When I say 'God' it is poetry and not theology

Evil is a fact, not to be explained away, but to be accepted; and accepted, not to be endured, but to be conquered.

Society is always engaged in a vast conspiracy to preserve itself - at the expense of the new demands of each new generation.

When I say God it is poetry and not theology. Nothing that any theologian has written about God has helped me much, but everything the poets have written about flowers and birds and skies and seas and saviors of the race, and God - whoever He may be - has at one time or another reached my soul!...The theologians gather dust upon the shelves of my library but the poets are stained with my fingers and blotted by my tears.

Religion must be used in furthering great works of justice and reform. It must be used to establish right relations between different groups of men, and thus to make a reality of brotherhood. It must be used to abolish poverty, the breeding ground of all misery and crime, by distributing equably among men the abundance of the soil. And it must be used to get rid of war and to establish enduring peace. Here is the supreme test of the effectiveness of religion.

Priests are no more necessary to religion than politicians are to patriotism.

When I say 'God' it is poetry and not theology