Faith fills all areas of our lives. Be it religion, self-confidence or your own beliefs. Faith in God, of course, stands out especially, because it is shrouded in a mystical halo. Thinkers of all times could not ignore the topic of religion. Let's take a look at their quotes about faith, and then maybe we can better understand their thoughts.
Saadi Shirazi
Saadi - Iranian-Persian poet, philosopher, representative of practical Sufism. Born around 1209. From childhood, he studied the wisdom of Sufism from the sheikhs. He later embodied their ascetic ideals in his practical recommendations.
Saadi's entire life was filled with wanderings and hardships. He fled from his native city because of the invasion of the Mongols. He was forced to accept the religion of fire-worship - Zoroastrianism - in India, from where he later escaped with difficulty. After long wanderings, the philosopher decided on solitude in the desert of Jerusalem. But this was not destined to come true - Saadi was captured by the crusaders. There he dug trenches until he was ransomed by a we althy citizen who had his own plans for him. Saadi suffered a fate, in horrorcomparable to captivity: he was married to the ugly and extravagant daughter of a rich man. The sage treated family life philosophically and left in English. He lived the rest of his life in the monastery of his native city - Shiraz.
People are born only with pure nature, and only then their fathers make them Jews, Christians or fire worshipers.
In his quote about faith, he says that a person is not born with religion. Indeed, babies have only “pure nature” with them: eat, sleep and go out of need. Religion comes later, when the ability to think rationally is just emerging in a person.
Augustine Aurelius
Augustine Aurelius, known as Blessed Augustine, is a Christian theologian, philosopher, preacher and one of the fathers of the Christian Church. Born November 13, 354 in the Roman Empire. He received his early education from his mother, who was a Christian.
After childhood, Augustine discovered a craving for rhetoric and Latin literature. For the purpose of education, he went to Carthage and studied there for three years. Later, after reading Cicero's Hortesius, he became interested in philosophy. And so, after going through many philosophical teachings, he came to Christianity.
Let us believe if we cannot understand.
His quote about faith reveals one of the most criticized aspects of religion - irrationality. Rationalist philosophers have used this argument as a key one. Augustine sees no problem in the fact that God cannot be understood by reason. You just need to believe in what is notcan you explain. Actually, many theologians adhered to the same point of view. Augustine is rightfully considered one of the leading figures of Christianity, many of his words and quotes about faith and love for the divine are cited by theologians to this day.
Karl Marx
Karl Marx is a German sociologist, philosopher, writer and public figure. Born May 5, 1818 in Trier (Prussia). Is, along with Friedrich Engels, the author of the "Manifesto of the Communist Party".
Karl Marx, being a very educated person, preached a reasonable approach to life. Therefore, he perceives faith rather as one of the many tools for improving life. And if he treated faith condescendingly, then he was sharply negative about the very institution of religion.
The more a person invests in God, the less remains in himself.
In this quote about faith in God lies, perhaps, the main problem of religion - the concentration on the invisible. A person believes with all his heart in a heavenly deity, but at the same time he forgets that he lives on Earth. All his thoughts are only about paradise after death, and life itself is used only as an instrument. Man shifts all responsibility for his own existence to God, while leaving nothing for himself.
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy is a famous Russian writer and thinker, one of the most important representatives of realism. Born September 9, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana (Russian Empire). Under the influence of his philosophy, a newmoral movement - Tolstoyanism.
Religion and Lev Nikolaevich went through fire and water together. The writer's reflections on life and faith are comparable in size to his most famous work. And not always Leo Tolstoy was a supporter of religion. At some point, he came to believe and was initiated into the church ranks. A little later, he began to doubt the church, and was excommunicated from it, but he did not stop believing. And, in the final episode of his reflections, he lost faith in God, stating that a thinking person cannot be a believer.
The meaning of faith is not to settle in heaven, but to settle heaven in yourself.
In this quote about faith, Tolstoy points to the true meaning of faith. Many people do not understand religion precisely because they misinterpret the ultimate goal. Faith exists to give people peace of mind, to calm them in the face of adversity. Not for waiting for death and ascension to heaven. And heaven rather serves to calm people, motivates them not to be afraid of the inevitable and live righteously, helping others.
