Ten Favorite Literature Quotes About God

Putting books on shelves these days after a year of taking them down from our built ins at the old house. Moving into a new one makes me feel the books are new, too. 

Looking at Wuthering Heights reminded me of some of my favorite quotes in literature (from Beats and others) about God - so wanted to share them with you.

10--from Jack Kerouac's Lonesome Traveler

"For when you realized that God is Everything you know that you've got to love everything no matter how bad it is, in the ultimate sense it was neither good nor bad (consider the dust), it was just what was, that is, what we made to appear."

9. From Allen Ginsberg's Kaddish and Other Poems

"Naomi: ‘And when we die we become an onion, a cabbage, a carrot, or a squash, a vegetable.’ I come downtown from Columbia and agree. She reads the Bible, thinks beautiful thoughts all day.
‘Yesterday I saw God. What did he look like? Well, in the afternoon I climbed up a ladder—he has a cheap cabin in the country, like Monroe, N.Y. the chicken farms in the wood. He was a lonely old man with a white beard.
‘I cooked supper for him. I made him a nice supper—lentil soup, vegetables, bread & butter—miltz—he sat down at the table and ate, he was sad. 
‘I told him, Look at all those fightings and killings down there, What’s the matter? Why don’t you put a stop to it?
‘I try, he said—That’s all he could do, he looked tired. He’s a bachelor so long, and he likes lentil soup.” 

I could quote the entire poem, I love it so much, and remember weeping the first time I read it. So much of Ginsberg's relationship with his mother rings true and the entire poem is a knockout. But this one quote gives me an idea of how the mother and son connected, whether or not it was true. 

8. From Psalm 90:12

"Teach Us How to Number Our Days, that We May Get Us a Heart of Wisdom."

Psalm 90:12 reminds me daily that time (and space) are limited, and that living with compassion and kindness are the wisdom part you get after you realize how limited your time will be here.

7. From Allen Ginsberg's Death and Fame: Last Poems, 1993-1997

“I know I'm not God, are you? Don't be silly.

God? God? Everybody's God? Don't be silly.”

Amen.

6. From the song "What if God was One of Us?" by Eric M. Bazilian

What if God was one of us, ust a slob like one of us, Just a stranger on the bus, Tryin' to make his way home?...

...Nobody calling on the phone, 'Cept for the Pope maybe, in Rome.

Because we always want to believe that God is with us, somehow, somewhere. I think the song conveys that perfectly.

5. From Walker Percy interviews Walker Percy - when asked about his comment that his belief is a gift from God

"You want me to explain it? How would I know? The only answer I can give is that I asked for it, in fact demanded it. I took it as an intolerable state of affairs to have found myself in this life and in this age, which is a disaster by any calculation, without demanding a gift commensurate with the offense. So I demanded it. No doubt other people feel differently."

I'm not Catholic -- but whenever I'm in a philosophical mood about belief, I read Walker Percy. He always seems to articulate my feelings in ways no one else does -- and I too, cannot explain it except to say he gets it right, every time. 

4. From Martin Buber's Tales of the Hasidim

A rabbi named Zusya died and went to stand before the judgment seat of God. As he waited for God to appear, he grew nervous thinking about his life and how little he had done. He began to imagine that God was going to ask him, "Why weren't you Moses or why weren't you Solomon or why weren't you David?" But when God appeared, the rabbi was surprised. God simply asked, "Why weren't you Zusya?"

Because we were meant to be ourselves. Right?

3. From Isak Dinesen's take on the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel in Out of Africa

 "My life, I will not let you go except you bless me, but then I will let you go."

How many times a day do I feel this way? Too many to count.

2. My second-best favorite is something I can only quote from memory - I cannot locate it but know it is from a play about Jacquiline du Pre, a cellist stricken with multiple sclerosis. She is talking about God and says she doesn't believe, but when she hears music, she knows where the idea came from.

Wrestling myself these days with belief and other things, so a reminder of how music works on us nonverbally is most welcome.

1. From Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

"I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy."

Why is this my favorite? Something about Cathy Earnshaw's stubborn insistence that the life she has on earth is better than anything else that could be imagined; something about her passion and defiance of the norms of her time, and even our time. I love that there was a heaven, first of all, and that she rebelled against being there, requesting another kind of heaven. I love that the angels got tired of her and threw her out.

I just love that.

And if you have your own quotes you want to send, I'd love that too.

Photo of moors: Chris Combe


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