Greg Young

“Literalism is for the weak; fundamentalism is for the insecure. Both are sins, too, against God, for to come to believe that we are in exclusive possession of the truth about things beyond time and space, and thus hold the power to shape lives and decisions about things within time and space, is to put ourselves in the place of God. But we are taught that no man has searched the mind of the Lord, or been his counselor.”
― Jon Meacham, The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross

“Every Saturday and every holiday morning,” wrote Adolph, “saw us all at the synagogue. I suppose Jesus Christ did the same, because the New Testament tells us that he drove the money-changers from the Temple and that at times he preached in the synagogue.” He added, somewhat slyly: “As a pious Jew, he must have attended the synagogue, although I suppose that toward the end of his life the authorities would not let him preach. Perhaps if he were to appear today and preach as radically as he did then, he would not be allowed in the more conservative Christian churches.”
― Stephen Birmingham, Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families of New York

“[W]hen people talk of our muddling through it throws me into a passion. Muddle through! why yes, so we do – wading through blood and tears that need never have been shed.2”
― Walter Reid, Empire of Sand: How Britain Made the Middle East

“The truth is that we are the only race on earth that can produce men capable of getting inside the skin of remote peoples. Perhaps the Scots are better than the English, but we are all a thousand per cent better than anyone else’. An unrealistic conceit.”
― Walter Reid, Empire of Sand: How Britain Made the Middle East