“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.

Nobody can have the consolations of religion or philosophy unless he has first experienced their desolations.

Some who grow dull religious straight commence And gain in morals what they lose in sense.

Know thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

God doesn't know things. He is things.

My God, these folks don't know how to love - that's why they love so easily.

God is only a great imaginative experience.

God how I hate new countries: They are older than the old, more sophisticated, much more conceited, only young in a certain puerile vanity more like senility than anything.

A man has no religion who has not slowly and painfully gathered one together, adding to it, shaping it; and one's religion is never complete and final, it seems, but must always be undergoing modification.

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.

I am in love - and, my God, it is the greatest thing that can happen to a man. I tell you, find a woman you can fall in love with. Do it. Let yourself fall in love. If you have not done so already, you are wasting your life.

“Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.”

“I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.”

“Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the week, and esteem to all.” – George Washington

“Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

“Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.”

“I wore black because I liked it. I still do, and wearing it still means something to me. It’s still my symbol of rebellion — against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to others’ ideas.”

“Jesus will not fail me, I shall not be moved.”

“The gospel of Christ must always be an open door with a welcome sign for all.”

“My arms are too short to box with God.”

“I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God.”

“God’s the final judge for Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash too. That’s solely in the hands of God.”