quotations about miracles
In those parts of the world where learning and science has prevailed, miracles have ceased; but in such parts of it as are barbarous and ignorant, miracles are still in vogue; which is of itself a strong presumption that in the infancy of letters, learning and science, or in the world's non-age, those who confided in miracles, as a proof of the divine mission of the first promulgators of revelation, were imposed upon by fictitious appearances instead of miracles.
ETHAN ALLEN
Reason: The Only Oracle of Man
Men's thirst for the most amazing and indubitable wonders actually stems from a desire for a faith without shadows, for a crown without a cross.... A miracle is Christian only if it helps us to believe rather than relieves us of the necessity of faith.
LOUIS MONDEN
attributed, When You Need a Miracle
Miracles are like pimples, because once you start looking for them, you'll find more than you ever imagined possible.
DANIEL HANDLER
as Lemony Snicket, The Lump of Coal
Knowledge has its boundary line, where it abuts on ignorance; on the outside of that boundary line are ignorance and miracles; on the inside of it are science and no miracles.
HORACE MANN
Thoughts
Miracles don't occur when I want what I haven't got or pray for neon letters in the sky. I can only perceive the miraculous by appreciating and being open to each moment. I tend, as I think many of us do, to think that miracles are only those things that bring great joy, happiness, clarity, or relief. But miracles often, at first, seem a mixed blessing at best or even quite painful.
MARILYN LANCELOT
Switching Addictions
Can you remember what it was like to walk in the midst of a world of miracles? Can you remember ever traveling within a world of pure delight with a joy untainted by craving or aversion? What happened to that world? All yoga, including the Buddha's yoga, is often called "the path of return" -- a return to our true home, which we eventually come to see was never really lost.
FRANK JUDE BOCCIO
Mindfulness Yoga
For some reason or the other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured--disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui--in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable.
HENRY MILLER
Tropic of Cancer
The spirit which in the modern Church has sometimes sought to found Christian faith on signs and wonders appears to me to be almost as much one of unbelief as the spirit which outside the Church denies the miraculous altogether.
LYMAN ABBOTT
Letters to Unknown Friends
You have to see the miracles for there to be miracles.
JANDY NELSON
I'll Give You the Sun
A private man has always the liberty (because thought is free) to believe or not believe in his heart those acts that have been given out for miracles, according as he shall see what benefits can accrue by men's belief, to those that pretend, or countenance them, and thereby conjecture whether they be miracles or lies.
THOMAS HOBBES
Leviathan
Miracles are like facts of animal magnetism, or table-turning. They come into existence only where there are people ready beforehand to believe in them.
S. F. S.
The Month, vol. 126
Miracles do not happen.
MATTHEW ARNOLD
preface, Literature and Dogma
No matter how strong we think our faith is or want it to be, we always want to know that God is there for us, and miracles are that sort of element that bridges the gap between our faith and our connection with God.
MICHAEL O'NEILL
Exploring the Miraculous
The narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.
WALT WHITMAN
"Song of Myself", Leaves of Grass
It must be so; for miracles are ceased
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Henry V
Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood.
GEORGE SANTAYANA
introduction, The Ethics of Spinoza
Miracles don't have to be huge and dramatic. They can be small and beautiful like flowers blooming in March, right after a snowfall. They can be a snowflake falling during a summer rain storm. It could be a lost cat finding refuge at your home.
STEPHEN J. NAPOLITANO
Bob Frost
However portentous a fact may be, or even supernatural--if such facts exist--however solemnly a miracle may be done in sight of all, the lightning of that fact, the thunderbolt of that miracle is quickly swallowed up in the ocean of life, whose surface, scarcely stirred by the brief convulsion, returns to the level of its habitual flow.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Seraphita
Miracles are like the credentials of an ambassador. They are proof of his authority. Because we accept the miracles of Jesus we can trust the truth of his teachings about God.
TIM DOWLEY
introduction, History of Christianity
In our advanced technological age, most people deny the possibility of miracles.... Miracles don't happen, we are told, because they contravene the laws of nature and worse, they sound religious! Yet we live and move in a sea of miracle.
JAMES BROWN
You Shall See His Glory in the Morning!