I believe in the compelling power of love. I do not understand it. I believe it to be the most fragrant blossom of all this thorny existence.
Theodore DreiserRead
If I were personally to define religion, I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circustance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Religion is a comforting solution created by humans to heal emotional pain caused by life experiences.
This quote suggests that religion serves as a protective mechanism for individuals who have suffered from life's hardships. Dreiser implies that instead of being an ultimate truth, religion functions as a way to cope with the emotional and spiritual wounds inflicted by challenges and circumstances beyond one's control.
Themes
ReligionSoulComfortPainCoping
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on the role of religion in society, this quote can illustrate how faith is often used to deal with suffering.
More from Theodore Dreiser
All quotes βAssure a man that he has a soul and then frighten him with old wives' tales as to what is to become of him afterward, and you have hooked a fish, a mental slave.
Theodore DreiserRead
And then he sank back and tried, as usual, not to think. He must succeed. That's what the world was made for. That's what he was made for. That was what he would have to do.
Theodore DreiserRead
Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes.
Theodore DreiserRead
Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.
Theodore DreiserRead
People in general attach too much importance to words. They are under the illusion that talking effects great results. As a matter of fact, words are, as a rule, the shallowest portion of all the argument. They but dimly represent the great surging feelings and desires which lie behind. When the distraction of the tongue is removed, the heart listens.
Theodore DreiserRead
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Except ye become as little children, except you can wake on your fiftieth birthday with the same forward-looking excitement and interest in life that you enjoyed when you were five, "ye cannot enter the kingdom of God." One must not only die daily, but every day we must be born again.
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If people live in constant fear of death, and if breaking the law is punished by death, then who would dare?
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Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities.
H. L. MenckenRead
For instance, I never complained that my birthday was overlooked; people were even surprised, with a touch of admiration, by my discretion on this subject. But the reason for my disinterestedness was even more discreet: I longed to be forgotten in order to be able to complain to myself... Once my solitude was thoroughly proved, I could surrender to the charms of a virile self-pity.
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He who practices Tasawwuf without learning Sacred Law corrupts his faith, while he who learns Sacred Law without practicing Tasawwuf corrupts himself. _x000D_ _x000D_ Only he who combines the two proves true.
Malik Ibn AnasRead