How does the universe come to exist?What is the nature of its creator?Is there a purpose to human existence?What is it to live a good life?The Routledge Dictionary of Religious and Spiritual Quotations offers not justone answer to these questions, but many.The fundamental questions concerning God and Man are as old as humanity,finding new expressions and answers in every society and age. The revealedworld of Jehovah, Allah and Krishna, of Christ, Mohammad and the Buddha andthe inspiration of religious and mystic experience have produced the world’srichest and most extensive literature. In this collection of over 3000 quotationsyou will discover the diversity of that literature and the fertility of religiousthought, experience and practice throughout history. Geoffrey Parrinder hasdrawn on all the great books of the world’s religions—the Bible, Qur’an,Zoroastrian Gathas, Hindu Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, Jewish Mishnah, Sikh AdiGranth and Chinese Tao Te Ching. Read the words of prophets, scholars andmystics on the nature of the divine, the ethics of human conduct and the puzzlesof mortality, resurrection and life after death. Here too are the thoughts of thereligious and irreligious on matters spiritual and moral, from Plato on sexuality,Freud on the origins of religion, and William Blake on angels to Omar Khayyamon fate, Confucius on poverty and Gandhi on violence.