The HyperTexts
The Best Religious Epigrams and Spiritual Epigrams
The Best Ethical Quotes and Epigrams
compiled by Michael R. Burch
Introduction to Religious, Spiritual and Ethical Epigrams
This page contains some of the greatest religious, spiritual and moral/ethical epigrams of all time, along with
information about the various types of epigrams, the history of epigrams, and the endlessly
fascinating people who penned them. I have worked with the interests of students
young and old in mind, so if you want to learn more about epigrams, hopefully
you have found the right "launching pad." I will begin with a question:
What does this colorful crowd of characters have in common: Alexander
the Great, Woody Allen, Aristotle, Buddha, Catherine the Great, the Dalai Lama,
Dante, Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ben Franklin, Gandhi, Thomas Jefferson, Jesus, Helen
Keller, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Mohammed, Dorothy Parker, Rumi, Mark
Twain and Oscar Wilde?
Answer: They all produced immortal epigrams! Now here, to whet your appetite,
are some of my favorite religious, spiritual and ethical epigrams ...
Examples of
Religious, Spiritual and Ethical Epigrams
The mystics of many religions, from Christianity to Sufism, and even agnostics
and atheists have at times have had visions of what seems to be heaven:
Oh Wow!!! Oh Wow!!! Oh Wow!!!—Steve Jobs' last words
All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.—Julian of Norwich,
hearing the voice of God
The lion shall lie down with the lamb and a little child shall lead them.—A
common rephrasing of Isaiah 11:6-8
I go to prepare a place for you.—Jesus Christ speaking to his disciples
in John 14:3
Little sparks may ignite great Infernos.—Dante, translation
by Michael R. Burch
And the greatest Inferno is Love.—Michael R. Burch
God is Love, and he who abides in Love abides in God, and God abides in him.—Saint John
Love suffers long, and is
kind; envies not; seeks not her own; thinks no evil; bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.—Saint Paul
Love never fails.—Saint Paul
And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is
Love.—Saint Paul, concluding his epistle on Divine Love
To love another person is to see the face of God.—Victor Hugo
That Love is all there is, is all we know of Love.—Emily Dickinson
All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.—Leo Tolstoy
Love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the humblest imaginable.—Mohandas Gandhi
Love distills the eyes’ desires, love bewitches the heart with its
grace.—Euripides, translation by Michael R. Burch
Be not dishearten'd—Affection shall solve the problems of Freedom yet; those who love each other shall become invincible.—Walt
Whitman
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.—Walt Whitman
Elevate your words, not their volume. Rain grows flowers, not thunder.—Rumi,
translation by Michael R. Burch
The danger is not aiming too high and missing, but aiming too low and hitting
the mark.—Michelangelo, translation by Michael R. Burch
Truths are more likely discovered by one man than nations.—René Descartes,
translation by Michael R. Burch
My objective is not to side with the majority, but to avoid the ranks of the
insane.—Marcus Aurelius, translation by Michael R. Burch
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and
brotherhood can never become a reality ... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
If like me you have a hard time reconciling the idea of unconditional love with
an "eternal hell," you may be interested to hear what I discovered through
intensive study and the application of logic:
There is no "Hell" in the Bible.
Here are some of my other favorite religious, spiritual and ethical epigrams:
If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible warning.—Catherine the Great
Bigotry is the sacred disease.—Heraclitus
We may have come in on different ships, but we're all in the same boat now.—Martin Luther King, Jr.
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.—Albert
Einstein
I don't know about World War III, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.—Albert
Einstein
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.—John F.
Kennedy
I like your Christ, but not Christianity. You Christians are so unlike your Christ.—Mohandas Gandhi
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.—Dalai Lama
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.—Mark
Twain
A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.—Nelson Mandela
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the
holy name of liberty or democracy?—Mohandas Gandhi
Believe nothing because it is written in books.
Believe nothing because wise men say it is so.
Believe nothing because it is religious doctrine.
Believe nothing, even if I said it, unless you yourself know it to be true.
—Buddha
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the
unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man.—George Bernard Shaw
Religious, Spiritual and Ethical Teachings
Some of the most important ethical and spiritual teachings of major world
religions have been passed down to the world in the form of epigrams. Here are a
few quick examples:
Yesterday I was clever, that is why I wanted to change the world. Today I am
wise, that is why I am changing myself.—Sri Chinmoy
Turn your wounds into wisdom.—Oprah Winfrey
To thy faith add knowledge, to thy actions, love, and thy presence among the
people will be a benediction.—Order of the Amaranth
Though I speak with the tongues of men of angels, and have not love, I am
become as a clanging gong or a tinkling cymbal.—Saint Paul
Blessed are the peacemakers.—Jesus
Judge not, that ye be not judged.—Jesus
Hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye, then you can help remove the speck from your brother’s eye.—Jesus
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: this is the Law and the
Prophets.—Jesus
Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.—Mohammed
The most excellent jihad [struggle] is that for the conquest of self.—Mohammed
The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.—Mohammed
The rights of women are sacred. See that women are maintained in the rights
assigned to them.—Mohammed
If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror ever get polished?—Rumi
You were born with wings, so why crawl through life?—Rumi
Oh God of dust and rainbows, help us see that without dust the rainbow would
not be.—Langston Hughes
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.—Helen Keller
By three methods we may learn wisdom:
first, by reflection, which is noblest;
second, by imitation, which is easiest;
and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
—Confucius
Ring the bells that still can ring;
Forget your perfect offering .
There is a crack in everything:
That's how the light gets in.
—Leonard Cohen
To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom;
and he that increaseth his riches, increaseth his cares;
but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not.
—Akhenaton
I expect to pass this way but once; any good therefore that I can do, or any
kindness that I can show to any fellow creature. Let me do it now. Let me
not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.—Etienne Griellet
Modern Epigrams: Email Sign-Offs, Tweets, Personal Mottos, etc.
Discontent is the first necessity of progress.—Thomas Alva Edison
The Edison epigram above has become my personal motto, or slogan. I've used it
to "sign off" many an email and I've received
a number of emails that
end with epigrams. In fact, I first discovered two wonderfully touching epigrams by
Michel de Montaigne and Anaïs Nin (below on this page) in emails sent to me by colleagues. On a
related note, before I delve further into the greatest epigrams of all time, I'd like to consider a popular new form of epigram: the Tweet. Here's my
favorite Tweet to date:
The Capitol looks beautiful and I am honored to be at work tonight.—Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Giffords is the Arizona congresswoman who was recently shot and nearly killed. While so many other American politicians rage and imagine vain things, I find
her words wonderfully touching and encouraging. Reading her
poetic
Tweet, I can actually see our nation's Capitol lit up at night, shining
like a beacon, and feel her sincerity.
How many senators and congressmen are humble enough to feel honored to work for
their country, I wonder? In any case, I'm glad to have Gabby
back, and to know that she's not only recovering from her injuries, but wants
to help her country recover from its own deep-seated (albeit
self-inflicted) wounds. I only hope that other Americans will exhibit some of her
grace under fire. After all, if she pulled through her harrowing ordeal, so can
we as a nation, if only we emulate her courage and resolve. And as I write this,
I am reminded of Gabby's favorite epigram, which appears on her Facebook page:
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to
bind up the nation's wounds.—Abraham Lincoln
Epigrams Defined
But what, exactly, is an epigram, and what do the producers of great
epigrams have in common? Well, "in short," epigrams are brief, pithy, hard-hitting
sayings, and the great epigrammatists are keen students of humanity
who know how to get their points across in the form of verbal wallops. So the best epigrams are often wise,
funny or
snide commentary on human nature, societies and beliefs. For example:
Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.—Dorothy
Parker
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.—Abraham Lincoln
Your children need your presence more than your presents.—Jesse
Jackson
How can the Bible be "infallible" when from Genesis to Revelation slavery
is commanded and condoned, but never condemned?—Michael R. Burch
Puns, Word-Play, Raillery and Drollery
Jackson's epigram is a pun, or word-play, as is Lincoln's. Parker's epigram is a stellar example of raillery, which has been
defined as "light, teasing banter," "gentle mockery" and
"good-humored satire or ridicule." It is also an example of drollery:
something whimsically comical. Raillery can be both wonderfully funny, and
wonderfully effective:
If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible warning.—Catherine the Great
There is no glory in outstripping donkeys.—Marcus Valerius Martial
As blushing may make a whore seem virtuous, so modesty may make a fool seem sensible.—Jonathan Swift
If you think you're too small to make an impact, try going to bed with a
mosquito.—Edith Sitwell
Here's a bit of rather gentle raillery of my own, called "Saving Graces":
Life’s saving graces are love, pleasure, laughter ...
wisdom, it seems, is for the Hereafter.
—Michael R. Burch
My epigram is dedicated to Christians who claim they'll inherit heaven at the
expense of everyone else. (If you question the idea that good people of other
religions and non-religions, for instance Einstein and Gandhi, will go to "hell," please
consider reading
Why "hell" is vanishing from the
Bible.)
The One-Liner, or Zinger
Another category of epigram is what I call "the zinger," a potent form similar
to the comedian's
one-liner. The zinger upsets the applecart of our polite polities:
Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.—Oscar Wilde
The Bon Mot
What a wickedly scathing line! This is a wonderful example of the bon mot
("good word"), the best way of saying something. There has never been a better
critic of gossip, innuendo and scandal-mongering than Oscar Wilde (perhaps
because so many prudes, busybodies and gossips considered him to be scandalous,
when the real scandal was that they refused to mind their own business and stop
judging him):
Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.—Oscar Wilde
Wilde is every moralist's worst nightmare, because he was wise in the ways of
the world and human nature, while moralists are usually up to their
eyeballs in hypocrisy. Centuries before Wilde, Aristotle proved the ancient Greeks
could be equally scathing:
Wit is educated insolence.—Aristotle
But epigrams can also be wonderfully touching and moving:
The births of all things are weak and tender,
therefore we should have our eyes intent on beginnings.
—Michel de Montaigne
If we are to have real peace in the world,
we shall have to begin with the children.
―Mohandas Gandhi
I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. The realm
of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and
speech. And I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear.—George
Eliot (the pen name of Mary Anne Evans)
As an Israeli, I have come to understand:
there is no way to love Israel and reject a two-state peace,
no way to love Israel and reject Palestine.
—Yael Dayan, daughter of Moshe Dayan, Israel's most famous general
Epigrams can also be wise, and liberating:
If you would lift me you must be on higher ground.―Ralph
Waldo Emerson
It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before, to
test your limits, to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it
took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to
blossom.—Anaïs Nin
Shake off all fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for
every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god;
because if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that
of blindfolded fear.—Thomas Jefferson
The rank is but the guinea’s stamp; the man’s the gowd [gold] for a’
[all] that!—Robert
Burns
Epigrams like the last one above helped fuel the
American and French revolutions; Burns was saying that commoners had the same
"mettle" and worth as royals and lords. Here's a similar epigram by
another great poet:
I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
—Alexander Pope
Aphorisms
Epigrams which convey essential truths
or principles are called aphorisms:
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.―Unknown
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.―Unknown
A watched pot never boils.―Unknown
Life is short, art long.―Hippocrates
The epigram is the simple, elegant black dress of literature; it leaves nearly everything
bared and yet still temptingly open to the imagination. The best
epigrammatists produce belle lettres ("beautiful letters" or "fine
writing") en brief ("in brief").
But there is as much diversity
among epigrammatists as there is in the sea,
or in any university,
as we shall see ...
The Chiasmus
Other types of epigrams employ wordplay. For instance, the chiasmus repeats
the same or very similar words in a different order:
It's not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, it's the size of the
fight in the dog.—Dwight D. Eisenhower
It's not the men in your life that count, it's the life in your men.—Mae West
I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do.
I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.—Ronald
Reagan
Spoonerisms
The spoonerism is an aural chiasmus. Rather than the words being reordered,
different words with similar sounds
are "remixed":
Love is either wholly folly,
or fully holy.—Michael R. Burch
Personal Sayings
Sometimes we can know a man intimately through his most concise sayings.
Alexander the Great seems to have believed himself to be a god, or a son of the
gods, and yet he had to confront his own mortality, which left him, at best, a
demigod:
There is nothing impossible to him who will try.—Alexander the
Great
Heaven cannot brook two suns, nor earth two masters.—Alexander the
Great
Sex and sleep alone make me conscious that I am mortal.—Alexander the
Great
I am dying with the help of too many physicians.—Alexander the
Great
A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.—Alexander
the Great
To the strongest!—Alexander the Great [when asked who
should inherit his empire]
Epitaphs
Then there are "dead serious" epigrams, called epitaphs. These are the inscriptions that appear on headstones,
and they can convey morals, or somber warnings. Here's one of mine dedicated to
the children of Gaza, called "Epitaph for a
Palestinian Child":
I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.
—Michael R. Burch
I wrote the poem above before 9-11. If you read the testimony of the FBI agent,
James N. Fitgerald, who reported what the 9-11 conspirators said when they were
Epithets
An epithet defines or characterizes someone or something. In
Homer's day epithets were often complimentary. But today epithets are
generally non-complimentary, if not insulting or downright offensive. Modern
epithets often
descend into derogatory slang and racial invective. But in the hands of a master
epigrammatist like Will Rogers, they can still be sublime in effect:
An economist's guess is liable to be as good as anybody else's.—Will Rogers
Make crime pay. Become a lawyer.—Will Rogers
A fool and his money are soon elected.—Will Rogers
Parody and Lampooning
Another genre of epigrams engages in
parody and lampooning. Here's one I hope to someday include it in a book of
poems to be titled Why I Left the Religious Right:
I've got Jesus's name on a wallet insert
and "Hell is for Queers" on the back of my shirt
and I uphold the Law,
for grace has a flaw:
the Church must have someone to drag through the dirt.
—Michael R. Burch
Proverbs and Wisdom Sayings
Yet another class of epigram (although one that is generally less entertaining)
has any number of names. Let's begin with "proverb" and a famous illustration by one
of the world's best-known epigrammatists:
Neither a borrower nor a lender be.―Shakespeare
Early to bed, early to rise
makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
—Ben Franklin
Miguel de Cervantes defined a proverb as "a short sentence based on long
experience."
There are, it seems, a bazillion other names for such bits of homey wisdom: adage,
moral, homily, bromide, aphorism, apophthegm, axiom, dictum, maxim, motto, folk wisdom,
platitude, motto, precept, saw, saying, truism, catchphrase, formula,
gnome, pithy saying, etc. But alas!, many proverbs are boring and some are untrue, to
boot. How many men got up early every morning, were poor as dirt, and died early
deaths? Surely multitudes!
But many epigrams contain both vital wisdom and sparkling humor. Sometimes the epigram is the salvo
a brilliant, battle-savvy cynic launches against human ignorance,
intolerance, cruelty and insanity:
There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.—Mark
Twain
To determine the truth of Twain's remark, just inquire with any black American slave, or
any Native American who walked the Trail of Tears, or any Palestinian
who's been herded inside the walled ghetto of Gaza and had the gates slammed
shut in his face. None of them will praise the white man's self-avowed "democratic
ideals" or his "Judeo-Christian ethics." If you don't agree with
Twain, please be assured that he is the keener observer and savvier student
of history and human nature. But if you read his epigrams, you may quickly
close the gap! And I believe Einstein was in general agreement with Twain when he said:
I don't know what weapons will be used in World War III, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.—Albert
Einstein
One has only to be able to put two and two together, to
understand why Twain's remark relates to Einstein's. Just consider the millions
of Palestinians who suffer inside squalid refugee camps and walled ghettoes,
thanks to the "democracies" of the USA, Great Britain and Israel, while
1.5 billion Muslims see and share their agony. If we don't understand why
denying other people freedom, human rights and dignity will cause us to end up fighting
with sticks and stones after a nuclear Armageddon . . . well, we're just not as
observant or wise as Twain and Einstein. But we certainly can't say they didn't
warn us, as did an American president who was a master of the chiasmus:
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.—John F.
Kennedy
The history of such epigrams goes "way back" in time. In the 6th century B.C. the
legendarily rich King Croesus of Lydia said:
In peace sons bury their fathers, but in war fathers bury their sons.—Croesus
When we consider the expensive, bloody follies of the U.S. government in the
Middle East, we can only wish American politicians had heeded Will Rogers:
If there is one thing that we do worse than any other
nation, it is try and manage somebody else's affairs.―Will Rogers
And a great French essayist can explain why American freedoms seem to be
vanishing:
The clatter of arms drowns out the voice of law.—Michel de Montaigne
Following in the same vein of questioning whether human beings are using their
advanced brains to "think" when they do such things as wage war, here are two related epigrams by one of my favorite contemporary writers:
Thinking is often claimed but seldom proven.—
T. Merrill
It must be hard being brilliant with no way to prove it.—
T. Merrill
Have we remained savages, while
only claiming to be an intelligent species? If we take a step back,
open our eyes, look around, and see what man's most "advanced" civilizations are doing to homosexuals, Muslims
and women and children on a
daily basis . . . well, it's hard to credit the idea that we are actually
"thinking." When I was a small boy, evangelical Christian
adults informed me that just thinking about sex was "evil"
(because Jesus said lust was the same as adultery) and that all adulterers went
to hell. Just imagine what happened when I reached puberty: it
was a terrifying, soul-shattering experience. Years later, I learned that a
place called "hell" was never mentioned in the
Old Testament, the epistles of Paul (the earliest-written Christian texts) or the book
of Acts (ostensibly the self-recorded history of the early Christian church). The Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word
Hades
clearly mean "the grave," not "hell." So the bizarre "hell"
Christians use
to terrorize and brainwash their own children was obviously a very late, very clumsy
addition to the Bible. And yet millions of children continue to be tortured
psychologically, emotionally and spiritually because "hell" is very good for church business. Mark Twain
once discovered what I discovered, and said:
I found out that I was a Christian for revenue only and I could not bear the thought of that, it was so ignoble.—Mark
Twain
Paradox
Socrates suggested that we define our terms, so for my purposes here I will use
the primary term "epigram" and define it with Webster as a "terse, sage or witty
and often paradoxical saying." Paradox can be both enlightening and amusing.
Here's a stellar example by a contemporary writer:
Nowadays we make quick work of our courtships; it's our divorces that we spend a lot of time on.—Richard Moore
Less Heroic Couplets: Funding Fundamentals
by Michael R. Burch
"I found out that I was a Christian for revenue only and I could not bear the thought of that, it was so ignoble." — Mark Twain
Making sense from nonsense is quite sensible! Suppose
you’re running low on moolah, need some cash to paint your toes ...
Just invent a new religion; claim it saves lost souls from hell;
have the converts write you checks; take major debit cards as well;
take MasterCard and Visa and good-as-gold Amex;
hell, lend and charge them interest, whether payday loan or flex.
Thus out of perfect nonsense, glittery ores of this great mine,
you’ll earn an easy living and your toes will truly shine!
Originally published by Lighten Up Online
Truth-tellers
Jesus Christ often castigated the Pharisees for being hypocrites. But the great
epigrammatists are more likely to be brutally honest about human nature, which
also means about themselves ...
I can resist everything except temptation.—Oscar Wilde
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.—Oscar Wilde
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.—William
Blake
There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.—Mark
Twain
To forbid us anything is to make us have a mind for it.—Michel de
Montaigne
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.—Mark
Twain
Must I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know
the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love
evil too well to give it up.—Mohandas Gandhi
What some of the world's greatest writers and wits seem to be telling
us, if I apprehend them correctly, is that orthodox morality is dubious at best,
if it is morality at all.
The great wits listen to sermons about sex being a "sin" and roll their eyeballs
toward the heavens, then
write scathing epigrams as a way of possibly curing man of his folly. They know the
preacher who lectures his flock on the "evils" of sex is just as randy as
the rest of them, and probably less inhibited (unless he's a septuagenarian
and his hormones have "petered" out, pun intended). Wilde, Blake and Twain understood human
nature and were honest about
it, and themselves. Twain pointed out that any red-blooded man
would give up any possible shot at heaven for a few blissful seconds with the
Eve of his dreams.
Anyone who claims the Holy Spirit cures human beings of sexual desire is
obviously wrong, because human sexuality is not a "disease."
But I digress. To continue . . . on these pages you will find some of the
wittiest, funniest, pithiest and scathingest things human beings have said, to
this late date, on our planet.
Motivational Calls to Action
A good epigram can be a call to action:
Discontent is the first necessity of progress.—Thomas Alva Edison
An epigram can also be a call to compassion, empathy and kindness:
Always be kinder than necessary,
for everyone you meet is fighting
some kind of battle.
—attributed to T.H. Thompson and John Watson
Don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins.—Native
American proverb
The Method Behind the Madness
Robert Frost, perhaps America's last major poet, said "poetry begins in delight
and ends in wisdom." I would like to paraphrase him, if I may, and say:
Epigrams delight us into wisdom.—Michael R. Burch
Which is not to say that they invariably make us happy!
Below is my favorite among my own epigrams; it illustrates, perhaps, how
much can be squeezed into a tight compartment while still leaving
breathing room for "special
effects" like meter, rhyme and alliteration:
If God
is good
half the Bible
is libel.
—Michael R. Burch
In brief, the epigram is the Harry Houdini of literature. Here are a few
more of my all-time favorite epigrams:
To be or not to be, that is the question.—Shakespeare
Our existence is a short circuit of light between two eternities of darkness.—Vladimir Nabokov
The secret of getting things done is to act!—Dante Alighieri
Imagine there’s no heaven; it’s easy if you try; no hell below us; above us, only sky.—John
Lennon
The Prophet Mohammed
The great prophet of Islam, Mohammed, is also known as Muhammad. His full name was Abu al-Qasim Muhammad Ibn
Abd Allah Ibn Abd al-Muttalib Ibn Hashim. He was born circa. 570 AD, and
died on June 8, 632 AD. He was born in Mecca and died in Medina, both in the
Hejaz region of present-day Saudi Arabia. Muhammad is the founder of Islam and
the greater Muslim community, and he is the originator of the poetry of the
Koran (although he did not create the written versions, being unable to write;
but then Jesus didn't write a single book of the Bible either). Here are some of
Mohammed's teachings:
Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.
Every act of kindness is sadaqah [holy or godly charity].
The most excellent jihad [struggle] is that for the conquest of self.
The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.
The best among you are those who are best to their wives.
Admonish your wives with kindness.
The rights of women are sacred. See that women are maintained in the rights
assigned to them.
What is better than charity, fasting and prayer? Keeping
peace and good relations between people, as quarrels and bad feelings destroy mankind.
To overcome evil with good is good, to resist evil by evil is evil.
The best of the houses is the house where an orphan gets love and kindness.
It is better for a leader to make a mistake in forgiving than to make a
mistake in punishing.
The best among you are those who are best to their wives.
Do you love your Creator? Love your fellow-beings first.
Bad conduct destroys divine service as condiment destroys honey.
Assist any person oppressed, whether Muslim or non-Muslim.
Whoever hath been given gentleness hath been given a good portion, in this
world and the next.
God is gentle and loveth gentleness.
But determine that if people do you good, you will do good to them; and if
they oppress you, you will not oppress them.
When you see a person who has been given more than you in money and beauty,
think of those who have been given less.
Do not hate one another, nor be jealous of one another; and do not desert one
another, but O Allah's worshippers, be Brothers!
The best people are those who are most useful to others.
Happy is the person who finds fault with himself instead of finding fault
with others.
True Muslims, in their mutual love, kindness and compassion are like the
human body: when one of its parts is in agony, the entire body feels the pain,
both in sleeplessness and fever.
I believe it is very important for Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims to
consider how the last teaching above relates to the present-day situation of the Palestinians,
millions of whom are completely innocent women and children who have been denied
basic human rights, freedom and self-determination by the "people of the book."
The governments of Israel and the United States are very quick to condemn acts
of terrorism by Palestinian individuals, but refuse to look in the mirror and
condemn acts of large-scale, systematic, grinding terrorism inflicted daily on
Palestinians. That terrorism includes racial discrimination, apartheid, Jim Crow
laws and kangaroo courts, arrests of minors without due process of law, torture,
extrajudicial assassinations, home demolitions, ethnic cleansing, and what
appears to be slow genocide. When we have empathy and compassion for our
neighbors, what must we think, say and do when we see their children being
treated like serfs and pariahs? What would Americans do if they saw such things
happening to children they care about? Obviously, some American men would grab
weapons and go to war to defend them. So it is very hypocritical for Americans
to condemn Muslim men for refusing to accept what they see happening to the
children they love. And while terrorism is a horror, it is self-evident that the
far greater horror has been practiced against Palestinians who don't have
militaries with advanced weapons, by nations that do. How anyone who condones
such injustice and hypocrisy can invoke the name of Jesus Christ by calling
himself a "Christian," is beyond me.
Excerpts from the Final Sermon of Mohammed
Men, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but
they also have certain rights over you ... To them belongs the right to be fed
and clothed in kindness ... Do treat your women well and be kind to them for
they are your partners and committed helpers.
Since all mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a
non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; also a white
has no superiority over a black, nor a black over a white, except by piety and
good action.
[The quote above reminds me of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking
eloquently of his wonderful dream that one day his children would be judged by
the content of their character, rather than by the color of their skin.]
Even as the fingers of the two hands are equal, so are human beings equal to
one another. No one has any right, nor any preference to claim over another. You
are brothers.
Behold! All practice of the days of ignorance are now under my feet. The
blood revenges of the days of ignorance are remitted.
[Here, the Prophet Mohammed seems to be saying that blood revenge belongs to the
days of ignorance, and that in his opinion the days of ignorance are over. As
human beings have now acquired the ability to destroy themselves, and the world,
we can no longer afford to seek revenge for the sake of revenge, if we ever
could afford such a highly dubious luxury. Here, Mohammed seems to agree with
Albert Einstein and John F. Kennedy when they called for the end of war, simply
because man cannot expect to survive the next major global war.]
No one committing a crime is responsible for it but himself. The child is not
responsible for the crime of his father, nor the father for the crime of his
child.
All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to
others again; and may the last ones understand my words better than those who
listen to me directly.
In his last sermon, Mohammed was saying what great men and women of peace like
Einstein, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela would
also say, more than a thousand years later. Are there verse in the Koran that
seem contradictory? Yes, there are. But there are also verses in the Bible that
wildly and blatantly contradict the core message of Jesus Christ, the apostles,
and the Hebrew prophets. How can anyone explain Deuteronomy 22, in which Moses
clearly commanded that girls who had been raped should be stoned to death (a
horrendous method of execution), or sold to their rapists (meaning they could be
raped "legally" the rest of their lives)? How can anyone defend the "wisdom" of
Moses, when he said that only girls who were raped in fields should be spared,
because their cries for help could not be heard? Was it "wise" or mere primitive
barbarism for him to assume that girls who were raped within shouting distance
of a town were "guilty" of some terrible crime? What if the rapist had his hand
over the girl's mouth, or a knife to her throat, or if she was just too
terrified to scream? Even if she chose not to scream, in what dimension is
having sex a "crime" worthy of a gruesome execution, or being forced to become a
sex slave for life?
And how can any human being with a functional heart and brain explain Exodus 21,
in which Moses allowed fathers to sell their own daughters as sex slaves for
life, with the option (but not the requirement) to buy them back if they didn't
"please" their new masters? How can anyone explain Numbers 31, in which Moses
told his warriors to slaughter mothers and their male babies, keeping only the
virgin girls alive, obviously as sex slaves?
Many Jews and Christians call Islam a "false religion" because there are
questionable verses in the Koran, but the Bible is far worse that Hitler's
Mein Kampf in many passages. Moses, Joshua and King David (all called
"types" of Jesus by Christian theologians) were mass murders guilty of
matricide, infanticide, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide. David, called
"the man after God's own heart" by Christians, killed every woman when he smote
the land, offered hundreds of human foreskins as a dowry for his first wife, and
ordered the slaughter of the lame and the blind when Jerusalem was taken from
the Jebusites. Jesus had compassion on the handicapped, but according to the
Bible, David hated them so bitterly that he awarded the captaincy of his armies
to Joab simply for being the man willing to assassinate them.
Why was David accorded so much undeserved glory, by the writers of the Bible?
The answer is simple. David's victories, which came at the expense of the lives
of so many innocent people, provided the land and gold needed to build the
Jerusalem temple. That temple brought the Levite priests and scribes tremendous
wealth, influence and power. So of course they loved David and Solomon, the
glorious kings who gave them their glorious temple. They either wrote or
transcribed the early books of the Bible, and of course the victors and their
propagandists have always "spun" things to suit themselves. If you read the
Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) carefully, you can easily see it is full of
"spin," and that kings were considered "righteous" not because they were good,
but only if they won battles and got rid of the
altars and priests of the "wrong" sects and cults. The Levites obviously wanted
everyone to come worship, sacrifice and tithe at the Jerusalem temple (where
they would receive lion's share), so they not only disdained the "high places"
where other people worshipped and sacrificed, but they even called for the
murder of the rival priests. When the boy-king Josiah was enthroned, and still
too young to think for himself, they seized the opportunity to write the
dreadful book of Deuteronomy, then pretended it was a "book of Moses" that had
been "lost," then "found." Deuteronomy is full of barbaric commandments, such as
the ones for fathers to sell their daughters as sex slaves and murder them if
they were raped. And it constantly reminds the Israelites to obey the Levites
and "share" with them. It also gave them license to murder rival priests.
According to the Hebrew Bible, after the "new" book of "Moses" was "discovered,"
the Levites incited an orgy of mayhem and murder. Then not only executed their
rivals, they even dug up their bones to desecrate them.
So it is past time for Jews and Christians to be honest about the Bible, and its
human origins. No one should use the Bible to deny freedom and human rights to
Muslims, because no one in his right mind can possibly claim that all the verses
in the Bible came from a loving, wise, just God.
The Oscar Goes to Wilde: Epigrams by the Divine
Oscar Wilde
Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.
Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own
shame.
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as
one wishes them to live.
I can resist everything except temptation.
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.
Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.
Self-denial is the shining sore on the leprous body of Christianity.
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
Always forgive your enemies: nothing annoys them so much.
There is no sin except stupidity.
Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
The Twain Well Met: Epigrams by
Mark
Twain
It's not the parts of the Bible that I don't understand that bother me, it's the parts I do understand.
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and less trouble.
Always do right. That will gratify some of the people, and astonish the rest.
By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
Lord save us all from a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.
Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.
Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.
There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
The Christian's Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes.
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.
Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain't so.
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
Facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable.
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you do know that ain't so.
Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish.
It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and
remove all doubt.
If at first you don't succeed, try again.
Then quit; there's no use being a damn fool about it.
Humor Equals Wit Times Genius Squared: The Epigrams of
Albert
Einstein
Never lose a holy curiosity.
Morality is of the highest importance—but for us, not for God.
Whoever set himself up as a judge of Truth is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the former.
Our technology has exceeded our humanity.
I don't know about World War III, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Epigrams Reign: Michel de Montaigne
The clatter of arms drowns out the voice of law.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which least is known.
Man cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.
To forbid us anything is to make us have a mind for it.
Everyone calls barbarity what he is not accustomed to.
No propositions astonish me, no belief offends me, whatever contrast it offers to my own.
Our religion is made to eradicate vices, instead it encourages them, covers them, and nurtures them.
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
The Church Gets the Burch Rod
There's no better tonic for other people's bad ideas, than to think for oneself.—Michael R. Burch
Life’s saving graces are love, pleasure, laughter ...
wisdom, it seems, is for the Hereafter.
—Michael R. Burch
If God has the cattle on a thousand hills, why does he
need my tithes?—Michael R. Burch
If God
is good
half the Bible
is libel.
—Michael R. Burch
Hell hath no fury like a frustrated fundamentalist whose God condemned him
to "hell" for having "impure thoughts."—Michael R. Burch
I've got Jesus's name on a wallet insert
and "Hell is for Queers" on the back of my shirt
and I uphold the Law,
for grace has a flaw:
the Church must have someone to drag through the dirt.
—Michael R. Burch
Religion is the difficult process of choosing the least malevolent invisible friends.—Michael R. Burch
How can the Bible be "infallible" when from Genesis to Revelation slavery is
commanded and condoned, but never condemned?—Michael R. Burch
Religion is the dopiate of the sheeple.—Michael R. Burch
If you would persuade me, make sense.
To dissuade me, be dense
and resort to pretense.
—Michael R. Burch
A Brief Take on Blake: Epigrams by William Blake
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
To see a World in a grain of sand
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
I was angry with my friend,
I told my wrath, my wrath did end;
I was angry with my foe,
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
He who binds to himself a joy
Doth the winged life destroy.
He who kisses the joy as it flies,
Lives in eternity's sunrise.
A Smidgen of Religion
Prevent truth decay. Brush up on your Bible.—Unknown
God answers knee-mail.—Unknown
Don’t give up. Moses was once a basket case.—Unknown
Forbidden fruit creates many jams.—Unknown
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.—Voltaire
I think, therefore I am.—Rene Descartes
All that we are is the result of what we have thought.—Buddha
The mind is everything. What you think you become.—Buddha
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.—Buddha
Some people attend church three times in their lives: when they're hatched,
when they're matched, and when they're dispatched.—Unknown
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to
love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.—G. K. Chesterton
You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more
deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is
not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire
universe deserve your love and affection.—Buddha
Funny Money
It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.―Aeschylus
Money is the wise man's religion.—Euripides
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.—Voltaire
The shortest road to wealth lies in the contempt of wealth.—Seneca
If you'd know the power of money, go and borrow some.—Ben Franklin
If God has the cattle on a thousand hills, why does he
need my tithes?—Mike Burch
I found out that I was a Christian for revenue only and I could not bear the thought of that, it was so ignoble.—Mark
Twain
Where there's a Will there's a Way: the Epigrams of Will
Rogers
You can't say civilization don't advance...in every war they kill you in a new
way.
Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.
Do the best you can, and don't take life too serious.
Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you
just sit there.
Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.
Get someone else to blow your horn and the sound will carry
twice as far.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes
from bad judgment.
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't
so.
Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin'
it back in.
Liberty doesn't work as well in practice as it does in
speeches.
People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
The United States never lost a war or won a conference.
Things ain't what they used to be and never was.
What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner
minds.
If there's one thing we do worse than any other
nation, it's managing somebody else's affairs.
I have a scheme for stopping war: no nation can enter a
war till it's paid for the last one.
The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for
you if you don't let it get the best of you.
You've got to go out on a limb sometimes because that's where the fruit is.
Some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric
fence for themselves.
Woody Allen
Eighty percent of success is showing up.
My education was dismal. I went to a series of schools
for mentally disturbed teachers.
Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on
weekends.
On the plus side, death is one of the few things that
can be done just as easily lying down.
To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition.
The lion and the lamb shall lie down together but the
lamb won't get much sleep.
It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be
there when it happens.
If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that
he's evil. The worst you can say about him is that basically he's an
underachiever.
Jonathan Swift
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.
As blushing may make a whore seem virtuous, so modesty may make a fool seem sensible.
As love without esteem is capricious and volatile; esteem without love is languid and cold.
Don't set your wit against a child.
Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.
Government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.
We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution.
Martial Law: the Epigrams of Marcus Valerius Martial
There is no glory in outstripping donkeys.
Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.
If fame is to come only after death, I am in no hurry for it.
Gifts are hooks.
To the ashes of the dead glory comes too late.
To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.
Laugh, if thou art wise.
Too late is tomorrow's life; live for today.
Be content to be what you are, and prefer nothing to it, and
do not fear or wish for your last day.
Mystery and Dreams
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and all science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger,
who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
—Albert Einstein
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
—Langston Hughes
Whoever fights monsters should see to it
That in the process he does not become a monster.
If you gaze for long into an abyss,
the abyss gazes also into you.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Aging Gracefully
Live as to die tomorrow.
Learn as to live forever.
—Isadore of Seville
I like not only to be loved but also to be told that I am loved. The realm
of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and
speech. And I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear.—George
Eliot
I expect to pass this way but once; any good therefore that I can do, or any
kindness that I can show to any fellow creature. Let me do it now. Let me
not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.—Etienne Griellet
Oh God of dust and rainbows, help us see that without dust the rainbow would not be.—Langston Hughes
Dust (II)
by Michael R. Burch
We are dust
and to dust we must
return ...
but why, then,
life’s pointless sojourn?
Nota Bene: the Notable Epigrams of Ben Franklin
Little strokes fell great oaks.
Plough deep while sluggards sleep.
Vessels large may venture more, but little boats should keep near shore.
There never was a good war nor a bad peace.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Diligence is the Mother of good luck.
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.
He that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.
He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
He who multiplies riches multiplies cares.
Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?
Never confuse motion with action.
To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girl friends.
To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.
Well done is better than well said.
Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.
Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.
We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang
separately.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Immersed in Emerson: the Epigrammatic Wisdom of
Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you would lift me you must be on higher ground.
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
We are taught by great actions that the universe is the
property of every individual in it.
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own
mind.
Men live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into
which they can never enter, and with their hand on the doorlatch they die
outside.
Rumi
If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror ever get polished?
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.
When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.
Praise God for those two insomnias!
And the difference between them.
You were born with wings, so why crawl through life?
Miscellanea
Space is a dangerous place, especially if it's between your ears!—Unknown
The man who can't make mistakes, can't make anything.—Abraham Lincoln
Success comes in cans, not can't s.—Unknown
The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer but rather what they
miss.—Thomas Carlyle
When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.—Franklin D. Roosevelt
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.—Franklin D. Roosevelt
When the earth reclaims your limbs, then shall you truly dance.—Kahlil
Gibran
A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.—Henrik
Ibsen
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.—Rudyard
Kipling
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.—Helen Keller
I may disagree with what you say, but I shall defend to the death
your right to say it.—Voltaire
The hands that help are better far than the lips that pray.—Robert G. Ingersoll
There is none so blind as they that won't see.—Jonathan Swift
The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn
When teachers themselves are taught to learn.
—Bertolt Brecht
The past is history,
The future is a mystery
and now is a gift.
That's why we call it the present.
—Anonymous
Life is real! life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
—Henry W. Longfellow
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
—Henry W. Longfellow
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, —that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
—John Keats
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
Is Truth's superb surprise.
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind,
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind.
—Emily Dickinson
Of all sad words of tongue or pen
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"
—John Greenleaf Whittier
The HyperTexts