Synods are mystical Boar-gardens,
Where Elders, Deputies, Church-wardens,
And other Members of the Court,
Manage the Babylonish sport.
So 'ere the storm' of war broke out,
Religion spawn'd a various rout
Of petulant capricious sects,
The maggots of corrupted texts,
That first run all religion down,
And after every swarm its own.
There's naught, no doubt, so much the spirit
calms as rum and true religion.
| author = Byron
| work = Don Juan. Canto II. St. 34.
His religion at best is an anxious wish,—like
that of Rabelais, a great Perhaps.
Carlyle—Essays. Burns.
| seealso = (See also Rabelais under Death)
| topic = Religion
| page = 662
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>On the whole we must repeat the often repeated saving, that it is unworthy a religious
man to view an irreligious one either with alarm
or aversion; or with any other feeling than regret, and hope, and brotherly commiseration,
Carlyle—Essays. Voltaire.
I realized that ritual will always mean throwing
awav something; Destroying our corn or wine
upon the altar of our gods.
G. K. Chesterton—Tremendous Trifles. Secret of a Train.
The rigid saint, by whom no mercy's shown
To saints whose lives are better than his own.
Churchill—Epistle to Hogarth. L. 25.
Deos placatos pietas efficiet et sanctitas.
Piety and holiness of life will propitiate the
gods.
Cicero—De Officiis. II. 3.
Res sacros non modo manibus attingi, sed ne
cogitatione quidem violari fas fuit.
Things sacred should not only be untouched
with the hands, but unviolated in thought.
Cicero—Orationes in Verrem. II. 4. 45
Forth from his dark and lonely hiding place,
(Portentous sight!) the owlet atheism,
Sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon,
Drops his blue-fring'd lids, and holds them close,
And hooting at the glorious sun in Heaven,
Cries out, "Where is it?"
Coleridge—Fears in Solitude.
Life and the Universe show spontaneity;
Down with ridiculous notions of Deity!
Churches and creeds are lost in the mists;
Truth must be sought with the Positivists.
Mortimer Collins—The Positivists.
Men will wrangle for religion; write for it;
fight for it; die for it; anything but—live for it.
C C. Colton—Loam. Vol.1. XXV.
Religion, if in heavenly truths attired,
Needs only to be seen to be admired.
| author = Cowper
| work = Expostulation. L. 492.
w The Cross!
There, and there only (though the deist rave,
And atheist, if Earth bears so base a slave);
There and there only, is the power to save.
| author = Cowper
| work = The Progress of Error. L. 613.
Religion does not censure or exclude
Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued.
| author = Cowper
| work = Retirement. L. 782.
la
Pity! Religion haa so seldom found
A skilful guide into poetic ground!
The flowers would spring where'er she deign'd
to stray
And every muse attend her in her wav.
| author = Cowper
| work = Table Talk. L. 688.
Sacred religion! Mother of Form and Fear!
Samuel Daniel—Musophilus. St. 47.
<poem>"As for that," said Waldenshare, ' 'sensible men
are all of the same religion." "Pray, what is that?" inquired the Prince. "Sensible men never tell." Benj. Disraeli—Endymion. Ch. LXXXI. Borrowed from Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury.)
You can and you can't,—You shall and you shan't—You will and you won't—And you will be damned if you do—And you will be damned if you don't.
Gardez-vous bien de lui les jours qu’il communie.
Beware of him the days that he takes Communion.
L'institut des Jesuites est une épée dont la poigée est à Rome et la pointe partout.
The Order of Jesuits is a sword whose handle is at Rome and whose point is everywhere.
I do not find that the age or country makes the least difference; no, nor the language the actors spoke, nor the religion which they professed whether Arab in the desert or Frenchman in the Academy, I see that sensible men and conscientious men all over the world were of one religion.
