This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Prayer is an impossibility without a living faith in the presence of God within." - Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
"We may not be God, but we are of God even as a little drop of water is of the ocean. Imagine it torn away from the ocean and flung millions of miles away; it becomes helpless, torn from its surroundings, and cannot feel the might and majesty of the great ocean. But if someone could point out to it that it was of the ocean, its faith would revive, it would dance with joy and the whole might and majesty of the ocean would be reflected in it." - Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
"Of all the bigotries that ravage the human temper there is none so stupid as the anti-Semitic. It has no basis in reason, it is not rooted in faith, it aspires to no ideal." - Lloyd George, fully David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor
"Not to have faith is not a personal fault, it is a misfortune." - Étienne Gilson, fully Étienne Henry Gilson
"The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all others are of subordinate importance, is the conflict of skepticism with faith." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"The most fateful choices are made in tragic loneliness. In the valley of decision, we stand alone, accompanied by our haunting fears and our stubborn hopes, by dread despair or gritty faith. Yet, though we appear to stand solitary, in truth we are accompanied by the tall and brave spirits who have stood where we stand and who, when torn between “No” and “Yes” to life and its infinite possibilities; by those who have had the wisdom to focus not on what they had lost but on what they had left; by those who understood that fate is what life gives us and that destiny is what we do with what’s given; and by those who, therefore, grasped the liberating truth that while we have no control over our fate, we do have an astonishing amount of control over our destiny." - Sidney Greenberg
"Faith in God may be an elective in our university of daily living. In the presence of death it assumes crucial significance." - Sidney Greenberg
"There is much in the world that cannot be explained without knowing what came before life and what is to come after it, and of that we know nothing, for faith is not knowledge. All that we can do is to take refuge, in reverence and submission." - Edward Grey, fully Sir Edward Grey,1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon
"A sense of purpose and fulfillment is the single strongest issue flowing out of the quest for meaning… The end of the quest for meaning is the beginning of the journey of faith. Indeed, nothing better illuminates the entire journey of life and faith, and in particular the special challenge of finishing them well, than the issue of purpose." - Os Guiness
"There’s a moment when the choice to act moves beyond a discussion of motives, for even an awareness of our own motives can become a form of necessity that lets our responsibility off the hook. And the moment of faith is a moment when no part of us is excused. With no ifs, no buts, no conditions, no escape clauses, all we are is challenged to rise to the choice and shoulder the responsibility for our answer." - Os Guiness
"Religious faith does not threaten scientific integrity." - Allan J Hamilton
"Adventures don't begin until you get into the forest. That first step in an act of faith." - Mickey Hart, born Michael Steven Hartman
"Faith is the conviction that there is a divine reality beyond appearances." - David R. Hawkins, fully David Ramon Hawkins
"Faith in God is synonymous with the brave hope that the universe is friendly to the ideals of man." - Albert Eustace Haydon
"If no charismatic emerges, people may be truly bereft and lost in a sea of forces and pressures beyond their adaptive capacity. The society may die. If someone does emerge, the people may understandably attribute his rise to “divine grace.” Indeed, if he exercises leadership, he may well save his community and help it to renew itself. First, he binds people together by powerfully articulating their values, hopes, and pains. Second, he weaves their hopes into some image of the future. And third, he provides energy, strategy, and faith that the vision can be realized." - Ronald A. Heifetz
"Faith implies no denial of evil, no disregard of danger, no whitewashing of the abominable… Faith is not a mechanical insurance but a dynamic, personal act, flowing between the heart of man and the love of God." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Faith is an awareness of divine mutuality and companionship, a form of communion between God and man." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Faith is intellectual humility, devotion of the mind, a true offering, the finest feat the heart can perform." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Faith is not a miniature of thinking but its model, not its shadow but its root. It is a spiritual force in man, not dealing with the given, concrete, limited, but directed upon the transcendent. It is the spring of our creative actions." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Faith is sensitiveness to what transcends nature, knowledge and will, awareness of the ultimate, alertness to the holy dimension of all reality. Faith is a force in man, lying deeper than the stratum of reason and its nature cannot be defined in abstract, static terms. To have faith is not to infer the beyond from the wretched here, but to perceive the wonder that is here and to be stirred by the desire to integrate the self into the holy order of living. It is not a deduction but an intuition, not a form of knowledge, of being convinced without proof, but the attitude of mind toward ideas whose scope is wider than its own capacity to grasp." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"God is greater than religion… Faith is greater than dogma." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Human faith is never final, never an arrival, but rather an endless pilgrimage, a being on the way." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Recollection is a holy act; we sanctify the present by remembering the past… The essence of faith is memory." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Religion declined not because it was refuted but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion – its message becomes meaningless." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"The beginning of faith is not a feeling for the mystery of living or a sense of awe, wonder, or fear. The root of religion is the question what to do with the feeling for the mystery of living, what to do with awe, wonder, or fear. Religion, the end of isolation, begins with a consciousness that something is asked of us. It is in that tense, eternal asking in which the soul is caught and in which man’s answer is elicited." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"We do not have faith in deeds; we attain faith through deeds." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Faith is a gift of God which man can neither give or take away by promise of rewards or menaces of torture." - Thomas Hobbes
"We do not get faith by arguing about religion; we get faith on our knees, in and through surrender, and prayer. God gives faith to those who need and want it." - Elmer George Homrighausen
"We ought to try to change the legend on our money from “In God We Trust” to “In Money We Trust.” Because, as a nation, we’ve got far more faith in money these days than we do in God." - Arthur Hoppe
"We have a duty to perform, to cultivate the human soul, to adore the incomprehensible and reject the absurd; to purify faith and obliterate superstition from the face of religion, to remove the vermin from the garden of God." - Victor Hugo
"Faith is not a momentary feeling, but a struggle against the discouragement that threatens us every time we meet with resistance." - Bakola wa Ilunga
"All Faith consists essentially in the recognition of a world of spiritual values behind, yet not apart from, the world of natural phenomena." - William Ralph Inge
"Bereavement is the deepest initiation into the mysteries of human life, an initiation more searching and profound than even happy love… Bereavement is the sharpest challenge to our trust in God; if faith can overcome this, there is no mountain which it cannot remove." - William Ralph Inge
"Faith always contains an element of risk, of venture; and we are impelled to make the venture by the affinity and attraction which we feel in ourselves." - William Ralph Inge
"The belief in progress, not as an ideal but as an indisputable fact, not as a task for humanity but as a law of Nature, has been the working faith of the West for about a hundred and fifty years." - William Ralph Inge
"So long as religion is only faith and outward form, and the religious function is not experienced in our own souls, nothing of any importance has happened." - Carl Jung, fully Carl Gustav Jung
"I believe in immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal longings. I believe that the state we enter after death is wrought of our own motives, thoughts, and deeds... I carry a magic light in my heart. Faith, the spiritual strong searchlight, illumines the way, and although sinister doubts lurk in the shadow, I walk unafraid towards the Enchanted Wood where the foliage is always green, where joy abides, where nightingales nest and sing, and where life and death are one in the Presence of the Lord." - Helen Keller. aka Helen Adams Keller
"Sick or well, blind or seeing, bond or free, we are here for a purpose and however we are situated, we please God better with useful deeds than with many prayers or pious resignation. The temple or church is empty unless the good life fill it. The altar is holy if only it represents the altar of our heart upon which we offer the only sacrifices ever commanded – the love that is stronger than hate and the faith that overcometh doubt." - Helen Keller. aka Helen Adams Keller
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"If in the past Christianity, Judaism, or Islam placed itself at the center of the search for truth and unity, there is now a shift away from this kind of tribal centricty to the notion that it is God who is at the center and all the religious traditions of the world must inevitably intersect at this center. One can no longer speak about one’s faith outside the ambience of the plurality of religious traditions." - Madonna Kolbenschlag, fully Madonna Claire Kolbenschlag
"Faith is the song of life. Woe to him who wishes to rob life of its splendid poetry. The whole mass of prosaic literature and knowledge is of value only when it is founded on the perception of the poetry of life." - Abraham Isaac Kook
"Immense hidden powers seem to lurk in the unconscious depths of even the most common man - indeed, of all people without exception. It is these powers, when put under pressure, that are responsible for all great creative efforts. The men who make history are those who - consciously or unconsciously - turn the switch on the inner switchboards of human character. Pour out all your fears and anxieties, malicious joy and greed and hatred, and you will be astonished at the terrific amount of power which is pent up in your unconscious mind. We can release this power and transform it from negative into positive power, only by bringing into the open, into the light of consciousness, and by accepting ourselves as we are, even though the mountains of debts seem to crush us. This is the principle of honesty. And it is clear that it can be applied only if connected with the principle of faith." - Fritz Künkel
"If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it if you have love, compassion, and tolerance. The clear proof of a person’s love of God is if that person genuinely shows love to fellow human beings." - Dalai Lama, born Tenzin Gyatso NULL
"Of the best rulers the people (only) know that they exist; the next best they love and praise; the next they fear; the next they revile. When they do not command the people’s faith, some will lose faith in them, and then they resort to oaths! But (of the best) when their task is accomplished, their work done, the people all remark, “We have done it ourselves.”" - Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze
"The faith we have to build is a faith in the values of this world, not in the values of another." - Harold Laski, fully Harold Joseph Laski
"Do not scrupulously confine yourself to fixed rules, or particular forms of devotion, but act with faith in God, with love or humility." - Brother Nicholas Herman of Lorraine, born Nicolas Herman, aka Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection or