"Atheism is a theoretical formulation of the discouraged life."
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Harry Emerson Fosdick quotes (page 4 of 6)
103 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"It is by acts (actions) and not by ideas (mere thoughts) that people [really] live."
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"The first question to be answered by any individual or by any social group, The real handle facing a hazardous sit - to a difficult uation, is whether the stuaton crisis is to be met as a challenge to strength or as an occasion for despair."
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"No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it.--Harry Emerson FosdickNo one can get inner peace by pouncing on it."
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"All altruism springs from putting yourself in the other person's place."
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"Some things mankind can finish and be done with, but not ... science, that persists, and changes from ancient Chaldeans studying the stars to a new telescope with a 200-inch reflector and beyond; not religion, that persists, and changes from old credulities and world views to new thoughts of God and larger apprehensions of his meaning."
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"No man is the whole of himself; his friends are the rest of him."
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"Whatever you laugh at in others, laughs at yourself"
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"The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this. Irritations set into his shell. He does not like them. But when he cannot get ride of them, he uses the irritation to do the loveliest thing an oyster ever has a chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only one prescription: make a pearl. It may have to be a pearl of patience, but anyhow, make a pearl. And it takes faith and I love to do it."
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"...while science gives us implements to use, science alone does not determine for what ends they will be employed. Radio is an amazing invention. Yet now that it is here, one suspects that Hitler never could have consolidated his totalitarian control over Germany without its use. One never can tell what hands will reach out to lay hold on scientific gifts, or to what employment they will be put. Ever the old barbarian emerges, destructively using the new civilization."
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"The more we know about this universe, the more mysterious it is. The old world that Job knew was marvelous enough, and his description of its wonders is among the noblest poetry of the race, but today the new science has opened to our eyes vistas of mystery that transcend in their inexplicable marvel anything the ancients ever dreamed."
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"One of the strange phenomena of the last century is the spectacle of religion dropping the appeal of fear while other human interests have picked it up."
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"A good sermon is an engineering operation by which a chasm is bridged so that the spiritual goods on one side-the 'unsearchable riches of Christ' - are actually transported into personal lives upon the other."
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"When you hear a person say, "I hate," adding the name of some race, nation, religion, or social class, you are dealing with a belated mind. That person may dress like a modern, ride in an automobile, listen to the radio, but his or her mind is properly dated about 1000 B.C."
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"Every failure can be considered as a tragedy or a chance to learn something. The latter is healthier"
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"Our power is not so much in us as through us."
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"Granted the endless variations of moral customs, still the essential standards persist. As in a scientific laboratory, all else may change but the standards are unalterable- disinterested love of truth, fidelity to facts, accuracy in measurement, exactness of verification-so, in life as a whole, the towering ethical criteria remain unshaken. Falsehood is never better than truth, theft better than than honesty, treachery better than loyalty, cowardice better than courage."
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"One never finds life worth living. One always has to make it work living."
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"Opinions may be mistaken; love never is."
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"All intelligent faith in God has behind it a background of humble agnosticism."
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