God

We can preserve the point that the divine life is wholly mysterious to us, that we can form no notion of what it is like to be God, to know or to purpose as God does, while still thinking of God in terms that we understand because they apply to us.
~ William P. Alston, in American Philosophical Quarterly 22 (1985) p. 224. Functionalism and Theological Language

In whatever God wills he is universally effectual; he is not hindered or frustrated in obtaining what he wills. For if he should properly will anything and not attain it, he would not be fully perfect and blessed.
~ William Ames, Medulla Theologica (The Marrow of Theology) (1629).

I suggest that the anthropomorphic god-idea is not a harmless infirmity of human thought, but a very noxious fallacy, which is largely responsible for the calamities the world is at present enduring.
~ William Archer, Theology and War

We are all dangerous folk without God's controlling hand.
~ William Ward Ayer

God himself took this human flesh upon him.
~ William Barclay, Many Witnesses, One Lord (1963).

It would often do our souls the world of good to make a pilgrimage to the place where we first found God.
~ William Barclay, The Gospel of John

Prayer is not a way of making use of God; prayer is a way of offering ourselves to God in order that He should be able to make use of us. It may be that one of our great faults in prayer is that we talk too much and listen too little. When prayer is at its highest we wait in silence for God's voice to us; we linger in His presence for His peace and His power to flow over us and around us; we lean back in His everlasting arms and feel the serenity of perfect security in Him.
~ William Barclay, The Plain Man's Book of Prayers (1959).

When we believe that God is Father, we also believe that such a father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear. We may not understand life any better, but we will not resent life any longer.
~ William Barclay

I have been truly blessed from the Man upstairs.
~ Billy Barty

Have we come to the point where it is now considered a secular blasphemy to acknowledge the name of God at all?
~ William John Bennett, The De-Valuing of America: The Fight for Our Culture and Our Children (February 1992).

God appears, and God is Light,
To those poor souls who dwell in Night,
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.
~ William Blake, The Pickering Manuscript (c. 1803). Auguries of Innocence

It is not because angels are holier than men or devils that makes them angels, but because they do not expect holiness from one another, but from God only.
~ William Blake, A Vision of the Last Judgment (c. 1810).

Some will say,
Is not God alone the Prolific? I answer,
God only Acts & Is, in existing beings or Men.
~ William Blake

The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged and numerous senses could perceive. And particularly they studied the genius of each city and county, placing it under its mental deity. Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of and enslaved the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects; thus began Priesthood. Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And at length they pronounced that the Gods had ordered such things. Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93).

Thinking as I do that the Creator of this world is a very cruel being, & being a worshipper of Christ, I cannot help saying: "the Son, O how unlike the Father!" First God Almighty comes with a thump on the head. Then Jesus Christ comes with a balm to heal it.
~ William Blake, A Vision of the Last Judgement (1790).

I'm a Christian. I believe in God's word. I know the power of God's word.
~ Billy Blanks, Trinity Broadcasting Network (Interview; 22 March 2001). Praise The Lord

It doesn't matter if it's in my class or around the world, anywhere, the first thing I say is "First of all guys, I want to give my Heavenly Father credit for all I do and the Lord Jesus Christ to give me the opportunity to go out and reach and save lives." To me, that's the most important thing.
~ Billy Blanks, Trinity Broadcasting Network (Interview; 22 March 2001). Praise The Lord

Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Innocence (1789). The Divine Image

Your days at the most cannot be very long, so use them to the best of your ability for the glory of God and the benefit of your generation.
~ William Booth, (4 October 1910).

I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.
~ Lieutenant General William G. "Jerry" Boykin (on Osman Atto), Speech at First Baptist Church, Daytona FL (28 January 2003).

Now I'm a warrior. One day I'm going to take off this uniform and I'm still going to be a warrior. And what I'm here to do today is to recruit you to be warriors of God's kingdom.
~ Lieutenant General William G. "Jerry" Boykin, Speech, First Baptist Church, Broken Arrow OK (30 June 2002).

From my years young in days of youth,
God did make known to me his truth,
And call'd me from my native place
For to enjoy the means of grace.
~ William Bradford, Providence and the Pilgrim (1657).

I think there are innumerable gods. What we on earth call God is a little tribal God who has made an awful mess. Certainly forces operating through human consciousness control events.
~ William S. Burroughs, in Writers at Work, Third Series (Interview; 1967).

Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.
~ William Butler, in Izaak Walton (1661). The Compleat Angler (3rd ed.)

Expect great things -- attempt great things.
~ William Carey, Sermon (aka "Deathless Sermon") to the Baptist Association meeting in Northampton, England (30 May 1792).

The most glorious works of grace that have ever took place, have been in answer to prayer; and it is in this way, we have the greatest reason to suppose, that the glorious out-pouring of the Spirit, which we expect at last, will be bestowed.
~ William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (1792). Section 5: An Enquiry into the Duty of Christians in General, and What Means Ought to be Used, in Order to Promote This Work

I took a day to search for God,
And found Him not. But as I trod
By rocky ledge, through woods untamed,
Just where one scarlet lily flamed,
I saw His footprint in the sod.
~ (William) Bliss Carman, from Later Poems (1922). Vestigia

A fire-mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell,
A jellyfish and a saurian,
And caves where the cavemen dwell;
Then a sense of law and beauty,
And a face turned from the clod --
Some call it Evolution,
And others call it God.
~ William Herbert Carruth, Each In His Own Tongue (1908).

Socrates drinking the hemlock,
And Jesus on the rood;
And millions who, humble and nameless,
The straight, hard pathway plod --
Some call it Consecration,
And others call it God.
~ William Herbert Carruth, Each In His Own Tongue (1908).

God is another name for human intelligence raised above all error and imperfection, and extended to all possible truth.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Discourse At The Ordination Of The Rev. F.A. Farley, Providence RI (1828). Likeness to God

Our leading principle in interpreting Scripture is this, that the Bible is a book written for men, in the language of men, and that its meaning is to be sought in the same manner as that of other books. We believe that God, when he speaks to the human race, conforms, if we may so say, to the established rules of speaking and writing. How else would the Scriptures avail us more, than if communicated in an unknown tongue?
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Discourse at the Ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks in The First Independent Church of Baltimore (5 May 1819). Unitarian Christianity

The divine attributes are first developed in ourselves, and thence transferred to our Creator. The idea of God, sublime and awful as it is, is the idea of our own spiritual nature, purified and enlarged to infinity. In ourselves are the elements of the Divinity.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Discourse At The Ordination Of The Rev. F.A. Farley, Providence RI (1828). Likeness to God

The only God whom our thoughts can rest on, and our hearts cling to, and our consciences can recognize, is the God whose image dwells in our own souls.
~ William Ellery Channing, from The Complete Works of William Ellery Channing, Part II: Essays, Discourses, Etc. (1884). Introductory Remarks

The proposition that there is one God seems to us exceedingly plain. We understand by it that there is one being, one mind, one person, one intelligent agent, and one only, to whom underived and infinite perfection and dominion belong.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Discourse at the Ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks in The First Independent Church of Baltimore (5 May 1819). Unitarian Christianity

To do God's will as fast as it is made known to us, to inquire hourly, I had almost said each moment, what he requires of us, and to leave ourselves, our friends, and every interest, at his control, with a cheerful trust that the path which he marks out leads to our perfection and to himself, -- this is at once our duty and happiness; and why will we not walk in the plain, simple way?
~ William Ellery Channing, Miscellanious correspondence. Boston. (25 January 1825)

We do not pretend to know the whole nature and properties of God, but still we can form some clear ideas of him, and can reason from these ideas as justly as from any other. The truth is, that we cannot be said to comprehend any being whatever, not the simplest plant or animal. All have hidden properties. Our knowledge of all is limited.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), from The Works of William E. Channing, D.D. (1841). The Moral Argument Against Calvinism (1820 address)

We do, then, with all earnestness, though without reproaching our brethren, protest against the irrational and unscriptural doctrine of the Trinity. "To us," as to the Apostle and the primitive Christians, "there is one God, even the Father." With Jesus, we worship the Father, as the only living and true God. We are astonished, that any man can read the New Testament, and avoid the conviction, that the Father alone is God.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Discourse at the Ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks in The First Independent Church of Baltimore (5 May 1819). Unitarian Christianity

We ought, indeed, to expect occasional obscurity in such a book at the Bible, which was written for past and future ages, as well as for the present. But God's wisdom is a pledge, that whatever is necessary for us, and necessary for salvation, is revealed too plainly to be mistaken.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Discourse at the Ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks in The First Independent Church of Baltimore (5 May 1819). Unitarian Christianity

God's love doesn't seek value; it creates it. It's not because we have value that we are loved, but because we're loved that we have value. So you don't have to prove yourself -- ever. That's taken care of.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (sermon at Memorial Church, Stanford Univ.), Stanford Report (14 March 2001). The Rev. William Sloane Coffin: 'Who tells you who you are?'

After creating the heaven, the earth, the oceans, and the entire animal kingdom, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing He said to them was "Don't."
~ Bill Cosby, Fatherhood (1986).

A firm persuasion of the superintendence of Providence over all our concerns is absolutely necessary to our happiness.
~ William Cowper, Letter to Lady Hesketh (1765).

God made the country, and man made the town.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book I. The Sofa

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
~ William Cowper, from Olney Hymns (1779). Book III: On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life. Light Shining Out of Darkness

My God! till I receiv'd thy stroke,
How like a beast was I!
So unaccustom'd to the yoke,
So backward to comply.
~ William Cowper, from Olney Hymns (1779). Book I: On Select Passages of Scripture. Ephraim Repenting

Oh! let me then at length be taught
What I am still so slow to learn;
That God is love, and changes not,
Nor knows the shadow of a turn.
~ William Cowper, from Olney Hymns (1779). Book III: On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life. Peace After a Storm

God dwells as glorious in a saint when he is in the dark, as when he is in light, for darkness is His secret place, and His pavilion round about Him are dark waters.
~ William Erbery

How odd
Of God
To choose
The Jews.
~ William Norman Ewer, in The Week-End Book (1924).

I worship thee, sweet will of God!
And all thy ways adore;
To every day I live, I seem
To love thee more and more.
~ Frederick William Faber, The Will of God.

Life is one long joy, because the will of God is always being done in it, and the glory of God always being got from it.
~ Frederick William Faber, The Spirit of Father Faber (1914).

My God, how wonderful Thou art!
Thy Majesty how bright!
~ Frederick William Faber, The Eternal Father (1854 hymn).

O majesty unspeakable and dread!
Wert thou less mighty than Thou art,
Thou wert, O Lord, too great for our belief,
Too little for our heart.
~ Frederick William Faber, The Greatness of God.

There's a wideness in God's mercy
Like the wideness of the sea.
~ Frederick William Faber, Souls of men, why will ye scatter (1854 hymn).

There is nothing in the whole world so dangerous as a sense of vocation without a belief in God.
~ William Roxburgh (W.R.) Forrester, Christian Vocation: Studies in Faith and Work (1951).

The death of God represents not only the realization that gods have never existed, but the contention that such a belief is no longer even irrationally possible: that neither reason nor the taste and temper of the times condones it. The belief lingers on, of course, but it does so like astrology or a faith in a flat earth.
~ William H. Gass

But now we have a choice: whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and a nation -- or, whether we choose to become stronger through all of this struggle -- to rebuild on a solid foundation. And I believe we are in the process of starting to rebuild on that foundation. That foundation is our trust in God.
~ Billy Graham, Speech (14 September 2001). National Day of Prayer and Remembrance

God has given us two hands, one to receive with, and the other to give with.
~ Billy Graham

God is unchanging in His love. He loves you. He has a plan for your life. Don't let the newspaper headlines frighten you. God is still sovereign; He's still on the throne.
~ Billy Graham, from Decision Magazine (1979). Don't Be Left Behind

God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.
~ Billy Graham

God's angels often protect his servants from potential enemies.
~ Billy Graham, in Word, Inc. ANGELS, by Billy Graham (1975), Hills Full of Horses

How often we commit our burdens to the Lord and then fail to trust Him by taking matters into our own hands. Then, when we have messed things up, we pray, "Oh, Lord, help me, I'm in trouble." The choice is yours. Do you want to trust your life in God's "pocket" or keep it in your own?
~ Billy Graham, from Unto the Hills (1996). Worry

I can tell you that God is alive because I talked to him this morning.
~ Billy Graham, (1966).

My prayer today is that we will feel the loving arms of God wrapped around us, and will know in our hearts that He will never forsake us as we trust in Him.
~ Billy Graham, Speech (14 September 2001). National Day of Prayer and Remembrance

Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God.
~ Billy Graham

The Bible promises us that Jesus will return to take His faithful followers with Him to live with Him in His glorious presence forever. Everyone else will be left behind to face God's wrath and judgment. If Jesus were to return today, do you know if He would take you with Him to heaven?
~ Billy Graham, from Decision Magazine (1979). Don't Be Left Behind

The Lord . . . put his hand on me and gave me a gift. God has called me to preach and be about the business of winning the lost.
~ Billy Graham

While our world is shaking and crumbling, we need to realize that one thing will never change, and that is God. He is the same today as he was ten million years ago, and will be the same ten million years from today.
~ Billy Graham

You're born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there's a loophole.
~ Billy Graham

I don't think that the good Lord cares whether you succeed or fail. But I think He does care that you try -- and that you try hard.
~ Wilson Greatbatch, in IEEE Spectrum (October 1999). Threshold of the new millennium

All the plots of hell and commotions on earth have not so much as shaken God's hand to spoil one letter or line he has been drawing.
~ William Gurnall

Great comforts do, indeed, bear witness to the truth of thy grace, but not to the degree of it; the weak child is oftener in the lap than the strong one.
~ William Gurnall

God Himself underwrites your battle and has appointed His own Son "the captain of your salvation".
~ William Gurnall

The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God.
~ William Gurnall

Thou hast no life to lose, because thou hast given it already to Christ, nor can man take away that without God's leave.
~ William Gurnall

We have peace with God as soon as we believe, but not always with ourselves. The pardon may be past the prince's hand and seal, and yet not put into the prisoner's hand.
~ William Gurnall

God is love; therefore, He is both light and life.
~ William Hallman

The examination of the bodies of animals has always been my delight; and I have thought that we might thence not only obtain an insight into the . . . mysteries of Nature, but there perceive a kind of image or reflex of the omnipotent Creator himself.
~ William Harvey

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown." And he replied: "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way."
~ Minnie Louise Haskins, A Woman's Book of Days: Inspiration and Celebration (1996). The Desert

All that my work has shown is that you don't have to say that the way the universe began was the personal whim of God. But you still have the question: Why does the universe bother to exist? If you like, you can define God to be the answer to that question.
~ Stephen William Hawking, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993).

God not only plays dice, he also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen.
~ Stephen William Hawking

God is recognized as Spirit only when known as the Triune. This new principle is the axis on which the History of the World turns. "When the fullness of the time was come, God sent his Son," is the statement of the Bible. This means nothing else than that self-consciousness has reached the phase of development whose resultant constitutes the Idea of Spirit.
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (G.W.F.) Hegel, The Philosophy of History (1832).

The proudest heart that ever beat
Hath been subdued in me;
The wildest will that ever rose
To scorn Thy cause, and aid Thy foes,
Is quell'd, my God, by Thee.
~ William Hone

The Lord hears the prayer of the hustler who prays for work, but the man who prays for a job to be sent to him gets no results.
~ (Col.) William C. Hunter, Brass Tacks (1910).

Does your problem seem bigger than life, bigger than God himself? It isn't. God is infinitely bigger than any problem you ever had or will have, and every time you call a problem unsolvable, you mock God.
~ Bill Hybels, Who Are You When No One's Looking (1987). Cultivating Vision

God wants to father all of us until we're dead sure of his approval, his guiding power and his promise of heaven.
~ Bill Hybels, Honest To God? (1990). Authentic Manhood

All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods.
~ William James, An Address to the Harvard Divinity Students (1884). The Dilemma of Determinism

The God of many men is little more than their court of appeal against the damnatory judgement passed on their failures by the opinion of the world.
~ William James

The God whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.
~ William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). Conclusions

We and God have business with each other; and in opening ourselves to his influence our deepest destiny is fulfilled. The universe, at those parts of it which our personal being constitutes, takes a turn genuinely for the worse or for the better in proportion as each one of us fulfills or evades God's demands.
~ William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). Conclusions

As an atheist you have to rationalize things. . . . Then you have to try and make some sort of sense out of your problems.
~ Billy Joel

In regard to the origin of life and science, it all positively affirms a creative power at work.
~ Lord Kelvin (William Thomson)

The fool hath said: There is no God!
No God! Who lights the morning sun,
And sends him on his heavenly road,
A far and brilliant course to run?
~ William Knox, The Atheist. Stanza 1

A revelation is to be received as coming from God, not because of its internal excellence, or because we judge it to be worthy of God; but because God has declared it to be His in as plain and undeniable a manner as He has declared creation and providence to be His.
~ William Law, The Case of Reason or Natural Religion Fairly and Fully Stated (1731).

All people desire what they believe will make them happy. If a person is not full of desire for God, we can only conclude that he is engaged with another happiness.
~ William Law, A Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection (1726).

God seeth different abilities and frailties of men, which may move His goodness to be merciful to their different improvements in virtue.
~ William Law, A Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection (1726).

If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.
~ William Law

It is much more possible for the sun to give out darkness than for God to do or be, or give out anything but blessing and goodness.
~ William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728).

Nothing hath separated us from God but our own will, or rather our own will is our separation from God.
~ William Law, The Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Regeneration (1739).

The one supreme, unchangeable rule of love, which is a law to all intelligent beings of all worlds and will be a law to all eternity, is this, viz., that God alone is to be loved for Himself, and all other beings only in Him and for Him. Whatever intelligent creature lives not under this rule of love is so far fallen from the order of his creation, and is, till he returns to this eternal law of love, an apostate from God and incapable of the kingdom of Heaven. Now, if God is alone to be loved for Himself, then no creature is to be loved for itself; and so all self-love in every creature is absolutely condemned. And if all created beings are only to be loved in and for God, then my neighbour is to be loved as I love myself, and I am only to love myself as I love my neighbour or any other created being that is, only in and for God.
~ William Law, The Spirit of Prayer, Part I (1749).

You have no questions to ask of any body, no new way that you need inquire after; no oracle that you need to consult; for whilst you shut yourself up in patience, meekness, humility, and resignation to God, you are in the very arms of Christ, your heart is His dwelling-place, and He lives and works in you as certainly as He lived in and governed that body and soul which He took from the Virgin Mary.
~ William Law, The Spirit of Love, Part II (1754).

There is no emptiness of soul ever for those whose life is devoted to God.
~ William Lawson, For Goodness Sake (1951).

In whatever manner God created the world, it would always have been regular and in a certain general order. God, however, has chosen the most perfect, that is to say, the one which is at the same time the simplest in hypothesis and the richest in phenomena.
~ Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics (1685).

A human soul knows and adores its God!
~ William Wilberforce Lord, Worship

I believe Dr. Kavorkina is onto something. I think he's great. Because suicide is our way of saying to God, "You can't fire me. I quit."
~ Bill Maher

Let's face it; God has a big ego problem. Why do we always have to worship him?
~ Bill Maher

A god that can be understood is no God. Who can explain the infinite in words?
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge (1944).

God is not so reasonable. He promises rewards to those who believe in him and threatens with horrible punishment those who do not. For my part I cannot believe in a God who is angry with me because I do not believe in him.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up (1938).

I don't know why it is that the religious never ascribe common sense to God.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from A Writer's Notebook (1949).

When I was young I had an elderly friend who used often to ask me to stay with him in the country. He was a religious man and he read prayers to the assembled household every morning. But he had crossed out in pencil all the passages that praised God. He said that there was nothing so vulgar as to praise people to their faces and, himself a gentleman, he could not believe that God was so ungentlemanly as to like it.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up (1938).

It boggles my mind that someone can see life breathed into a baby, watch the grass die and then come to life again, see leaves fall and watch the rebirth of a tree, or gaze on any of the majestic splendor that is this earth and not be overpowered by the presence of an Almighty God!
~ Bill McCartney, From Ashes To Glory (1990). Overpowered by His Presence

God made the moon and all the stars. How good God is to us; he gives us all we have, and keeps us alive. . . . We should love God.
~ William Holmes McGuffey, The Eclectic First Reader: For Young Children (1836). Lesson 10: The Sun is Up

Leave the decision to God and you relieve yourself of the anxiety that comes from thinking that the choice is yours -- the sneaking suspicion that you might have done better had you been a little more careful, a little luckier, a little more thorough.
~ William McGurn, Notre Dame Magazine (Autumn 1997). The Gift of a Child

God help those who do not help themselves.
~ Wilson Mizner

Our nation, our people, now face a trying time in this world of chaos. It is only with a return to our traditional values and our faith in God that we will be able to survive as a people. If it were within my personal power to help to return this nation to its rightful place by placing God back in the classroom, I would do so.
~ William J. Murray, from My Life Without God (1922).

God is a gross answer, an indelicacy against us thinkers -- at bottom, merely a gross prohibition for us: you shall not think!
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Ecce Homo (1888).

God is dead; but considering the state the species Man is in, there will perhaps be caves, for ages yet, in which his shadow will be shown.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I fear we are not getting rid of God because we still believe in grammar.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Once the sin against God was the greatest sin; but God died, and these sinners died with him.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885).

There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Your god is dead and only the ignorant weep. And if you claim there is a hell, then we shall meet there!
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone and were asked how the stone came to be there, I might possibly answer that for anything I knew to the contrary it had lain there forever. . . . But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place, I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given, that for anything I knew the watch might have always been there. Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch, as well as for the stone? why is it not as admissable in the second case as in the first? For this reason, and for no other, viz., that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive (what we could not discover in the stone) that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose . . .
~ Reverend William Paley (on the existence of God), Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (1802). Chapter One: State of the Argument

The marks of design are too strong to be gotten over. Design must have had a designer. That designer must have been a person. That person is GOD.
~ Reverend William Paley, Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (1802). Chapter XXIII: Personality of the Deity

There will be no peace so long as God remains unseated at the conference tables.
~ William M. Peck

If there be three distinct and separate Persons, then three distinct and separate Substances. . . . And since the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God . . . then unless the Father, Son and Spirit are three distinct Nothings, they must be three distinct Substances, and consequently three distinct Gods.
~ William Penn, Sandy Foundation Shaken (1667).

Men must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants.
~ William Penn, Attributed

Those that would reap and not labour, must faint with the wind, and perish in disappointments; but an hair of my head shall not fall, without the providence of my Father that is over all.
~ William Penn

The peace of God, it is no peace, but strife closed in the sod;
Yet, brothers, pray for but one thing -- the marvelous peace of God.
~ William Alexander Percy

The action of a shepherd in keeping sheep, performed as I have said in his kind, is as good a work before God as is the action of a judge in giving sentence, or of a magistrate in ruling, or a minister in preaching.
~ William Perkins, A Treatise of Vocations, or Callings of Men (1603).

The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it.
~ Frederick William (F.W.) Robertson, Sermon on Prayer.

Lord, I have shut the door, strengthen my heart;
Yonder awaits the task -- I share a part.
Only through grace bestowed may I be true:
Here, while alone with Thee, my strength renew.
~ William A. Runyan

An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice. In that case, he is not far removed from atheism.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, in Look magazine (1953). What is an Agnostic?

I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, in The Quotable Bertrand Russell (1993).

I do not think the existence of the Christian God any more probable than the existence of the Gods of Olympus or Valhalla. To take another illustration: nobody can prove that there is not between Earth and Mars a china teapot revolving in an elliptic orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell

I was told that the Chinese said they would bury me by the Western Lake and build a shrine to my memory. I have some slight regret that this did not happen as I might have become a god, which would have been very chic for an atheist.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell 1872-1914 (1967).

Theologians have always taught that God's decrees are good, and that this is not a mere tautology; it follows that goodness is logically independent of God's decrees.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954).

Every divine promise is built upon four pillars; God's justice or holiness, which will not suffer Him to deceive; His grace or goodness, which will not suffer Him to forget; His truth, which will not suffer Him to change; and His power, which makes Him able to accomplish.
~ William (W.M.) Salter

"THE LORD doth reign", and saith, "I am upon my throne. I am great; none is great but myself. I am King; I have the sceptre in my hand. I am powerful; none is powerful but I." All the power of men is broken. All the thrones of men are shattered into dust. All the wisdom of men is turned into folly. All the strength of men s melted into weakness and water. The melting and mouldering away of the powers and dignities of the world, speak it aloud, The LORD reigns.
~ William Sedgwick, in Some Flashes of Lightnings of the Son of Man (1648).

Yes, if you're a tramp in tatters,
While the blue sky bends above
You've got nearly all that matters--
You've got God, and God is love.
~ Robert William Service, Comfort

God be prais'd, that to believing souls
Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI

God pardon all oaths that are broke to me!
God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee!--
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II. Act IV, scene i

God shall be my hope,
My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part II. Act II, scene iii

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear

I saw God wash the world last night,
Ah, would He had washed me
As clean of all my dust and dirt
As that old white birch tree.
~ William Leroy "Bill" Stidger, I Saw God Wash the World (1934). I Saw God Wash the World, Stanza 5

The best proof of God's existence is what follows when we deny it.
~ William Laurence Sullivan, Epigrams and Criticisms in Miniature (1936).

Christ brought to the world a new conception of royalty. He rules by love and not by force. That, as he expressly said, is the difference between his Kingdom and the kingdoms of this world.
~ William Temple (archbishop), Sermon at Westminster Abbey (17 August 1919). Inasmuch

We are obliged to ask concerning every field of human activity what is the purpose of God for it.
~ William Temple (Archbishop of Canterbury), Christianity and Social Order (1942).

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose -- and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.
~ William Temple (archbishop), Readings in St. John's Gospel. Volume 1 (1939)

An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.
~ Aiden Wilson (A.W.) Tozer

Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees. God rescues us by breaking us, by shattering our strength and wiping out our resistance. Then He invades our natures with that ancient and eternal life which is from the beginning. So He conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us for Himself.
~ Aiden Wilson (A.W.) Tozer, The Divine Conquest (1950).

I think that most Christians would be better pleased if the Lord did not inquire into their personal affairs too closely. They want Him to save them, to keep them happy, and to take them off to heaven at last, but not to be too inquisitive about their conduct or services.
~ Aiden Wilson (A.W.) Tozer

Let no one imagine he will lose anything of human dignity by this voluntary sell-out of his all to God.
~ Aiden Wilson (A.W.) Tozer

The Bible was written in tears and to tears it will yield its best treasures. God has nothing to say to the frivolous man.
~ Aiden Wilson (A.W.) Tozer, God Tells The Man Who Cares (1957).

To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men.
~ Aiden Wilson (A.W.) Tozer, Man: The Dwelling Place of God (1966).

God is always with us, why should we not always be with God? The great souls of all ages have walked with God.
~ W. (William) Bernard Ullathorne, The Groundwork of the Christian Virtues (1882).

Whatever a man seeks, honors, or exalts more than God, this is the god of his idolatry.
~ W. (William) Bernard Ullathorne

When men shout that "God is dead," this can only mean that He is not in the place where they are looking for Him.
~ Willem Adolph (W.A.) Visser't Hooft, in The New York Times (20 December 1965).

Lean on thyself until thy strength is tried;
Then ask God's help; it will not be denied.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, New Thought Pastels (1906). Prayer

Say you are well, or all is well with you,
And God shall hear your words and make them true.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). Speech

Thou hast but to resolve, and lo! God's whole
Great universe shall fortify thy soul.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Resolve

God works within the tragic destiny of human efforts with a healing power, and a reconciling spirit.
~ Daniel Day Williams

I believe God will do with my life and with every life, what an infinitely wise and caring God can and will do with it. And this is enough to live by and by which to die.
~ Daniel Day Williams

To love God is to love the one who sets the ultimate boundaries in life, boundaries which are not defined by a final state of affairs, but by ever new possibilities of growth.
~ Daniel Day Williams, What Present Day Theologians are Thinking.

Guilt is real. The Bible shows us our guilt, but it also reveals a gracious God who forgives us.
~ Philip W. Williams, in When A Loved One Dies (1976). Real Guilt, Real Grace

Do you think God gets stoned? I think so . . . look at the platypus.
~ Robin Williams

God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted in any civil state; which enforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls.
~ Roger Williams, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for the Cause of Conscience (1644).

One of the chiefest doctors of England was wont to say, that God could have made, but God never did make, a better berry.
~ Roger Williams, A Key into the Language of America (1643).

God gets you to the plate. But once you're there you're on your own.
~ Theodore Samuel ("Ted") Williams

All your Western theologies, the whole mythology of them, are based on the concept of God as a senile delinquent.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, The Night of the Iguana (1961).

Dear God,
Please bring your Light
Into the darkened corners
Of our world today.
May Divine Love
Cast out all fear,
And peace prevail on earth.
Forgive us,
Oh God,
For our errors.
Forgive others for theirs,
As well.
Please help us, God.
Amen
~ Marianne Williamson, A Prayer for the World (11 September 2001)

For many people, God is a frightening idea. Asking God for help doesn't seem very comforting if we think of Him as something outside ourselves, or capricious, or judgmental. But God is love and He dwells within us. We are created in His image, or mind, which means that we are extensions of His love, or Sons and Daughters of God.
~ Marianne Williamson

God created the law of free will, and God created the law of cause and effect. And he himself will not violate the law. We need to be thinking less in terms of what God did and more in terms of whether or not we are following those laws.
~ Marianne Williamson, CNN TV "Larry King Weekend" (14 October 2001).

God is definitely out of the closet.
~ Marianne Williamson, Quoted in Vanity Fair (New York, June 1991).

I deepen my experience of God through prayer, meditation, and forgiveness.
~ Marianne Williamson

Through prayer we find what we cannot find elsewhere: a peace that is not of this world.
~ Marianne Williamson

To look to God is to look to the realm of consciousness that can deliver us from the pain of living.
~ Marianne Williamson, Illuminata: Thoughts, Prayers, Rites of Passage (1994).

We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles (1992).

We have made up a God in our image. Because we are angry and judgmental, we have projected those characteristics onto Him. But God remains who He is and always will be: He is the energy, the thought of unconditional love. He cannot think with anger or judgment. He is mercy and compassion and total acceptance.
~ Marianne Williamson

What if we truly believed there is a God -- a beneficent order to things, a force that's holding things together without our conscious control? What if we could see, in our daily lives, the working of that force? What if we believed it loved us somehow, and cared for us, and protected us? What if we believed we could afford to relax?
~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles (1992).

God wanted to do something for us so strange, so utterly beyond the bounds of human imagination, so foreign to human projection, that God had to resort to angels, pregnant virgins and stars in the sky to get it done. We didn't think of it, understand it or approve it. All we could do, at Bethlehem, was receive it. A gift from a God we hardly even knew.
~ William H. Willimon, in the Christian Century (December 21-28, 1988). From a God We Hardly Knew

In baptism we are initiated, crowned, chosen, embraced, washed, adopted, gifted, reborn, killed, and thereby sent forth and redeemed. We are identified as one of God's own, then assigned our place and our job within the kingdom of God.
~ William H. Willimon, Leadership Journal. Volume 11, Number 4

In God's dealings with man today, grace is king.
~ Rollin Wilson

But man is thy most awful instrument
In working out a pure intent.
~ William Wordsworth, Ode, Imagination Ne'er Before Content. IV

The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the sea:
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder -- everlastingly.
~ William Wordsworth, Evening on Calais Beach (1802)

The gods approve
The depth, and not the tumult, of the soul.
~ William Wordsworth, Laodamia (1814).

If you believe in God,
You are my soul's one friend.
~ William Butler Yeats, The Hour-Glass (1912 version).