How does the universe come to exist?
What is the nature of its creator?
Is there a purpose to human existence?
What is it to live a good life?
The Routledge Dictionary of Religious and Spiritual Quotations offers not just
one answer to these questions, but many.
The fundamental questions concerning God and Man are as old as humanity,
finding new expressions and answers in every society and age. The revealed
world of Jehovah, Allah and Krishna, of Christ, Mohammad and the Buddha and
the inspiration of religious and mystic experience have produced the world’s
richest and most extensive literature. In this collection of over 3000 quotations
you will discover the diversity of that literature and the fertility of religious
thought, experience and practice throughout history. Geoffrey Parrinder has
drawn on all the great books of the world’s religions—the Bible, Qur’an,
Zoroastrian Gathas, Hindu Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, Jewish Mishnah, Sikh Adi
Granth and Chinese Tao Te Ching. Read the words of prophets, scholars and
mystics on the nature of the divine, the ethics of human conduct and the puzzles
of mortality, resurrection and life after death. Here too are the thoughts of the
religious and irreligious on matters spiritual and moral, from Plato on sexuality,
Freud on the origins of religion, and William Blake on angels to Omar Khayyam
on fate, Confucius on poverty and Gandhi on violence.