David Foster Wallace:

There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

From The World in 2009:

Someone once accused Craig Venter of playing God.

His reply was, "We're not playing."

A joke that Ruedi Beglinger used to tell:

What's the difference between God and a mountain guide?

God doesn't think he's a mountain guide.

Colin Dickey:

It is said that from the top of Everest one can see the curve of the Earth. One has to wonder if those who make it up there -- the ones who've been willing to gamble away their humanity, who've come to kill dragons and end up becoming monsters themselves -- can also see the arc of history.

Alexander Tyler, in 1787:

The average age of the world's greatest civilization has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence. From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back into bondage.