Belief must be something different from a mixture of opinions about God and the world, and of precepts for one life or for two. Piety cannot be an instinct craving for a mess of metaphysical and ethical crumbs.
Interpretation
Belief transcends mere opinions and rituals; it requires a deeper understanding of spirituality.
In this quote, Friedrich Schleiermacher emphasizes that true belief is not merely a collection of personal opinions or ethical guidelines. It suggests that genuine faith should emerge from a profound understanding and connection to the divine, rather than superficial or fragmented ideas about God and morality.
In practice
During a debate on spirituality, one might use this quote to illustrate the difference between genuine belief and mere opinion.
The first, that their pretensions to this possession of an art properly so called in their art of speaking are entirely unfounded; and the second, that they are involved in a profound mistake in their confusion of the good with the pleasant.
Whenever I find a spark of that hidden fire that will sooner or later consume the old and create the new, I am drawn to it with love and hope, regarding it as a sign of my future home.
Either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as is possible, and moves the reader towards him: or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him.
The essence of the religious emotions consists in the feeling of an absolute dependence.
Now the relation which, in the sphere of nature, being and semblance or sensation bear to one another in this antithesis, is the same as that which in ethics exists between good and pleasure or feeling.
The essence of religion consists in the feeling of an absolute dependence.
When I am silent, I have thunder hidden inside.
But mostly they were lies I told; it wasn't my fault, I couldn't remember, because it was as though I'd been to one of those supernatural castles visited by characters in legends: once away, you do not remember, all that is left is the ghostly echo of haunting wonder.
Life's errors cry for the merciful beauty that can modulate their isolation into a harmony with the whole.
Great and good are seldom the same man.
They devour each other and cannot even digest themselves.
Bent out of shape from society's pliers, cares not to come up any higher, but rather get you down in the hole that he's in.
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