My mother took us to services at the Episcopal church. Yet she always said that God was not just inside the four walls of a house of worship, but everywhere - in the rising sun over Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, a splash of water along the nearby Salt or Verde rivers, or clouds driving over the Estrella Mountains, south of downtown. I've always thought of God in those terms.
Interpretation
God can be found in nature and everywhere around us, not just in places of worship.
In this quote, Barry Goldwater expresses a belief that the divine presence is not confined to traditional religious settings but is manifest in the beauty of the natural world. He reflects on how his mother taught him to see God in the everyday wonders of the environment, suggesting a broader and more inclusive understanding of spirituality that transcends institutional boundaries.
In practice
During a sermon on the interconnectedness of faith and nature.
I say further that for this great legislative body to ignore the Constitution and the fundamental concepts of our governmental system is to act in a manner which could ultimately destroy the freedom of all American citizens, including the freedoms of the very persons whose feelings and whose liberties are the major subject of this legislation.
The conservative movement, to which I subscribe, has as one of its basic tenets the belief that government should stay out of people’s private lives. Government governs best when it governs least – and stays out of the impossible task of legislating morality. But legislating someone’s version of morality is exactly what we do by perpetuating discrimination against gays.
Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives.
None of us here in Washington knows all or even half of the answers ... If you love your country, don't depend on handouts from Washington for your information. If you cherish your freedom, don't leave it all up to big government.
A woman has a right to an abortion. That's a decision that's up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right.
The great decisions of government cannot be dictated by the concerns of religious factions. We have succeeded for 205 years in keeping the affairs of state separate from the uncompromising idealism of religious groups and we mustn't stop now. To retreat from that separation would violate the principles of conservatism and the values upon which the framers built this democratic republic.
Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.
Sometimes the very presence of God is barred by our presuppositions and our intense and constant desire for triumph.
We are slow to believe that which if believed would hurt our feelings.
I do not understand the capricious lewdness of the sleeping mind.
One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
One may well find oneself beginning to doubt whether all this could conceivably be the product of an enormous lottery presided over by natural selection, blindly picking the rare winners from among numbers drawn at utter random...nevertheless although the miracle of life stands "explained" it does not strike us as any less miraculous. As Francois Mauriac wrote, What this professor says is far more incredible than what we poor Christians believe.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.