Pascal’s wager

418. [...] Let us the examine this point, and let us say: ‘Either God is or he is not’. But to which view shall we be inclined? Reason cannot decide this question. Infinite chaos separate us. At the far end of this infinite distance a coin is being spun which will come down heads or tails. How will you wager? 

[...]Let us weigh up the gain and the loss involved in calling heads that God exists. Let us asses the two cases: if you win you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing.

[...] I tell you that you will gain even in this life, and that at every step you take along this road you will see that your gain is so certain and your risk so negligible that in the end you will realize that you have wagered on something certain and infinite for which you have paid nothing.

Blaise Pascal - Pensées 

The Silence

 An interviewer once asked Mother Teresa what she says to God when she prays ‘I don’t say anything’ she replied. ‘I just listen.’ Then the interviewer asked her what God says to her. ‘He doesn’t say anything’ said Mother Theresa. ‘He just listens. And if you don’t understand that, I can’t explain it to you.’

Joseph Goldstein - Mindfulness

Thales of Miletus maxims

The most ancient of beings: God, for he is uncreated.
The most beautiful thing: the universe, for it is god’s creation.
The largest thing: space, for it contains all things.
The quickest thing: mind, for it runs through everything.
The strongest thing: necesety, for it masters everything.
The wisest thing: time, for it discovers everything.

Diogenes Laertius - Lives of the eminent philosophers

Whatever happens

whatever happens
to the world around
show me your purpose
show me your source

even if the world
is Godless and in chaos
show me your anchor
show me your love

if there is hunger
if there is famine
show me your harvest
show me your resource

if life is bitter
everywhere snakes everywhere poison
show me your garden
show me your meadow

if the sun and the moon fall
if darkness rules the world
show me your light
show me your flame

if I have no mouth
or tongue to utter
words of your secrets
show me your fountain

i'll keep silence
How can i express
your life when mine
still is untold

Rumi - Poems

The power of the prayer

I constantly commend myself to the mercy of God. Those freethinkers who say that the prayer is of no use do not know what they are talking about. I know that after praying to God I always felt stronger; and that is enough to prove its usefulness, whether the increase in strength comes directly from God or is a physical result of one's confidence in him.

Giacomo Casanova - History of my life (4, 13)

Loving God even as a sinner

Belief in Eternal Providence on the part of most of those who live by practices forbidden by laws or religion is neither absurd nor feigned nor the fruit of hypocrisy; it is true, real, and, such as it is, pious, for its source is unimpeachable. Whatever ways it takes, it is always Providence which acts, and those who worship it regardless of everything else can only be good souls though guilty of sinning.

Giacomo Casanova - History of my life (2, 1)

Freedom versus destiny

Man is a free agent; but he is not free if he does not believe it, for the more power he attributes to Destiny, the more he deprives himself of the power which God granted him when he gave him reason.

Giacomo Casanova - History of my life

Quantum physics in Montaigne

There is some element of multiplicity within every species; it seems unlikely,  therefore, that God made only this one universe and no other like it, or that all the matter available for this Form should have been exhausted on this one Particular.

Michel de Montaigne - An apology for Raymond Sebond (The Complete Essays, II, 12)

God is envious

' You know, my lord, that amongst living creatures it is the great ones that God smites with his thunder, nor does he allow them to show off. The little ones do not vex him. It is always the great buildings and the tall trees which are struck by lightning. It is God's way to bring the lofty low. Often a great army is destroyed by a little one, when God in his envy puts fear into the men's hearts, or sends a thunderstorm, and they are cut to pieces in a way they not deserve. For God tolerates pride in none but Himself '

Herodotus - Histories (VII, 10ef)