Nam tibi carior est ille filius equae quam ille filius Dei? Is this son of a mare dearer to you, then, than that son of God?

-St Aidan
c.645  To King Oswin of Deira, who had objected when  Aidan gave to a beggar a horse which he had received as a gift from the king. Quoted in Bede Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis  Anglorum (731), bk.3, ch.14.

   Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit. We should not listen to those who like to affirm that the voice of the people is the voice of God, for the tumult of the masses is truly close to madness.

-Alcuin
  Letter to Charlemagne.

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.

-Alexander, Cecil Frances
  'All Things Bright and Beautiful'.

The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, And ordered their estate.

-Alexander, Cecil Frances
  'All Things Bright and Beautiful'.

Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends.

-Allen,Woody pseudonym of  Allen Stewart Konigsberg
  'My Philosophy', in the NewYorker, 27 Dec.

When Iwas10,I expresslygave God oneyear tomanifest himself. He didn't.

-Almodo¤  var, Pedro
  In The Guardian,7 May.

CromwellsaidtotheLong Parliament whenhethought it wasno longer fitto conducttheaffairs of thenation,'You havesattoolong hereforanygood youhavebeendoing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!'

-Amery, Leo(pold) Charles Maurice Stennett
  Remark addressed to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, House of Commons,7 May.

The nearer the Church, the further from God.

-Andrewes, Lancelot
  Of the Nativity, sermon15.

Thegloryof God isman, and thegloryof manishisdress.

-Anonymous
c.450  Babylonian Talmud. Quoted in Barton Stevenson (ed)  The Macmillan Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Famous Phrases (1948).

Not what thou arte, ne what thou hast ben, beholdeth God with his mercyful iye; bot that thou woldest be.

-Anonymous
c.1370  The Cloud of Unknowing, ch.75.

O God in Heaven, on you we call, Kyrie eleison, Help us seize our priests and kill them all, Kyrie eleison.

-Anonymous
  Satirical chant. Quoted in Gerald Strauss Manifestations of Discontent in Germany on the Eve of the Reformation (1971).

   Back and side go bare, go bare, Both foot and hand go cold; But, belly,God send thee good ale enough, Whether it be new or old.

-Anonymous
c.1575  Song, included in the play Gammer Gurton's Needle, act 2. William Stevenson (c.1530^75) and John Still (1543^1608) have both been credited with authorship of the play, but the song probably predates it.

   Flavit deus et dissipati sunt God blew and they were scattered.

-Anonymous
  Inscription on medallion to commemorate the English defeat of the Spanish  Armada.

   The rose is red, the leaves are green, God save Elizabeth, our noble queen.

-Anonymous
 Lines written by a Westminster schoolboy in the margin of his copy of Julius Caesar. Quoted in P  W Hasler (ed)  The House of Commons,1558^1603 (vol.1), p.474.

Four and twenty Yankees, feeling very dry, Went across the border to get a drink of rye. When the rye was opened, theYanks began to sing, 'God bless America, but God save the King!'

-Anonymous
c.1919  Ditty current in Canada, referring to  Americans crossing the border to drink during Prohibition. The Duke of  Windsor, later Edward VIII, heard it during his tour of Canada (1919) and repeatedit to his father, George V, onhis return, as he recalledin A King's Story (1951).

Dear Sir, your astonishment's odd: I am always about in the Quad. And that's why the tree Will continue to be Since observed by Yours faithfully,God. See Knox 476:22.

-Anonymous
c.1924  Reply to Ronald Knox's limerick. The limericks summarize Bishop George Berkeley's philosophy that everything is dependent at all times on the will of God.

   Dieu est avec tout le monde† Et, en fin de compte, il est toujours avec ceux qui ont beaucoup d'argent et de grosses arme¤  es. God is on everyone's side† And, in the last analysis, he is on the side with plenty of money and large armies.

-Anouilh,Jean
  L'Alouette ( The Lark).

Kill them all.God will recognize his own.

-Arnald Amaury   d.1225
  Quoted in Caeserius of Heisterbach Dialogus Miraculorum (c.1233), bk.5, ch.21. Cited and translated in  Jonathon Sumpton The Albigensian Crusade (1978), ch.6.

A God, a God their severance ruled! And bade betwixt their shores to be The unplumbed, salt, estranging sea.

-Arnold, Matthew
  Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems,'To MargueriteöContinued', l.22^4.

The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light† He who works for sweetness and light united, works to make reason and the will of God prevail.

-Arnold, Matthew
  Culture and  Anarchy, ch.1.