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JOHANN GOETHE
"General, natural religion,
properly speaking, requires no faith, for the persuasion that a great
producing, regulating and conducting Being conceals himself, as it were,
behind nature, to make himself comprehensible to us. Such a conviction
forces itself upon every one. Nay, if we for a moment let drop this thread,
which conducts us through life, it may be immediately and everywhere
resumed."
(Goethe, 1882, 114)
"God, the only, Eternal,
Infinite, to whom all the splendid yet limited creatures owe their
existence."
(Ibid., 204 )
"Nothing, therefore,
remained to me but to part from this society; and as for my love for the
Holy Scriptures, as well as of the founder of Christianity and its early
professors, could not be taken from me."
(Ibid., 208)
"English, French, and Germans
had attacked the Bible with more or less violence, acuteness, audacity, and
wantonness, and just as often had it been taken under the protection of
earnest, sound-thinking men of each nation. As for myself, I loved and
valued it; for almost to it alone did I owe my moral culture: and the
events, the doctrines, the symbols. the similes, had all impressed
themselves deeply upon me and had influenced me in one way or another. These
unjust, scoffing, and perverting attacks, therefore, disgusted me."
(Ibid., 227)
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