God
‹ 1 · Outline · 3 ›
2.The knowledge of God and its limits
2a.God as incomprehensible and beyond human understanding
See also: Knowledge 7a
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 87God's nature is unsearchable, higher than heaven and deeper than Sheol; none can hinder his judgment.read · scan
- p. 123–124Elihu says God is greater than man and need not account for his matters.read · scan
- p. 129–130God is great, unsearchable, teacher without equal; none can charge him with unrighteousness.read · scan
Ecclesiastes; or, The PreacherVol. 44
- p. 337–338Enjoyment is God's gift; his works endure forever and man cannot fathom them; men should fear him.read · scan
- p. 340–341God is in heaven and man on earth; fear him.read · scan
- p. 344–345The righteous and wise and their works are in God's hand; his work is beyond finding out.read · scan
- p. 347–348Man cannot know the work of God who doeth all; God brings youthful pleasures to judgment.read · scan
Paul, The First Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45
- p. 493–494Only the Spirit of God knows the things of God, as a man's spirit knows his own.read · scan
Plutarch, CoriolanusVol. 12
- p. 182Divine power differs from ours and may do what we cannot; knowledge of divine things is lost through incredulity.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 6–7Piles up paradoxical attributes of God: most hidden yet present, unchangeable yet all-changing, loving without passion, angry yet serene.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 365God's glory and omniscience exceed all created display; no creature can contain the boundless Good, as Lucifer's fall shows.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 275–276God's unfathomable judgments; no holiness, wisdom or strength avails unless God sustains it.read · scan
- p. 364God is eternal, incomprehensible and infinite in power, with wonderful works past finding out.read · scan
Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy GrailVol. 35
- p. 109The knights say only God knows whence Galahad came.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 215–224Wisest Utopians believe in one unknown, everlasting, incomprehensible father and maker of all, called Mithra.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39
- p. 110Essence and means of God's creation and presence lie beyond reason; ignorance strengthens beliefread · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 321God's name is used not to conceive Him, being incomprehensible, but to honour Him.read · scan
- p. 345The felicity God ordains for the devout is incomprehensible until enjoyed; 'beatifical vision' is unintelligible.read · scan
- p. 377Those reasoning to one infinite God call him incomprehensible, honouring him piously rather than defining his nature.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 261God alone is; no creature can comprehend Him; His wisdom and eternity confound human understanding.read · scan
- p. 305Infinite distance between Creator and creature; the vessel cannot question the Potter.read · scan
- p. 311–313Man resembles God yet is utterly different from Him; God's pencil never works in vain.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 243–246Hidden things are left to God; man should serve and fear him and enjoy what he gives.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 26–27Imagination's loss in the infinite is the greatest sensible mark of God's almighty power.read · scan
- p. 28Only the Author of these wonders understands them.read · scan
- p. 29The infinitely great and small find each other in God alone.read · scan
- p. 39–40Imagination rashly belittles the great to its own measure, as when men talk of God.read · scan
- p. 83Our spirit and justice before God are as unity before infinity.read · scan
- p. 83So we may know that God is without knowing what He is.read · scan
- p. 84God, without parts or limits, is infinitely incomprehensible; we cannot know what He is or whether He is.read · scan
- p. 128Man without God is in ignorance and misery per Ecclesiastes; scepticism humbles pride in criticising God's ways.read · scan
- p. 145God concealed the knot of our condition beyond the reach of reason.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 115–116Children should be given a simple idea of God as Supreme Being, Maker and benefactor, without curious inquiry into his essence.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 363God is incomprehensible in himself but glimpsed in his image; known through impressions on soft hearts, not speculation.read · scan
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37
- p. 276God's transcendent perfections are incomprehensible to finite spirits, so difficulties about His acts bear equally on all views.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 120–121Gravity is one of the secrets of the Creator; its cause lies among the Arcana of the Almighty.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 254–255Vicar infers a wise, powerful, good Being from the order of the world, yet cannot comprehend his essence.read · scan
- p. 255Warns against rash disquisition on God's nature; better no ideas than unworthy ones.read · scan
- p. 266The vicar's idea of God grows grander but exceeds human understanding; God is the one absolute active being, distinct from the world and souls.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 298–299No man can see God and live; the pure in heart shall see God.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 38Providence surely has some great end in distributing attractiveness, though God's wisdom is not ours.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 18–20The Lord is praised as unfathomable, with works sublime and eternal; He converses graciously with the devil.read · scan
- p. 73–75Mephistopheles says the Whole subsists for the Deity alone, who dwells in brightness while men live in darkness.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, CharacteristicsVol. 25
- p. 355–356The name of the Infinite is Good, is God; the mystery is read only a line at a time.read · scan
Giuseppe Mazzini, Byron and GoetheVol. 32
- p. 379–380The absolute exists only in the Divine Idea, which man gradually comprehends but never fully realizes.read · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1098–1100Moses and the elders saw God on the sapphire pavement; what they saw none can know.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 148–149Her little world is nothing beside the world in which God lives and loves.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 398–399God is not to be put in a poem or system as contending against some being.read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28
- p. 200Milton errs by depicting the Divine mind, beyond human faculties, as reasoning from truth to truth.read · scan
2b.Knowledge of God through creation and conscience
See also: Nature 4a
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 120–121God introduced man as spectator and interpreter of Himself and his works.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 300Gods are known from their experienced power, as the unseen soul is honored; hence he worships them.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 113Drawn to God by his beauty, yet weighed down; he sees God's eternal power through created things.read · scan
- p. 119Finds the Creator through the witness of creatures; the Word by whom all things were made.read · scan
- p. 152–153Imagines hearing God's Word directly, not through flesh, angel, thunder or similitude; creatures declare they were made by Him who abides forever.read · scan
- p. 164Creation, questioned, replies that it is not God but was made by Him; God is sought above the world.read · scan
- p. 164–165Creation declares that God made it; God is the Life of the soul's life, and invisible things are seen through what is made.read · scan
- p. 165–166Augustine ascends by degrees through his own powers toward God who made him.read · scan
- p. 174He seeks to ascend beyond memory to reach God, the true life and sweet Light.read · scan
- p. 179Where he found Truth he found God, who dwells in his memory since he learned Him.read · scan
- p. 194God, the abiding Truth and light, is consulted to value things; the soul finds no safe place but in Him.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 965God's is the kingdom of heavens and earth; creation is not in vain, and signs in it call men to remember Him.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 242–243Every creature shows the goodness of God to the pure of heart.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio MagnaVol. 39
- p. 141–142Bacon hopes to write a true vision of the footsteps of the Creator imprinted on his creatures.read · scan
William Drummond, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 326–327World read as a volume revealing God's power, providence and justice, which men ignore.read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34
- p. 24God has given each of us a light of reason to distinguish truth from error.read · scan
John Milton, Tractate on EducationVol. 3
- p. 236Knowing God aright, loving and imitating him is the aim of learning.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 98–99It is the heart that experiences God, not reason; faith is God felt by the heart.read · scan
- p. 257–258God will make himself known to all through inward feeling, not through neighbors' teaching.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 391Only faith assures that an all-good God gave us faculties to know truth.read · scan
- p. 400God places divine truths in the heart first, humbling proud reason; saints say one must love to know.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 321Invisible things of God are seen through visible things, so we read our duty to the Author.read · scan
- p. 323The Maker's power is written on us and the world, calling for admiration and adoration.read · scan
- p. 363–364God makes himself known through justice, patience, mercy and holiness.read · scan
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37
- p. 252Notion of God is got by reflecting on one's soul, heightening its powers; God's existence inferred by reason from dependence.read · scan
- p. 264–265God does not deceive mankind; belief in matter is neither revealed nor evident to natural faculties God gave.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 430One looks through nature up to nature's God, following the chain that joins heaven and earth.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 300–301The idea of God arises from augmenting without limit the qualities of goodness and wisdom found in our own mind.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 275Savoyard vicar's conscience as innate guide speaking the language of nature; a prelude to his natural religion, though God is not directly discussed here.read · scan
- p. 281–282The sublime ideas of the Deity come from reason and the voice within, and from the works of nature.read · scan
- p. 300Reason and natural faculties suffice to know and love God and his power and goodness.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 46–47Study of the mind and passions is a hymn to the Creator, revealing his wisdom and admitting us to his counsels.read · scan
- p. 87Creator's wisdom made us affected by beauty without reason; discovering his wisdom in works needs study and inspires admiration.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Essay Supplementary to PrefaceVol. 39
- p. 335Vox Populi is the voice the Deity inspires, not divine infallibility in mere clamour.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 321Creation is a revelation of the Creator.read · scan
- p. 328–329Our conceptions of God's intelligence, justice and goodness derive from our own spirit, which contains germs of these attributes.read · scan
- p. 330The idea of God, clear in the laborer's soul, surpasses the learning of renowned divines.read · scan
- p. 339–340God is revealed in his smallest work as truly as in his greatest.read · scan
- p. 341God wrote his name on heavens and earth and gave his word to the poor, not only to scholars.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5
- p. 9–10When we can read God directly, other men's transcripts are a waste; creation shows the Deity's efflux.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5
- p. 69Intuition is inspiration from which man's wisdom comes; denying it is impiety and atheism.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CirclesVol. 5
- p. 155–156Natural things are words of God.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5
- p. 168Nature carries the commandments of the Deity; the world is his temple.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 289Divinity is present in human sentiments; the Questioner will bring answers in due time.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, BeautyVol. 5
- p. 309Beauty seems the Divinity approaching and removing obstructions, drawing a truer line the mind owns.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1241–1243Man in the woods may meet God, better than the learned schools; the spot sacred to thought and God.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 167–168Intuitionism deems intuition the voice of Nature and God, above reason.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1292–1294Nature's world is the manuscripts of God, a story-book written by the Father.read · scan
Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32
- p. 153–154Standing stones are monuments of primitive humanity's faith in Heaven.read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28
- p. 171The seen must explain the unseen; a varied moral life gives the truest idea of God.read · scan
Sidney Lanier, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1391–1392The tolerant marshes are likened to the catholic man who has won God out of knowledge and good out of pain.read · scan
2c.The hidden God and the obscurity of divine revelation
See also: Prophecy 8c · Man 6c
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 107–108Job longs to find God and plead his case, but God is hidden, unchangeable in will, and terrifying.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 151–152Scales on the eyes conceal the sight of God from the spirits.read · scan
- p. 167Dante asks whether God's just eyes are turned away or whether this is a hidden design for some good.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio MagnaVol. 39
- p. 126–128God takes pleasure in letting the human spirit find out what he conceals, like hide and seek.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 68God disposes all things kindly, and men should be incited to seek Him.read · scan
- p. 69God is hidden (Deus absconditus), setting visible signs in the Church perceived only by those who seek Him wholeheartedly.read · scan
- p. 74–75Seeking God wholeheartedly because one does not know Him.read · scan
- p. 78God blinds some, does not enlighten those in despair without faith.read · scan
- p. 90–91Scripture says God is a hidden God, whom men reach only through Jesus Christ since nature's corruption.read · scan
- p. 102God has revealed enough of himself yet hidden himself from proud sages; known to the humble of heart and the clear-sighted.read · scan
- p. 141God is neither manifestly evident nor wholly hidden; He gives signs visible to sincere seekers only.read · scan
- p. 180–181God has mercifully given indications of both points; you would not seek Him unless you possessed Him.read · scan
- p. 181God does not manifest Himself with all possible evidence; deism is nearly as far from Christianity as atheism.read · scan
- p. 183God hides Himself; nature shows neither total absence nor manifest presence of divinity.read · scan
- p. 183–184God hides from those who tempt Him and reveals Himself to seekers; occasional appearances show He exists.read · scan
- p. 185All things show God's mercy or man's wretchedness.read · scan
- p. 185–186God's works are understood only if He has willed to blind some and enlighten others.read · scan
- p. 189–190God blinds and enlightens: sufficient clearness to enlighten the elect and condemn the reprobate, obscurity to humble.read · scan
- p. 191–192God has willed to hide Himself; a true religion must affirm and explain this hiddenness.read · scan
- p. 238–239The Lord hides and conceals himself; to be feared.read · scan
- p. 263–264Christ is a hidden God, slighted and a stone of stumbling, not clearly manifest.read · scan
- p. 264Divine obscurity is intentional so that some stumble over Christ.read · scan
- p. 264–265God intends both to blind and to enlighten, revealing himself obscurely first and gloriously later.read · scan
- p. 265God arranges the manner of prophecy so the Messiah is known to the good and hidden from the wicked.read · scan
- p. 295–296God's compassion instructs us even when hidden; miracles show him and are a light.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48
- p. 325God is the sole principle and end; things reveal him to lovers and conceal him from those who know him not.read · scan
- p. 347–348God rarely manifests himself through extraordinary acts, leaving nature's secrecy to excite faithread · scan
- p. 348God conceals himself in nature, Incarnation and Eucharist, revealing himself rarely so that faith has meritread · scan
Edward FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám of NaishápúrVol. 41
- p. 947–949Seeks the Maker behind the veil of the universe; the Maker cast man from clay; heaven gave wine to drug memory.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1019–1020The Maker's drift is dark, an Isis veiled; he trusts that God who made the world will guide it.read · scan
2d.Revelation, scripture and the education of mankind
See also: Education 2a · Race and Nationality 7c · Reasoning 7c
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 258–259God speaks within the soul as salvation, peace and life, and alone fills with knowledge beyond the prophets.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 142God's commandment 'thou shalt not kill' is invoked against capital punishment for theft.read · scan
John Calvin, Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian ReligionVol. 39
- p. 48–49Knowledge of God as Redeemer in Christ, known under the Law and more fully under the Gospel.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 8God's creation moves from the light of sense to the light of reason and on to the illumination of his Spirit.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 347–348All men believe God's word true, but not all accept the creed's doctrine.read · scan
- p. 398Covenant with God is possible only through mediators to whom God speaks, revelation or His lieutenants.read · scan
- p. 412–413Laws of Nature are properly laws as delivered in the word of God.read · scan
John Winthrop, Arbitrary Government Described and the Government of the Massachusetts Vindicated from That AspersionVol. 43
- p. 89–90God's word and Israel's fundamentals serve as the rule guiding all affairs.read · scan
John Milton, AreopagiticaVol. 3
- p. 199A vision from God and scripture are cited to authorize reading anything.read · scan
- p. 227–229God enlightens his church by degrees, raising rare men to discover truth, not confined to set places or callings.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 249The divine Author reveals himself to Adam, who adores him, and gives Paradise.read · scan
- p. 342God dwells among an obedient people; no access to him without a Mediator.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 24Pascal outlines his plan: misery of man without God, happiness of man with God; nature corrupt, a Redeemer proved by Scripture.read · scan
- p. 92God puts faith into the heart.read · scan
- p. 100–101God imparts love of Himself and hatred of self, inclining the heart to believe.read · scan
- p. 124–125True justice is as God has revealed it.read · scan
- p. 140Man's nature is capable of knowing and loving; God can make Himself known to him.read · scan
- p. 144Man must learn his condition from his Master: hear God.read · scan
- p. 175God can be known well only by knowing our iniquities; knowing God without our wretchedness leads to self-glorification.read · scan
- p. 181–182God is one whom men can know, yet man's corruption renders him unworthy.read · scan
- p. 182God's mercy in making men know both Himself and their wretchedness; knowing God requires knowing Christ.read · scan
- p. 182Knowledge of God as author of eternal mathematical truths is barren without Christ.read · scan
- p. 190–191God arranges Scripture to humble pride.read · scan
- p. 192Only the power of the cross enables knowing and loving God.read · scan
- p. 200–201God covenants with Abraham and reveals the mystery of the Messiah to him.read · scan
- p. 205If God revealed Himself from all time, knowledge of it lies with the Jews.read · scan
- p. 215God forms a holy people, delivers them, promises and foretells a Saviour, and confirms hope through Adam, Noah and miracles.read · scan
- p. 224Visible blessings from God were so great that He seemed able to give invisible ones and a Messiah.read · scan
- p. 235–236God made provision through prophets across centuries.read · scan
- p. 256–257God rejects and then calls again those who were not his people, extending his covenant to the Gentiles.read · scan
- p. 279–280Either men spoke of the true God or He spoke to men in all times.read · scan
- p. 285God either confounds false miracles or foretells them, raising us to the supernatural.read · scan
- p. 296–297Those who love God recognise the Church; God warned men not to trust miracles opposed to him.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 204–205The King's methods with his people compared to the hen's calls: common, special, brooding, and alarm.read · scan
- p. 226–227God speaks in dreams, visions, proverbs and similitudes, visiting us even while we sleep.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 71Quaker origins: sects fighting in God's name, Fox praising the Lord under scourging, and his claim of inspiration.read · scan
- p. 71–72Fox's claimed inspiration, compared to the Pythian priestess; followers fancy themselves inspired by the Holy Ghost; pretended miracles.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 285–286He would rather hear God directly than through appointed teachers.read · scan
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, The Education of the Human RaceVol. 32
- p. 185–186God reveals Himself in ordered measure; the first conception of the One God broke into many gods; He chose the Hebrews for special education.read · scan
- p. 186–187God announced Himself as God of their fathers and by miracles as mightiest, gradually accustoming the Hebrews to the idea of the One.read · scan
- p. 187–189God guides His chosen people through a childlike education while other nations advance by reason.read · scan
- p. 192–193Jews revered Jehovah as mightiest rather than wisest; captivity let them measure Him against the Being of all Beings.read · scan
- p. 194–195Through Persian doctrine the Jews recognised Jehovah as GOD rather than a national deity, so apostasy became impossible.read · scan
- p. 199–200God gives truths of reason as revelation to spread and ground them more firmly.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Essay Supplementary to PrefaceVol. 39
- p. 314Commerce between Man and his Maker requires the Infinite Being to accommodate a finite capacity.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5
- p. 71Strong intellects dare not hear God unless he speaks in the phraseology of David, Jeremiah or Paul; living truly, one lives with God.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Over-SoulVol. 5
- p. 140Revelation is an influx of the Divine mind into ours, like a rivulet before the sea.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 103The Word of God is offered daily to us, and daily choked.read · scan
2e.Anthropomorphism and the human making of gods
See also: Government 9c
Plutarch, PericlesVol. 12
- p. 75–76Plutarch argues the gods are authors of good only, criticizing poets who portray them as full of trouble, enmity and passion.read · scan
Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33
- p. 97Gods are too majestic to be enclosed in walls or given human likeness.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 51He could not raise his burden to God because his God was a mere phantom, an error.read · scan
- p. 59–60He wrongly applied the categories to God as though greatness and beauty were in Him as a subject.read · scan
- p. 60He imagined God as a vast bright body; good abilities are God's gift and firmness lies only in God.read · scan
- p. 73He finds it unseemly to picture God in human bodily shape but can conceive only bodies.read · scan
- p. 74He pictures God as unbounded but limited by a mass of evil, and hesitates to think Him bounded by a human body.read · scan
- p. 98Augustine conceives God as incorruptible and unchangeable but still pictures Him materially, as extended in space.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 229–232All sects agree in the name Mithra and the divine majesty, conceiving God after their own likeness.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 38Plato objected to poets making light tales of the Deity and spreading wrong opinions of the gods.read · scan
- p. 38–39Plato aimed to remove wrong opinions of the Deity, which Christianity has since taken away.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 43–45Better to have no opinion of God than an unworthy one; superstition is contumely against the Deity.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 375Men feign innumerable gods from the creatures of their own fancy, invoking them in distress.read · scan
- p. 380Ministerial gods were assigned to each cause, made in human and animal shape with human passions and vices.read · scan
Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26
- p. 121–123Polyeucte says the pagan gods revive with human passion and that lovers of lies cannot follow truth.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 164–165God is said to have avarice, jealousy and anger as virtues.read · scan
- p. 229God's inexpressible nature is spoken of in human terms; such expressions signify God's intention, not his manner of acting.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 232The primitive idea of the Divinity disfigured by men's fantasies; belief seemed to require abandoning understanding.read · scan
- p. 282–283Men make the Deity speak in their own way and reduce Him to human likeness.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 220–221The Greeks magnified humanity in the circle of their gods, each representing the whole of human nature.read · scan
- p. 252Greeks freed their gods of earnestness, labour and care, making godlike serenity the ideal of the freest mind.read · scan
- p. 278Man seeks god outside reason and nature, relating to a powerful rather than holy being.read · scan
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17
- p. 89–90She presumes to wish to be even as God, ordering sun and moon to rise.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 91–92Man ceases to see God whole in each object; Greek myth ties up the hands of Jupiter, a bad god, to satisfy Reason.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 275–276Men's gods mirror themselves: cannibal, crusader, merchant; some tribes flog their gods and Greek poets mocked them.read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28
- p. 196Milton's God appoints his Son head over angels; Bagehot finds this a patronage scene against the religious sense and imagines God with human form.read · scan
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