Josiah Sutton

“Cela est bien, repondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“A common response in surveys of religious attitudes is to say something like, 'I don't go to church, but I have my own personal idea of God.' This kind of statement makes me in turn react like a philosopher. Soppy, I cry. You have your own personal idea of God, but does God have His own personal idea of you? Because that's what matters. Whether He's an old man with a white beard sitting in the sky, or a life force, or a disinterested prime mover, or a clockmaker, or a woman, or a nebulous moral force, or nothing at all, what counts is what He, She, It, or Nothing thinks of you rather than you of them.”
― Julian Barnes, Nothing to Be Frightened Of

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”
― Soren Kierkegaard

“Man lives consciously for himself, but serves as an unconscious instrument for the achievement of historical, universally human goals. ”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace