"Both thought and feeling are determinants of conduct, and the same conduct may be determined either by feeling or by thought. When we survey the whole field of religion, we find a great variety in the thoughts that have prevailed there; but the feelings on the one hand and the conduct on the other are almost always the same, for Stoic, Christian, and Buddhist saints are practically indistinguishable in their lives. The theories which Religion generates, being thus variable, are secondary; and if you wish to grasp her essence, you must look to the feelings and the conduct as being the more constant elements. It is between these two elements that the short circuit exists on which she carries on her principal business, while the ideas and symbols and other institutions form loop-lines which may be perfections and improvements, and may even some day all be united into one harmonious system, but which are not to be regarded as organs with an indispensable function, necessary at all times for religious life to go on. This seems to me the first conclusion which we are entitled to draw from the phenomena we have passed in review."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (1902), Lecture XX, "Conclusions"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Saints
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Saints
51 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Saints →
Related Quotes
"Of one hundred people who take up the spiritual life, eighty turn out to be charlatans, fifteen insane, and only five…"
"During the 4th century devotion to the martyrs spread rapidly. This took place through entries in the calendar of one…"
"The master by residing in the Tao, sets an example for all beings. Because he doesn't display himself, people can see…"
"The soul can only receive impulses from another soul, and from nothing else. We may study books all our lives, we may…"
"Long ago the famous Bollandist Hippolyte Delehaye wrote: 'Happy is the saint who finds a biographer worthy of him.' T…"
"The public veneration of saints in the Christian Church is known to have existed in the 2nd century. As will be shown…"
"By the way, I have been reading the last volume of the Bible (the Epistles & Apocalypse) in your modern edition. I lo…"
"Saints do not die. It is their lot, To die while on this earth To all that God is not."
"Men, she thought, had always been able to seek holiness when they wanted to because some woman was back at home takin…"
"Through the ages zealous bishops had intervened to suppress false cults, but only in the late 12th and 14th centuries…"