Once the creator was removed from the creation, divinity became only a remote abstraction, a social weapon in the hands of the religious institutions. This split in public values produced or was accompanied by, as it was bound to be, an equally artificial and ugly division in people's lives, so that a man, while pursuing Heaven with the sublime appetite he thought of as his soul, could turn his heart against his neighbors and his hands against the world.. Though Heaven is certainly more important than the earth if all they say about it is true, it is still morally incidental to it and dependent on it, and I can only imagine it and desire it in terms of what I know of the earth. (pg. 23, "A Native Hill") .Wendell Berry
About This Quote
It is the belief that the earth is the center of the universe and that we are here to pursue our own happiness. It’s like believing in a god that only you can see and that makes you better than your family, friends and neighbors. Chances are that you’re going to be doing more harm than good, but you will also be lonely, sad and lonely. You will always be an outsider because you aren’t going to get along with anyone else.
Some Similar Quotes
- You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.
- Do people look the same when they go to heaven, mommy?"" I don't know. I don't think so."" Then how do people recognize each other?"" I don't know, sweetie. They just feel it. You don't need your eyes to love, right?
- I think Heaven will be like a first kiss.
- Earth's crammed with heaven... But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.
- Maybe there is no Heaven. Or maybe this is all pure gibberish–a product of the demented imagination of a lazy drunken hillbilly with a heart full of hate who has found a way to live out where the real winds blow–to sleep late, have fun,...
More Quotes By Wendell Berry
- Don't own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.
- What I stand for is what I stand on.
- The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. It's proper use...
- Until modern times, we focused a great deal of the best of our thought upon rituals of return to the human condition. Seeking enlightenment or the Promised Land or the way home, a man would go or be forced to go into the wilderness, measure...
- I take literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world. I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed...