False Gods Quotes

Who claims that the heathen's view of the world is incorrect? Life gives you nothing! It is ruled by false gods! Nothing remains true to you but your own self; provided you remain true to it. ~ Franz Grillparzer

False gods!" she cried, her blue eyes blazing as she stared at the Red King and the Lords of Outer Night. "Pretenders! Usurpers of truth! Destroyers of faith, of families, of lives, of children! For your crimes against the Mayans, against the peoples of the world, now will you answer! Your time has come! Face judgment Almighty! ~ Jim Butcher

The Jews always complained, kvetching about false gods, and erected the
biggest false God, Jehovah, in middle of western civilization. ~ Allen Ginsberg

Tal told me he loved me, and told me and told me, but you don't tell someone that and then tell them they're not experienced enough in bed and should read a book or something to learn, or they should try wearing deep-red lipstick and tight skirts to look hot like their best friend once in a while. If Tal hadn't lied to me when he said he loved me, I might not be without a future right now, a sucker who was so chickenshit she allowed herself to believe a false dream from a false god. I'm not sure I ever even liked Tal, much less loved him. ~ Rachel Cohn

The worship of false gods is always an outgrowth of spiritual deception. ~ Max Anders

Without art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without science, we should always worship false gods. ~ W. H. Auden

He is the only God man has ever heard of who loves sinners. False gods - the gods of human manufacturing - despise sinners, but the Father of Jesus loves all, no matter what they do. ~ Brennan Manning

Security is a false God. Begin to make sacrifices to it and you are lost. ~ Paul Bowles

When a church caters to the masses they become a body of feel-good, hell-bound worshipers of false gods and not a people of the narrow way ~ John M Sheehan

We are navigating through the unconscious, and this brings us to the occult, something hidden, secret and "difficult to understand." When things bog down, it is time for something else. Therapists need to have a variety of methods and perspectives ready. For example, dysfunctional families create a lot of confusion, havoc and pain. Interlopers, straw men and false gods have usurped the soul's central position - and oftentimes therapists have a chess game on their hands. ~ Stephen Poplin

And will you love me for a day? A year? A lifetime?" She knew the answer but wanted to hear him say it in that beautiful, shattered voice.
"Beyond that," he whispered, eyes shining with the tempest of emotion he'd held in check until now. "Beyond the reign of false gods and meddlesome priests. Beyond al Zafira when her bright stars fade. ~ Grace Draven

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals. ~ Agnes Repplier

This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion. It works without asking anything of us. It's not cheap. It's free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the Orthodox foot and a fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility. Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try to find something or someone it cannot cover. Grace is enough. He is enough. Jesus is enough.
John, the disciple Jesus loved, ended his first letter with this line: "Children, be on your guard against false gods." In other words, steer clear of any God you can comprehend. Abba will's love cannot be comprehended. I'll say it again: Abba's love cannot be comprehended. ~ Brennan Manning

Wishful thinking gives false gods to people who hunger for gods, but those who yearn for a world with no gods are no less likely to fall victim to their own wishful thinking. ~ Orson Scott Card

Prayer is essentially the practice of the presence of God, and that is the road to Heaven. There is no alternative. God is the only game in town. All other roads are dead ends. Since we must give our all to the one true God, we must not give any part to idols, to the many false gods that now bite away at our lives. ~ Peter Kreeft

Most people are but a fake-art, and as real as a concealed fart. ~ Fakeer Ishavardas

What I find disturbing in America is the consuming desire for leisure, convenience, and fun. It seems we, as a nation, have traded God for gadgets. We have traded eternal truth for momentary self-gratification - worshipping false gods of materialism and humanism instead of the Creator of all things. ~ Billy Graham

In scripture we are told of some trusting in God and others trusting in idols, and that God is our refuge, our strength, our defense. In this sense God is the rock of his people, and false Gods are called the rock of those that trust in them, Deut. xxxii. 4, 15, 18, 30, 31, 37. In the same sense the Gods of the King who shall do according to his will are called Mahuzzims, munitions, fortresses, protectors, guardians, or defenders. ~ Isaac Newton

an uncertain mythology
in which one hears the names
when the wind stops
of all the false gods ~ Jean Follain

[L]ife is a phenomenon in need of criticism, for we are, as fallen creatures, in permanent danger of worshipping false gods, of failing to understand ourselves and misinterpreting the behaviour of others, of growing unproductively anxious or desirous, and of losing ourselves to vanity and error. Surreptitiously and beguilingly, then, with humour or gravity, works of art
novels, poems, plays, paintings or films
can function as vehicles to explain our condition to us. They may act as guides to a truer, more judicious, more intelligent understanding of the world. ~ Alain De Botton

We humans are born egocentric. The sky thunders and children believe that God is mad at them for something they've done - parents divorce and children believe it's their fault for not being good enough. Growing up means putting aside our egocentricity for truth. Still, some people cling to this childish mind-set. As painful as their self-flagellation may be, they'd rather believe their crises are their fault so they can believe they have control. In doing so they make fools and false gods of themselves. ~ Richard Paul Evans

Idolatry isn't just one of many sins; rather it's the one great sin that all others come from. So if you start scratching at whatever struggle you're dealing with, eventually you'll find that underneath it is a false god. Until that god is dethroned, and the Lord God takes his rightful place, you will not have victory. Idolatry isn't an issue; it is the issue. All roads lead to the dusty, overlooked concept of false gods. Deal with life on the glossy outer layers, and you might never see it; scratch a little beneath the surface, and you begin to see that it's always there, under some other coat of paint. There are a hundred million different symptoms, but the issue is always idolatry. ~ Kyle Idleman

What is the probability that Yahweh is the one true god, and Amon Ra, Aphrodite, Apollo, Baal, Brahma, Ganesha, Isis, Mithra, Osiris, Shiva, Thor, Vishnu, Wotan, Zeus, and the other 986 gods are false gods? As skeptics like to say, everyone is an atheist about these gods; some of us just go one god further. ~ Michael Shermer

Answer me when I call to you,
O my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
be merciful to me and hear my prayer.
How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?
Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord will hear when I call to him.
In your anger do not sin;
When you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.
Offer the right sacrifices
and trust in the Lord.
Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?"
Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord.
You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when their grain and new wine abound.
I will lie down and sleep in peace
for you alone, O Lord,
make me to dwell in safety. ~ King David

The incarnation took all that properly belongs to our humanity and delivered it back to us, redeemed. All of our inclinations and appetites and capacities and yearnings are purified and gathered up and glorified by Christ. He did not come to thin out human life; He came to set it free. All the dancing and feasting and processing and singing and building and sculpting and baking and merrymaking that belong to us, and that were stolen away into the service of false gods, are returned to us in the gospel. ~ Thomas Howard

The fact is that life is like the river: endlessly moving on, ever seeking, exploring, pushing, overflowing its banks, penetrating every crevice with its water. But you see, the mind won't allow that to happen to itself. The mind sees that it is dangerous, risky to live in a state of impermanency, insecurity, so it builds a wall around itself; the wall of tradition, of organized religion, of political and social theories. Family, name,property,the littel virtues that we have cultivated - these are all within the walls, away from life. Life is moving, impermanent, and it ceaselessly tries to penetrate, to break down these walls, behind which there is a confusion an misery. The gods within the walls are false gods, and their writings and philosophies have no meaning because life is beyond
Think on these things chap. 17 ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

I considered that the world, and especially the cinema, was burdened with false gods. My task was to overthrow them. Sword in hand, I was ready to consecrate my life to the task. But the false gods are still there. My perseverance during a half-century of cinema has perhaps helped to topple a few of them. It has likewise helped me to discover that some of the gods were real, and had no need to be toppled. ~ Jean Renoir

That's when I started to leave it behind. I realized that I got my entire validation from women. Women became like gods to me, but false gods. ~ Neil Strauss

I don't know what can be so dangerous about giving people hope. ~ Joel Osteen

Like all idolatries, democratism substitutes a false god for the real, a love of process for a love of country. ~ Pat Buchanan

False gods - the gods of human understanding - despise sinners, but the Father of Jesus loves all, no matter what they do. But of course this is almost too incredible for us to accept. ~ Brennan Manning

Don't interfere with false gods, you'll get the gold paint all over your hands. ~ Margaret Atwood

Our chaotic economic situation has convinced so many of our young people that there is no room for them. They become uncertain andrestless and morbid; they grab at false promises, embrace false gods and judge things by treacherous values. Their insecurity makes them believe that tomorrow doesn't matter and the ineffectualness of their lives makes them deny the ideals which we of an older generation acknowledged. ~ Hortense Odlum

Throughout the Old Testament, God warns his chosen people about the perils of assimilation, shiksappeal and false gods. ~ David Harsanyi

I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did. ~ Thomas Jefferson

No natural feelings are high or low, holy or unholy, in themselves. They are all holy when God's hand is on the rein. They all go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods. ~ C.S. Lewis

You must pay for conformity. All goes well as long as you run with conformists. But you, who are honest men in other particulars, know that there is alive somewhere a man whose honesty reaches to this point also, that he shall not kneel to false gods, and, on the day when you meet him, you sink into the class of counterfeits. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Objective is the wrong word. Rather, it's fairness. Objectivity is a false God. Instead we should strive for fairness and transparency. ~ Ken Auletta

The United States is the most prosperous nation in the world, and yet our citizenship has been comprehensively reduced to consumerism... Buy and ye shall be happy. But what have we truly purchased? In the words of my favorite poet, Henry David Thoreau, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," our lives prostrate at the altar of the false gods of our instant-gratification society. ~ Rich Roll

Jesus, thank you for remembering the truth faithfully on our behalf. You worshiped your Father daily, with unwavering faith and unshakable hope in his goodness. Cherishing the Father's unchangeable character, you submitted to his perfect wisdom and trusted him completely in all the circumstances of your life, even when it was most painful. You took refuge in him often in your times of need and never turned toward false gods. Now your obedience becomes our strong encouragement to hope in the midst of continuing weakness, and you continue to advocate our cause as our heavenly High Priest. We have no other hope, nor do we need one. ~ Barbara R. Duguid

There is no remainder in the mathematics of infinity. All life is one; therefore, there cannot be God and man, nor a universe and God. A god not in the world is a false god, and a world not in God is unreal. All things return to one, and one operates in all. ~ Nyogen Senzaki

R'hllor, come to us in our darkness,' she called. 'Lord of Light, we offer you these false gods, these seven who are one, and him the enemy. Take them and cast your light upon us, for the night is dark and full of terrors. ~ George R R Martin

I am well aware that there is such a great craving in man for heroism and the heroic, and that hero worship forms not a small motif in his complex. I am also aware that, unless man believes in his own heroism and the heroism of others, he cannot achieve much or great things. We must, however, take proper care that we do not make a fetish of this cult of hero-worship, for then we will turn ourselves into votaries of false gods and prophets. ~ Aung San

Damn all false antitheses to hell, for they generate false gods, they perpetuate idols, they twist and distort our souls, they launch the church into violent pendulum swings who oscillations succeed only in dividing brothers and sisters in Christ ~ D. A. Carson

We need to create the kind of kingdom-shaped culture within our churches that constantly shines the light of Christ wherever these false gods exist in our own affections. ~ Russell D. Moore

We need to mock false gods publicly. ~ Robert Barron

We do not turn from our false gods to become God's children. We turn from them because we are. ~ Kelly Minter

Last Vegas is a counterfeit version of the New Jerusalem. And it shares something of the glorious reality that it mocks. ~ Richard J. Mouw

Custom, law bent my first years to the religion of the happy Muslims. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood forms our feelings, our habits, our belief. By the Ganges I would have been a slave of the false gods, a Christian in Paris, a Muslim here. ~ Voltaire

Muhammad was a prince; he rallied his compatriots around him. In a few years, the Muslims conquered half of the world. They plucked more souls from false gods, knocked down more idols, razed more pagan temples in fifteen years than the followers of Moses and Jesus did in fifteen centuries. Muhammad was a great man. He would indeed have been a god, if the revolution that he had performed had not been prepared by the circumstances. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Material possessions in themselves are good. We would not survive for long without money, clothing, shelter and food. Yet if we refuse to share what we have with the hungry and the poor, we make of our possessions a false god. How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can! But this is to make possessions into a false god. Instead of bringing life, they bring death. ~ Pope Benedict XVI

Work is an act of worship. When people seek to fulfill their callings by glorifying God in their work, praising Him for their gifts and abilities, and seeing both their efforts and its products as an offering to Him, then work is an act of worship to God. On the other hand, when work is done to glorify oneself or merely to achieve more wealth, it becomes worship of false gods. How we work and for whom we work really matters. ~ Brian Fikkert

The False Gods We Worship," Ensign, June 1976, 3. ~ The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints

He is jealous for you. He is jealous for me. The fullness of His love and lavish acceptance is the only match for the rejections we will experience. And He absolutely doesn't want us making other relationships the false gods of our worship. As we seek love and acceptance, God doesn't want us to test Him; He wants us to trust Him. ~ Lysa TerKeurst

The earthly [city] has made for herself, according to her heart's desire, false gods out of any sources at all, even out of human beings, that she might adore them with sacrifices. The heavenly one, on the other hand, living like a wayfarer in this world, makes no false gods for herself. On the contrary, she herself is made by the true God that she may be herself a true sacrifice to Him. ~ Augustine Of Hippo

If you are worshipping false gods-such as football, baseball, gold, tennis, or money or technology or automobiles or houses or gold or silver-and you can tell what a man worships by what he does on Sunday-repent and start worshipping the true and living God, the maker of heaven and earth and all things that in them are. ~ Hartman Rector, Jr.

It is little wonder then that the term "religious" is often a pejorative one indicating an escapist, self-righteous, other-worldly or perhaps superstitious stance toward life. Nor should this come as any surprise, in light of all we have been saying of the pervasiveness of the false self. Since religion deals with the ultimate realities of life, it is understandable that religion would draw out the ultimate in the false self's basic disorientation and blindness. The false self can have but false gods, all of which in the end turn out to be but reflections of the false self as it worships itself and sets itself up as the reason for its own existence. ~ James Finley

The more time and devotion one spends in the worship of false gods, the less he is able to spend in that of the True One. ~ Isaac Newton

Shh, I have you, Quinn." His voice was rough as if he had been the one screaming for Gods knew how long. Tears slipped free, the burn at the back of her eyes an afterthought. Shameless, she tucked her head under his chin and wrapped her limbs tight around him. Touch never faltering, he kept the passes long and smooth, almost this side of too strong. It was grounding, as if she needed to be kept tethered to this world until she could inhabit her own skin better. ~ Eva Dresden

After Darwin, God's role changes from being the designer of all creatures great and small to being the designer of the laws of nature, from which natural selection can unfold, to being perhaps just the chooser of the laws. By the time God's role has been so diminished, he becomes a bit like a constitutional monarch, presiding ceremonially but not having any more work to do. That's a place for God if it makes people comfortable to keep God as the presider over the universe. I suppose that is satisfying for many. ~ Daniel Dennett

The fatal false step which, once taken, would thrust her down into the terrible slavery of appetite and hate and economics and government which our race knows so well. ~ C.S. Lewis

At the core of who we are, we crave the acceptance that comes from being loved. To satisfy this longing we will either be graspers of God's love or grabbers for people's love. ~ Lysa TerKeurst

Everyone is irrational some of the time and in particular everyone is susceptible to the availability error. I give a final striking example ... In 1969, Jerzy Kosinsky's novel Steps won the American National Book Award for fiction. Eight years later some joker had it retyped and sent the manuscript with no title and under a false name to fourteen major publishers and thirteen literary agents in the US, including ... the firm that had originally published it. Of the twenty-seven people to whom it was submitted, not one recognised that it had already been published. Moreover, all twenty-seven rejected it. All it lacked was Jerzy Kosinsky's name to create the halo effect: without the name, it was seen as an indifferent book. ~ Stuart Sutherland

God's grace will cover us like a cloak-enough to provide for survival but too thin to keep out all the cold. ~ Neal A. Maxwell

I wanted to say something comforting, something reassuring. But there were so many mistakes in my own past that I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't ring false. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Reason is God's crowning gift to a man... ~ Sophocles

Yes, but I don't understand all these rules you have in place. Who you can help, who you can't, when, how…it's endless. They're all so complicated."
"But they have their reasons. I and the other gods of war built these rules for gods and the creatures we gods create for one simple reason."
"So that when the rules are broken, there's war?"
The goddess stilled for a moment and then giggled. Giggled like a child. "Yes." She bent over at the waist, her arms around her middle, the laughter becoming louder. "That is why! And it works every bloody time! ~ G.A. Aiken

A question arises regarding the angels who dwell with us, serve us and protect us, whether their joys are equal to those of the angels in heaven, or whether they are diminished by the fact that they protect and serve us. No, they are certainly not; for the work of the angels is the will of God, and the will of God is the work of the angels; their service to us does not hinder their joy nor their working. If God told an angel to go to a tree and pluck caterpillars off it, the angel would be quite ready to do so, and it would be his happiness, if it were the will of God. ~ Meister Eckhart

We have long struggles with ourself, of which the outcome is one of our actions; they are, as it were, the inner side of human nature. This inner side is God's; the outer side belongs to men. ~ Honore De Balzac

A man must first of all understand certain things. He has thousands of false ideas and false conceptions, chiefly about himself, and he must get rid of some of them before beginning to acquire anything new. Otherwise the new will be built on a wrong foundation and the result will be worse than before. To speak the truth is the most difficult thing in the world; one must study a great deal and for a long time in order to speak the truth. The wish alone is not enough. To speak the truth one must know what the truth is and what a lie is, and first of all in oneself. And this nobody wants to know. ~ G.I. Gurdjieff

Often God's purposes become most clear when we are truly ready. ~ Jennifer Delamere

A foolish man
is all night awake,
pondering over everything;
he than grows tired;
and when morning comes,
all is lament as before. ~ Benjamin Thorpe

When our false perception is corrected, misery ends also. ~ Adi Shankaracarya

Without independent corroboration, little can be done to tell a false memory from a true one. ~ Elizabeth Loftus

In academic life, false ideas are merely false, and useless ones can be fun to play with. ~ Michael Ignatieff

There are no coincidences in God's providence. ~ Cindy Woodsmall

The holy is that segment of time and space God has reserved for His presence. ... The holy is that point of time and space in which the presence of God is encountered by tzimtzum – self-renunciation – on the part of mankind. Just as God makes space for man by an act of self-limitation, so man makes space for God by an act of self-limitation. The holy is where God is experienced as absolute presence. Not accidentally but essentially, this can only take place through the total renunciation of human will and initiative. To the contrary: God has empowered mankind to use them to become His "partners in the work of creation".
However, to be true to God's purposes, there must be times and places at which humanity experiences the reality of the divine. Those times and places require absolute obedience. ~ Jonathan Sacks

Victims are often, automatically, accused of lying. But when a perpetrator is exposed of lying, the stigma doesn't stick. Why is it that we're wary of victims making false accusations, but rarely consider how many men have blatantly lied about, downplayed, or manipulated others to cover their own actons? ~ Chanel Miller

The fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him ... He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose. ~ Harry Frankfurt

You boys know what tropism is, it's what makes a plant grow toward the light. Everything aspires to the light. You don't have to chase down a fly to get rid of it - you just darken the room, leave a crack of light in a window, and out he goes. Works every time. We all have that instinct, that aspiration. Science can't dim that. All science can do is turn out the false lights so the true light can get us home. ~ Tobias Wolff

I was very, very religious. And of course I wrote about it in 'Night.' I questioned God's silence. So I questioned. I don't have an answer for that. Does it mean that I stopped having faith? No. I have faith, but I question it. ~ Elie Wiesel

She didn't know what to say to this, or how to tell him she wasn't strong, the patina of her resolve was made of soft metal. She wasn't strong, but had become good at pretending – so good that only she knew it. She had developed a chameleon's skin; she could change colour hide behind a false facade. She wasn't made of steel. She still sometimes slept with a light on, and still sometimes heard a small child crying. ~ Charlie Laidlaw

The good Lord grant, that false religion may cease, and true religion prevail through the earth! ~ Jonathan Edwards

Ah Life,
Thou art a false truth! ~ Raheel Farooq

Do we throw off the false 'cloak' at a party, or do we merely put on an untruthful yellow dress? ~ Jeremy Hawthorn

Clear declaration of truth makes a difference in people's lives. That is what changes hearts. That is what the Holy Ghost can confirm in the hearts of God's children. ~ M. Russell Ballard

My mother was not what anyone would call sweet, and she wasn't conventional. When my brother couldn't find his shoes one morning, she said, 'Oh, for God's sake, it won't kill him not to have shoes for a day,' and sent him to school without them. ~ Rosemary Mahoney

Cease with the displays of false modesty. The entire palace knows about it."
A feeling of warmth crept up Shahrzad's neck. "Knows about what?"
Despina grinned. "The Caliph of Khorasan going into the gardens at dawn alone. And returning with a single rose. ~ Renee Ahdieh

I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods. ~ Joseph Smith Jr.

Wherever you are or whatever your job, don't be confused or diverted by false priorities. We have only one mission to perform-that is to fight and win. And, we must do it better than anyone else in the world. ~ Leslie E. Brown

Our Father in Heaven loves all of His children and desires that they know and understand His plan of happiness. Therefore, He calls prophets, those who have been ordained with power and authority to act in God's name for the salvation of His children. They are messengers of righteousness, witnesses of Jesus Christ and the infinite power of His Atonement. They hold the keys of the kingdom of God on earth and authorize the performance of saving ordinances. ~ Carol F. McConkie

Thy soul is by vile fear assailed, which oft so overcasts a man, that he recoils from noblest resolution, like a beast at some false semblance in the twilight gloom. ~ Dante Alighieri

Do not banish reason for inequality; but let your reason serve to make the truth appear where it seems hid, and hide the false seems true. ~ William Shakespeare

My conservative brothers and sisters seem to argue that God revealed everything to us in scripture. Ever since, it has simply been our difficult but straightforward task to conform ourselves to God's will revealed there and to repent when we are unable or unwilling to do so. For me, there is something static and lifeless in such a view of God. Could it be that even the Bible is too small a box in which to enclose God? ~ Gene Robinson

To some extent a life of celibacy is a picture of how all of us are to live, containing our passions for God's purposes. ~ Eric Metaxas

As bad as it might be to destroy a creature made in God's image, it might be very much worse to be creating them after images of one's own. ~ Leon Kass

We trust that God is the loving Creator of all that is and that every individual is made in God's picture and similarity. ~ Whatdoyouknowaboutgod

A feller's glad to be a friend, Out fishin'. A helpin' hand he'll always lend, Out fishin' The brotherhood of rod and line An' sky an' stream is always fine; Men come real close to God's design, Out fishin'. A feller isn't plotting schemes, Out fishin'. He's only busy with his dreams, Out fishin' His livery is a coat of tan; His creed, to do the best he can; A feller's always mostly man Out fishin'. ~ Edgar Guest