Quotations

"Why isn't there a book about someone losing their faith and it being a beautiful experience?"

— Julia Sweeney, American actress, comedian, born October 10, 1959

"If I look over my life, every single step of maturing for me, every single one, has had the exact same common denominator: accepting what was true over what I wished were true."

— Julia Sweeney, American actress, comedian, born October 10, 1959

"It took me years, but letting go of religion has been the most profound wake up of my life. I feel I now look at the world not as a child, but as an adult. I see what's bad and it's really bad. But I also see what is beautiful, what is wonderful. And I feel so deeply appreciative that I am alive. How dare the religious use the term 'born again.' That truly describes freethinkers who've thrown off the shackles of religion so much better!"

— Julia Sweeney, American actress, comedian, born October 10, 1959

"It's not for me - religion. It seems like a redundancy for a poet."

— May Swenson, American poet, born 1913

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another."

— Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, born November 30, 1667

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible."

— Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish satirist, born November 30, 1667

"The sun, each second, transforms 4 million tons of itself into light. Human generosity is possible only because at the center of the solar system is a magnificent stellar generosity that pours forth free energy day and night without stop and without the slightest hesitation."

— Brian Swimme, American professor, cosmologist, born 1950

"In music one must think with the heart and feel with the brain."

— George Szell, Hungarian-American conductor, born June 7, 1897

"Conductors must give unmistakable and suggestive signals to the orchestra - not choreography to the audience."

— George Szell, Hungarian-American conductor, died July 30, 1970

"There are stars whose radiance is visible on Earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world even though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for humankind."

— Hannah Szenes, Hungarian Jewish poet, born 1921

"To die, so young to die. No, no, not I, I love the warm sunny skies, light, song, shining eyes, I want no war, no battle cry, No, no, not I."

— Hannah Szenes, Hungarian Jewish poet, born 1921

"The joy of writing. The power of preserving. Revenge of a mortal hand."

— Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet, born 1923

"I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order."

— Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet, born 1923

"No day copies yesterday, no two nights will teach what bliss is in precisely the same way, with precisely the same kisses."

— Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet, born 1923