Idol Worship Quotes

• These critics with the illusions they've created about artists - it's like idol worship. They only like people when they're on their way up... I cannot be on the way up again.

  John Lennon

  Artist, Idols, People

  "John Lennon: The Last Interview". Interview with Jonathan Cott, www.rollingstone.com. December 23, 2010.

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• Many of us do not believe in any form of idolatry; but they have no right to object when others do it.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Believe, Form, Idolatry

  Swami Vivekananda (1964). “Complete Works”

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Too much faith in personality has a tendency to produce weakness and idolatry, but intense love for the Guru makes rapid growth possible.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Personality, Growth, Too Much

  Swami Vivekananda (1953). “Complete Works”

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Worship of society and popular opinion is idolatry.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Opinion, Idolatry, Worship

  Swami Vivekananda (1955). “Complete Works”

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• The world has not gone one step beyond idolatry yet.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Gone, World, Steps

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Swami Vivekananda on Himself”, p.160, Advaita Ashrama

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• This external worship of images has, however, been described in all our Shastras as the lowest of all the low forms of worship. But that does not mean that it is a wrong thing to do.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Mean, Doe, Form

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1354, Manonmani Publishers

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Some may be helped by images, some may not. Some require an image outside, others one inside the brain.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Brain, May, Idolatry

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1461, Manonmani Publishers

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Those reformers who preach against image-worship, or what they denounce as idolatry - to them I say "Brothers, if you are fit to worship God-without-form discarding all external help, do so, but why do you condemn others who cannot do the same?"

  Swami Vivekananda

  Brother, Helping, Fit

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1354, Manonmani Publishers

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The idol is the expression of religion.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Expression, Idols, Idolatry

  Swami Vivekananda (1926). “The Complete Works of the Swami Vivekananda, Comprising All His Lectures, Addresses and Discourses Delivered in Europe, America and India: All His Writings in Prose and Poetry, Together with Translations of Those Written in Bengali and Sanskrit; Reports of His Interviews and His Replies to the Various Addresses of Welcome; His Sayings and Epistles,--private and Public--original and Translated; with an Index; Carefully Revised & Edited”

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• As to the so-called Hindu idolatry - first go and learn the forms they are going through, and where it is that the worshippers are really worshipping, whether in the temple, in the image, or in the temple of their own bodies. First know for certain what they are doing - which more than ninety per cent of the revilers are thoroughly ignorant of - and then it will explain itself in the light of the Vedantic philosophy.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Philosophy, Light, Ignorant

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1740, Manonmani Publishers

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The test of having ceased to be an idolater is: "When you say 'I', does the body come into your thought or not? If it does, then you are still a worshipper of idols."

  Swami Vivekananda

  Idols, Doe, Body

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.3690, Manonmani Publishers

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Despite the many iniquities that have found entrance into the practices of image-worship as it is in vogue now, I do not condemn it. Ay, where would I have been if I had not been blessed with the dust of the holy feet of that orthodox, image-worshipping Brahmin!

  Swami Vivekananda

  Blessed, Dust, Practice

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1354, Manonmani Publishers

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The secret of image - worship is that you are trying to develop your vision of Divinity in one thing.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Secret, Vision, Trying

  Swami Vivekananda (1953). “Complete Works”

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• You become like what you worship

  N. T. Wright

  Idols, Worship, Humanness

  N. T. Wright (2011). “Revelation for Everyone”, p.92, Presbyterian Publishing Corp

  85 Copy quote

  Show source

• One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean anything horrible. It is not the mother of harlots.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Mother, Mean, India

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Chicago Addresses”, p.20, Advaita Ashrama

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We may worship a picture as God, but not God as the picture. God in the picture is right, but the picture as God is wrong. God in the image is perfectly right. There is no danger there. This is the real worship of God. But the image-God is a mere Pratika.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Real, May, Danger

  Swami Vivekananda (2016). “Addresses on Bhakti Yoga: Art of living”, p.33, editionNEXT.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are all born idolaters, and idolatry is good, because it is in the nature of man. Who can get beyond it? Only the perfect man, the God-man. The rest are all idolaters. So long as we see this universe before us, with its forms and shapes, we are all idolaters. This is a gigantic symbol we are worshipping. He who says he is the body is a born idolater.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Men, Long, Perfect

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.510, Manonmani Publishers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Revenge is the naked idol of the worship of a semi-barbarous age.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Revenge, Idols, Age

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Illustrated)”, p.1908, Delphi Classics

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• When a man makes a reverent face before a face that is no face - that is idol worship!

  Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

  Men, Idols, Faces

  "Tales of the Hasidim : The Later Masters" by Martin Buber, translated by Olga Marx, 1948.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have never heard of anyone who was a "model person" in all aspects of his or her life, intellectual life or other aspects; nor do I see why anyone should care. We are not engaged in idol worship, after all.

  Noam Chomsky

  Idols, Intellectual, Care

  Source: www.publicanthropology.org

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our Lord approved neither idol worship or idle worship but ideal worship in Spirit and truth.

  Vance Havner

  Idols, Spirit, Lord

  18 Copy quote

• My hectic work schedule does not often permit me time to visit temples, but my conversations with God don't depend on idol worship. Inside my heart, I have developed and sustained a direct communication with Him.

  Emraan Hashmi

  Communication, Heart, Idols

  5 Copy quote

• Ive had many idols growing up. The inclination for idol worship comes naturally to me. Or it did, anyway. I think Ive gotten over it. It came as naturally to me as wanting to act.

  Kevin Corrigan

  Growing Up, Thinking, Idols

  4 Copy quote

• Society must fight against this belief in God as it fought against idol worship and other narrow conceptions of religion. In this way man will try to stand on his feet. Being realistic, he will have to throw his faith aside and face all adversaries with courage and valour. That is exactly my state of mind.

  Bhagat Singh

  Fighting, Men, Idols

  Bhagat Singh, Bhupendra Hooja, Democratic Youth Federation of India (2007). “Bhagat Singh, on the path of liberation”

  81 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Sufi saint Mazhar Jaan Jana of 18th century Delhi believed that the Quran condemns bowing before deities because in pre-Islamic idol worship stones were considered god. But Hindus pray to god through that idol, which is a reflection of god. In Vedas god is nirguna and nirankara, that is, he has no attributes and no shape, that is the real belief of Hindus. As Muslims visit graves, so Hindus worship idols.

  Asghar Ali Engineer

  Real, Islamic, Reflection

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  5 Copy quote

  Show source