In preparation for the "Jesus Without Religion (Or Politics)" group, I compiled a list of quotes about Jesus from a wide variety of sources. Here's how Jesus has been spoken of by various people throughout history:
GANDHI: "I have regarded Jesus
of Nazareth as one amongst the mighty teachers that the world has had…I shall
say to the Hindus that your lives will be incomplete unless you reverently
study the teachings of Jesus." [Hingorani, p.23]
ISLAM / MOHAMMED: “Oh God, bless Your
Messenger and Your servant Jesus son of Mary. Peace be on him the day he was
born, and the day he dies, and the day he shall be raised alive! Such was
Jesus, son of Mary, (this is) a statement of the truth concerning which they
doubt.” [Quoted in the Quran and inscribed within the Dome of the Rock Temple]
NAPOLEAN: "I
know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see
a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and the gods of other
religions. That resemblance does not exist…It is not so with Christ. Everything in Him astonishes
me. His Spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and everyone
else in the world there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being
by Himself.” “I will tell you.
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself have founded great empires. But our
empires were founded on force. Jesus alone founded His empire on love, and to
this day millions would die for Him.” “I think I understand
something of human nature, and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man.
Jesus Christ was more than man.” [Hilarin
Felder, Christ and the Critics,
vol. 2, pp. 216-17]
JOSEPHUS: “Now there was about
this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a
doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with
pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles.
He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men
amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first
did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the
divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things
concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct
at this day. [Titus Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (c. 93–94 AD), Book 18, Chapter 3, 3]
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY: I believe that there
is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more manly, and
more perfect than the Saviour; I say to myself with jealous love that not only
is there no one else like Him, but that there could be no one. “[Letter To Mme.
N. D. Fonvisin (1854), as published in Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch
Dostoevsky to his Family and Friends (1914), translated by Ethel Golburn Mayne,
Letter XXI, p. 71]
CHARLES DICKENS: “My dear children, I
am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus
Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived, who was so
good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in
any way ill or miserable, as he was.” The Life of Our Lord (1849),
Chapter 1, opening paragraph.
FLORENCE
NIGHTINGALE: “Jesus Christ raised women above the condition of
mere slaves, mere ministers to the passions of the man, raised them by His
sympathy, to be Ministers of God.
- Florence Nightingale, in Cassandra (1860).
SOREN KIERKEGAARD: “There is only one eternal hope on
this earth: to follow Christ into heaven. There is one blessed joy in this
life: to follow Christ; in death there is one final blessed joy-to follow
Christ to life!” Soren Kierkegaard Upbuilding
Discourses in Various Spirits 1847, Hong 1993 p. 229
MARK
TWAIN: “If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be — a
Christian.” [1835-1910; Notebook]
H.G. WELLS: “I am not a believer, but I must
confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is
irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant
figure in all history.”
[From 'A Short History of the World']
ALBERT EINSTEIN: “I am a Jew, but I am
enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene....No one can read the
Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates
in every word. No myth is filled with such life.” [Isaacson, Walter (2007). "Einstein and
Faith"; p.47]
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