Deity

"Great is Diana of the Ephesians."

"The Ethiop gods have Ethiop lips, Bronze cheeks, and woolly hair; The Grecian gods are like the Greeks, As keen-eyed, cold and fair."

"Oh, meet is the reverence unto Bacchus paid! We will praise him still in the songs of our fatherland, We will pour the sacred wine, the chargers lade, And the victim kid shall unresisting stand, Led by his horns to the altar, where we turn The hazel spits while the dripping entrails burn."

"His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit. Silence, though, could."

"Men change their gods, and when they have changed them often enough they cease to fear their power."

"It was lately suggested to me, by a man with longer experience of the gods than I can rightly imagine, that the reason the gods do not show our paths more plainly is that They do not know either. I haven't decided if I find this reassuring or the reverse. It does hint they do not torment us solely for Their amusement, at least."

"Gods are like that. It isn’t enough for them to run everything. They want to be famous, too."

"Before the gods that made the gods Had seen their sunrise pass, The White Horse of the White Horse Vale Was cut out of the grass."

"Gods are fragile things, they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense."

"Much of the power of biblical preaching from Moses to the time of the Exile comes from its stark either-or choice between Yahweh and the ‘other gods.” The great ninth-century B.C. contest at Carmel in 1 Kings 18 between Yahweh and Baal regarding control of the rain, hence of deity, contains the challenge of Elijah: “If the Lord is God, follow Him, but if Baal, then follow him.”"

"These are fools that men adore; both their Gods & their men are fools. This verse establishes uncompromisingly that all Gods — G capital, that is to say, 'true Gods' — and all men deified by legend or deceit — that is to say, false gods' — are fools. How come? It is a key. Distinction is clearly made between the two types: one are Gods; the other is men."

"Between the gods of light and darkness, of Order and Chaos, Elric knew there was little to choose. The capricious nature of immortality and omniscience played little part in the way of character-building. Too much time—and too little with which to fill it—made the Great Ones no less obstreperous and objectionable than a spoiled tavern brat with a bellyfull of cheap ale and an itchy sword-hand. Thus, just as he would strive to avert his gaze from the local folk in the numerous hostelries he came upon during his travels, so, too, did he rarely look into the sky, the distant plateaus beyond which the gods lazed, their milky eyes scouring the land below for any potential amusements."

"This fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all."

"I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be."

"The gods were different, the suffering was the same."

"With ravish'd ears The monarch hears, Assumes the god, Affects to nod, And seems to shake the spheres."

"Philosophy instructs us to pay homage to the gods, not through hope or fear, but from veneration of Their superior nature."

"The heathen in his blindness Bows down to wood and stone."

"Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child."

"Nature loves to hide her secrets, and she does not suffer the hidden truth about the essential nature of the gods to be flung in naked words to the ears of the profane…"

"Choose your friends, then treat them as friends; do not regard them like slaves or servants, but associate with them frankly and simply and generously; not saying one thing of them and thinking something else. See how distrust towards friends has damaged yonder heritor. Love your subjects as we love you. Let respect toward us take precedence of all goods: for we are your benefactors and friends and saviours. … we shall be with you everywhere, I and Athene and Hermes here, and with us all the Gods that are in Olympus, and Gods of the air and of the earth, and all manner of deities everywhere, so long as you are holy toward us, loyal to your friends, kindly to your subjects, ruling and guiding them for their good. Never yield yourself a slave to your own desires or theirs."

"August Nibru! No deity excels like your lord and lady! They are powerful princes; they are brilliantly revealed deities. No deity excels like Enlil or Ninlil!"

"That swarm of ants that I observed, each one following the one ahead, have every one been Indra in the world of the gods by virtue of their own past action. And now, by virtue of their deeds done in the past, they have gradually fallen to the state of ants."

"To that large utterance of the early gods!"

"There are no gods! Just voices in your head. They tell you to do what you already want to do."

"I don't classify gods as far as their power goes. I classify them as far as their personality goes. Each god, if he used his power right, could defeat another god. If I used my power right I could defeat anyone on Earth if I wanted to. As a man, if I used my physical strength at its best, I could overpower anybody I wanted to. If I did it right. It's the same way with the gods. If they used their super-powers right, they could defeat any other god."

"A man agrees with god as a raindrop with the storm."

"If there are gods, they made sheep so wolves could eat mutton, and they made the weak for the strong to play with ... If you can't protect yourself, die and get out of the way of those who can."

"Who knows not Circe, The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape, And downward fell into a groveling swine?"

"That moly That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave."

"Le seigneur Jupiter sait dorer la pilule."

"Nevertheless they could never be imagined save in the most radiant bloom of youth. For the Hellenic idea of god this is very significant and serves as a symbol of their peculiar essence. Other peoples have felt no compunction in thinking of their deity as old, indeed as very ancient; no image could more forcefully suggest the venerable wisdom they possessed. But for the Greek his inmost feelings resisted such a notion. For him old age was a condition of the weariness, impoverishment, and darkening of nature, that vital and holy nature from which he could never at all separate the spirit. Even the highest wisdom must belong not to a region beyond life but to life's most buoyant energy, and knowledge must dwell not on the hoary countenance turned away from the world but on the bright and youthful brow and the blooming lips of Apollo."

"Still I hear a voice saying that the gods cannot be deceived, neither can they be compelled. But what if there are no gods? or, suppose them to have no care of human things."

"Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be, because of the obscurity of the subject, and the brevity of human life."

"The basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes."

"As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport."

"The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague us."

"This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid: Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms, The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans, Liege of all loiterers and malcontents."

"Cupid is a knavish lad, Thus to make poor females mad."

"Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods? Draw near them in being merciful; Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge."

"And now I will try to defend myself against them: these new accusers must also have their affidavit read. What do they say? Something of this sort: — That Socrates is a doer of evil, and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the state, and has other new divinities of his own."

"I will obey the god rather than you, and as long as I draw breath and am able, I shall not cease to practice philosophy."

"A person should steadfastly proclaim the exaltedness of his god. A young man should devoutly praise the words of his god; the people living in the righteous Land should unravel them like a thread. May the balaj singer assuage the spirit of his neighbour and friend. ... Let his mouth shaping a lament soothe the heart of his god, for a man without a god does not obtain food."

"Volente Deo."

"Incessu patuit Dea."

"Heu nihil invitis fas quemquam fidere divis."

"Jamque dies, ni fallor adest quem semper acerbum Semper honoratum (sic dii voluistis) habeo."

"Vocat in certamina Divos."

"Habitarunt Di quoque sylvas."

"Speak of the gods as they are."