“A peasant dies calmly because he is not a Christian. He performs the rituals as a matter of course, but his true religion is different. His religion is nature, with which he has lived."”
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
“Rituals are important. Nowadays it's hip not to be married. I'm not interested in being hip.”
John Lennon
“Without cultural sanction, most or all our religious beliefs and rituals would fall into the domain of mental disturbance.”
John Schumaker
“For the current of our spiritual life creeds, rituals and channels that may thwart or help, according to their fixity or openness. When a symbol or spiritual idea becomes rigidly elaborate in its construction, it supplants the idea which it should support.”
Rabindranath Tagore
“We have long forgotten the ritual by which the house of our life was erected. But when it is under assault and enemy bombs are already taking their toll, what enervated, perverse antiquities do they not lay bare in the foundations.”
Walter Benjamin
“The legal system is often a mystery, and we, its priests, preside over rituals baffling to everyday citizens.”
Henry Miller
“Modern bodybuilding is ritual, religion, sport, art, and science, awash in Western chemistry and mathematics. Defying nature, it surpasses it.”
Camille Paglia
