"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."
-William Robertson Smith
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"The dissolution of the nation destroys the national religion, and dethrones the national deity.“
-William Robertson Smith
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"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."
-William Robertson Smith
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"Thus a man was born into a fixed relation to certain gods as surely as he was born into a relation to his fellow-men and his religion... was simply one side of the general scheme of conduct prescribed for him by his position as a member of society."
-William Robertson Smith
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"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."
-William Robertson Smith
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"In better times the religion of the tribe or state has nothing in common with the private and foreign superstitions or magical rites that savage terror may dictate to the individual."
-William Robertson Smith
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"Even the highest forms of sacrificial worship present much that is repulsive to modern ideas, and in particular it requires an effort to reconcile our imagination to the bloody ritual which is prominent in almost every religion which has a strong sense of sin."
-William Robertson Smith
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"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
-C. S. Lewis
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"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
-Albert Einstein
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"I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion - I have shuddered at it. I shudder no more - I could be martyred for my religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that."
-John Keats
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"We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection."
-Dalai Lama
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"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple the philosophy is kindness."
-Dalai Lama
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"It is a fine thing to establish one's own religion in one's heart, not to be dependent on tradition and second-hand ideals. Life will seem to you, later, not a lesser, but a greater thing."
-David Herbert Lawrence
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