Arnond > Arnond's Quotes

“Faith is universal. Our specific methods for understanding it are arbitrary. Some of us pray to Jesus, some of us go to Mecca, some of us study subatomic particles. In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“Science tells me God must exist. My mind tells me I will never understand God. And my heart tells me I am not meant to.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“Science and religion are not at odds. Science is simply too young to understand.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“Men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Everything is possible. The impossible just takes longer.”
― Dan Brown, Digital Fortress

“Whether or not you believe in God, you must believe this: when we as a species abandon our trust in a power greater than us, we abandon our sense of accountability. Faiths… all faiths… are admonitions that there is something we cannot understand, something to which we are accountable. With faith we are accountable to each other, to ourselves, and to a higher truth. Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed. The church consists of a brotherhood of imperfect, simple souls wanting only to be a voice of compassion in a world spinning out of control.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“God answers all prayers, but sometimes his answer is 'no'.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“Lieutenant Chatrand: I don’t understand this omnipotent-benevolent thing.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: You are confused because the Bible describes God as an omnipotent and benevolent deity.
Lieutenant Chatrand: Exactly.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Omnipotent-benevolent simply means that God is all-powerful and well-meaning.
Lieutenant Chatrand: I understand the concept. It’s just... there seems to be a contradiction.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Yes. The contradiction is pain. Man’s starvation, war, sickness...
Lieutenant Chatrand: Exactly! Terrible things happen in this world. Human tragedy seems like proof that God could not possibly be both all-powerful and well-meaning. If He loves us and has the power to change our situation, He would prevent our pain, wouldn’t he?
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Would He?
Lieutenant Chatrand: Well... if God Loves us, and He can protect us, He would have to. It seems He is either omnipotent and uncaring, or benevolent and powerless to help.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Do you have children?
Lieutenant Chatrand: No, signore.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Imagine you had an eight-year-old son... would you love him?
Lieutenant Chatrand: Of course.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Would you let him skateboard?
Lieutenant Chatrand: Yeah, I guess. Sure I’d let him skateboard, but I’d tell him to be careful.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: So as this child’s father, you would give him some basic, good advice and then let him go off and make his own mistakes?
Lieutenant Chatrand: I wouldn’t run behind him and mollycoddle him if that’s what you mean.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: But what if he fell and skinned his knee?
Lieutenant Chatrand: He would learn to be more careful.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: So although you have the power to interfere and prevent your child’s pain, you would choose to show you love by letting him learn his own lessons?
Lieutenant Chatrand: Of course. Pain is part of growing up. It’s how we learn.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Exactly.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“By its very nature, history is always a one-sided account.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Religion is like language or dress. We gravitate toward the practices with which we were raised. In the end, though, we are all proclaiming the same thing. That life has meaning. That we are grateful for the power that created us.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“Telling someone about what a symbol means is like telling someone how music should make them feel.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Our minds sometimes see what our hearts wish were true.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“Sometimes all it takes is a tiny shift of perspective to see something familiar in a totally new light.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“Every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith―acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove. Every religion describes God through metaphor, allegory, and exaggeration, from the early Egyptians through modern Sunday school. Metaphors are a way to help our minds process the unprocessible. The problems arise when we begin to believe literally in our own metaphors.

Should we wave a flag and tell the Buddhists that we have proof the Buddha did not come from a lotus blossom? Or that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin birth? Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Open your minds, my friends. We all fear what we do not understand.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“Pain is a part of growing-up. It is how we learn..”
― Dan Brown

“No good deed goes unpunished.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“Truth has power. And if we all gravitate toward similar ideas, maybe we do so because those ideas are true...written deep within us. And when we hear the truth, even if we don't understand it, we feel that truth resonate within us...vibrating with our unconscious wisdom. Perhaps the truth is not learned by us, but rather, the truth is re-called...re-membered...-re-cognized...as that which is already inside us.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“What really matters is what you believe.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Time is a river, and books are boats.”
― Dan Brown

“Darkness feeds on apathy.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.”
― Zig Ziglar, Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World

“Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs.”
― Zig Ziglar

“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.”
― Zig Ziglar

“Many marriages would be better if the husband and wife clearly understood that they're on the same side. ”
― Zig Ziglar

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”
― Zig Ziglar

“Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile, and a grateful heart.”
― Zig Ziglar

“You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great”
― Zig Ziglar

“The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now”
― Zig Ziglar

“You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.”
― Zig Ziglar