"The god can no more exist without his people than the nation without its god."

William Robertson Smith, Scottish Scientist

God, People, Nation

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"The god can no more exist without his people than the nation without its god."

Explore more quotes by William Robertson Smith

"But, strictly speaking, this mythology was no essential part of ancient religion, for it had no sacred sanction and no binding force on the worshippers."

Religion, Force, Mythology

"That the God-man died for his people, and that His death is their life, is an idea which was in some degree foreshadowed by the older mystical sacrifices."

Death, Life, People, Idea

"The dissolution of the nation destroys the national religion, and dethrones the national deity."

Religion, Nation

"This being so, it follows that mythology ought not to take the prominent place that is too often assigned to it in the scientific study of ancient faiths."

Being, Mythology, Study

"Religion did not exist for the saving of souls but for the preservation and welfare of society, and in all that was necessary to this end every man had to take his part, or break with the domestic and political community to which he belonged."

Religion, Society, Community, End

"In all the antique religions, mythology takes the place of dogma; that is, the sacred lore of priests and people... and these stories afford the only explanation that is offered of the precepts of religion and the prescribed rules of ritual."

Religion, People, Mythology, Ritual

"We are so accustomed to think of religion as a thing between individual men and God that we can hardly enter into the idea of a religion in which a whole nation in its national organisation appears as the religious unit."

Men, Religion, God, Idea

"The land of a god corresponds with the land of his worshipers."

God, Land

"The god can no more exist without his people than the nation without its god."

God, People, Nation

"The myths connected with individual sanctuaries and ceremonies were merely part of the apparatus of the worship; they served to excite the fancy and sustain the interest of the worshipper... no one cared what he believed about its origin."

Fancy, Interest, Myths, Worship

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"God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best."

Voltaire, French Writer

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"Religions do a useful thing: they narrow God to the limits of man. Philosophy replies by doing a necessary thing: it elevates man to the plane of God."

Victor Hugo, French Author

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"I know nothing of God or the Devil. I have never seen a vision nor learned a secret that would damn or save my soul."

Anne Rice, American Novelist

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"There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will."

Agatha Christie, English Writer

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"It is very lonely sometimes, trying to play God."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, American Writer

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"Conscience is God present in man."

Victor Hugo, French Author

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"God has given you one face, and you make yourself another."

William Shakespeare, English Dramatist

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"I gave in, and admitted that God was God."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

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"It is quite true, as some poets said, that the God who created man must have had a sinister sense of humor, creating him a reasonable being, yet forcing him to take this ridiculous posture, and driving him with blind craving for this ridiculous performance."

David Herbert Lawrence, English Writer

God, Humor, Performance, Being

"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him."

Voltaire, French Writer

God,