Heathen Quotes

Good quotes are good things. There are many quotes from all ages made by great thinkers which reflect the values and worldview of the Heathen way, and while many can be found online (such as most of the ones given here) many are only granted to those who hit the books and get into the seldom-visited corners of the old masterworks. I love quotes, and I thought I'd get a few together for this short post. This is a short selection of quotes that I have collected over time that reflect so well some aspect of the worldview and spiritual path that defines me as a religious being. These quotes don't just speak for me; they speak for many like me.

I don't think we (my fellow Heathens and I) will be saving the world anytime soon; to be honest, I don't think it can be saved from its date with destiny. But Fate saw fit that we should save one another from the true death which is the death of the spirit under the weight of the world's cynicism, absurdity, and materialistic dullness. With no further ado, here are some outstanding quotes that mean so much to us.

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"People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors."

-Edmund Burke


"Christianity has emptied Valhalla, felled our sacred groves, extirpated our national image as a shameful superstition, as a devilish poison, and given us instead the imagery of a nation whose climate, laws, culture and interests are strange to us, and whose history has no connection with our own. A David or a Solomon lives in our popular imagination, but our own country's heroes slumber in learned history books."

- George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel


"Fearlessness is better than a faint-heart for any man who puts his nose out of doors. The length of my life and the day of my death were fated long ago."

-Anonymous lines from 'For Scirnis'


"No man lives till eve whom the Fates doom at dawning."

-Anglo Saxon Poem


"I think Scandinavian Paganism, to us here, is more interesting than any other. It is, for one thing, the latest; it continued in these regions of Europe till the eleventh century; 800 years ago the Norwegians were still worshippers of Odin. It is interesting also as the creed of our fathers; the men whose blood still runs in our veins, whom doubtless we still resemble in so many ways."

- Thomas Carlyle


"Against stupidity, even the gods are powerless."

-Friedrich von Schiller


"The most striking difference between the philosophies of the Southwestern Indian and Western man is the manner in which each views his role in the universe. The prevailing non-Indian view is that man is superior to all other forms of life and that the universe is his to be used as he sees fit. The value placed on every other life form is determined only by its usefulness to man, an attitude justified as "the mastery of nature for the benefit of man."

The Indian view is that man is part of a delicately balanced universe in which all components -- all life forms and natural elements -- interrelate and interact, with no part being more or less important than another. Further, it is believed that only man can upset this balance.

It is a tragedy indeed that Western man in his headlong quest for Holy Progress could not have paused long enough to learn this basic truth -- one which he is now being forced to recognize, much to his surprise and dismay. Ever anxious to teach "backward" people, he has been ever reluctant to learn from them."

- Tom Bahti, Southwestern Indian Ceremonials


"I put a capital N on nature and call it my church."

-Frank Lloyd Wright


"Bad luck breaks on a stout heart."

-Cervantes


"Virtues are not accidents of nature."

-Toni Morrison


"If evil though knowest, then proclaim it to all as evil,
And make no friendship with foes. "

-Havamal


"If there's anything more powerful than Fate,
Then it's courage, which bears Fate unshaken."

-Geibel