love, be here, be now. Be all; worlds dissolve into your stainless endless radiance, Frail living leaves burn with you brighter than cold stars: Make me your servant, your breath, your core."
-Rumi

"It is never born, nor does it die: after coming to be, it does not cease to be; it is without birth, eternal, imperishable and timeless; it is not destroyed with the destruction of the body."
-Bhagavad Gita

"The universe is the outpouring of the majesty of God, the auspicious one, radiant love. Every face you see belongs to Him. He is present in everyone without exception."
-Yajur Veda

"He is the One, the One alone. In Him all deities become one."
-Artha Veda

"Even if thou art the worst of sinners, thou shalt cross the ocean of sin by the bark of wisdom."
-Bhagvad Gita

"None knoweth whence creation has arisen, and whether He has or has not produced it. He who surveys it in the highest heavens, he only knows, or perhaps he knows not."
-Rig Veda

"In the finite there is no happiness. The Infinite alone is happiness."
-Upanishads

"Who sees me in all things, and all things in me, he is never far from me, and I am never far from him."
-Bhagavad Gita

"Be Self Controlled. Give. Be Compassionate"
-Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

"A man of faith, absorbed in faith, his senses controlled, attains knowledge, and, knowledge attained, quickly finds supreme peace. But the ignorant man, who is without faith, goes doubting to destruction. For the doubting self there is neither this world, nor the next, nor joy."
-Bhagavad Gita

"If men thought of God as much as they think of the world, who would not attain liberation."
-Maitri Upanishad

"May God come and reside in our hearts; May our body be the temple of God. May He feed freely upon the harvest of our actions as the cows graze in the pasture. May we reap the harvest of our life and dedicate all at His feet, May we ever remain His true servants."
-Rig Veda

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."

"The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along."

"When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.
Praise God for those two insomnias!
And the difference between them."

"This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet."

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there."

"Oh soul,
you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
Of anything less,
why do you worry?
You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul."

"Only from the heart Can you touch the sky."

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do."

"The way you make love is the way God will be with you."

"Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart."

"As an irrigator guides water to his fields, as an archer aims an arrow, as a carpenter carves wood, the wise shape their lives."

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him."

"All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?"

"An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind."

"Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace."

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."

"Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind."

"Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule."

"He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes."

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."

"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?"

"I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done."

"It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways."

"It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell."

"Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life."

"The mind is everything. What you think you become."

"The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve."

"Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought."

"The future starts today, not tomorrow."

"The truth is not always the same as the majority decision."

"An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded."

"Anything done for another is done for oneself."

"As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live."

"To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others."

"What shall I say? Everything that I could say would fade into insignificance compared with what my heart feels, and your hearts feel, at this moment."

"Peace is not just the absence of war. Like a cathedral, peace must be constructed patiently and with unshakable faith."

"Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it."