Moses Quotes

“I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.”
― Ronald Regan

“There are laws. There are rules. And when you break them, there are consequences. Laws of nature and laws of life. Laws of love and laws of death.”
― Amy Harmon, The Law of Moses

“I think I have a very good idea why it is that anti-Semitism is so tenacious and so protean and so enduring. Christianity and Islam, theistic though they may claim to be, are both based on the fetishizing of human primates: Jesus in one case and Mohammed in the other. Neither of these figures can be called exactly historical but both have one thing in common even in their quasi-mythical dimension. Both of them were first encountered by the Jews. And the Jews, ravenous as they were for any sign of the long-sought Messiah, were not taken in by either of these two pretenders, or not in large numbers or not for long.

If you meet a devout Christian or a believing Muslim, you are meeting someone who would give everything he owned for a personal, face-to-face meeting with the blessed founder or prophet. But in the visage of the Jew, such ardent believers encounter the very figure who did have such a precious moment, and who spurned the opportunity and turned shrugging aside. Do you imagine for a microsecond that such a vile, churlish transgression will ever be forgiven? I myself certainly hope that it will not. The Jews have seen through Jesus and Mohammed. In retrospect, many of them have also seen through the mythical, primitive, and cruel figures of Abraham and Moses. Nearer to our own time, in the bitter combats over the work of Marx and Freud and Einstein, Jewish participants and protagonists have not been the least noticeable. May this always be the case, whenever any human primate sets up, or is set up by others, as a Messiah.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“Not a believer in the mosque am I,
Nor a disbeliever with his rites am I.
I am not the pure amongst the impure,
I am neither Moses nor Pharaoh.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.

Not in the holy books am I,
Nor do I dwell in bhang or wine,
Nor do I live in a drunken haze,
Nor in sleep or waking known.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.

Not in happiness or in sorrow am I found.
I am neither pure nor mired in filthy ground.
Not of water nor of land,
Nor am I in air or fire to be found.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.

Not an Arab nor Lahori,
Not a Hindi or Nagouri,
Nor a Muslim or Peshawari,
Not a Buddhist or a Christian.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.

Secrets of religion have I not unravelled,
I am not of Eve and Adam.
Neither still nor moving on,
I have not chosen my own name!
Bulleh, I know not who I am.

From first to last, I searched myself.
None other did I succeed in knowing.
Not some great thinker am I.
Who is standing in my shoes, alone?

Bulleh, I know not who I am.”
― Bulleh Shah

“It is He Who sent down to thee, in truth, the Book (Quran), confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (Quran) (of judgment between right and wrong). - Holy Quran 3:3”
― Anonymous, القرآن الكريم

“Let me tell you the one thing I have against Moses. He took us forty years into the desert in order to bring us to the one place in the Middle East that has no oil!”
― Golda Meir

“The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries, that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion. It has been the most dishonourable belief against the character of the divinity, the most destructive to morality, and the peace and happiness of man, that ever was propagated since man began to exist. It is better, far better, that we admitted, if it were possible, a thousand devils to roam at large, and to preach publicly the doctrine of devils, if there were any such, than that we permitted one such impostor and monster as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and the Bible prophets, to come with the pretended word of God in his mouth, and have credit among us.

Whence arose all the horrid assassinations of whole nations of men, women, and infants, with which the Bible is filled; and the bloody persecutions, and tortures unto death and religious wars, that since that time have laid Europe in blood and ashes; whence arose they, but from this impious thing called revealed religion, and this monstrous belief that God has spoken to man? The lies of the Bible have been the cause of the one, and the lies of the Testament of the other.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

“The character of Moses, as stated in the Bible, is the most horrid that can be imagined. If those accounts be true, he was the wretch that first began and carried on wars on the score or on the pretence of religion; and under that mask, or that infatuation, committed the most unexampled atrocities that are to be found in the history of any nation. Of which I will state only one instance:

When the Jewish army returned from one of their plundering and murdering excursions, the account goes on as follows (Numbers xxxi. 13): 'And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp; and Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle; and Moses said unto them, 'Have ye saved all the women alive?' behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore, 'kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known a man by lying with him; but all the women- children that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for Yourselves.'

Among the detestable villains that in any period of the world have disgraced the name of man, it is impossible to find a greater than Moses, if this account be true. Here is an order to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers, and debauch the daughters.

Let any mother put herself in the situation of those mothers, one child murdered, another destined to violation, and herself in the hands of an executioner: let any daughter put herself in the situation of those daughters, destined as a prey to the murderers of a mother and a brother, and what will be their feelings?

In short, the matters contained in this chapter, as well as in many other parts of the Bible, are too horrid for humanity to read, or for decency to hear.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

“If the people of Europe had known as much of astronomy and geology when the bible was introduced among them, as they do now, there never could have been one believer in the doctrine of inspiration. If the writers of the various parts of the bible had known as much about the sciences as is now known by every intelligent man, the book never could have been written. It was produced by ignorance, and has been believed and defended by its author. It has lost power in the proportion that man has gained knowledge. A few years ago, this book was appealed to in the settlement of all scientific questions; but now, even the clergy confess that in such matters, it has ceased to speak with the voice of authority. For the establishment of facts, the word of man is now considered far better than the word of God. In the world of science, Jehovah was superseded by Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. All that God told Moses, admitting the entire account to be true, is dust and ashes compared to the discoveries of Descartes, Laplace, and Humboldt. In matters of fact, the bible has ceased to be regarded as a standard. Science has succeeded in breaking the chains of theology. A few years ago, Science endeavored to show that it was not inconsistent with the bible. The tables have been turned, and now, Religion is endeavoring to prove that the bible is not inconsistent with Science. The standard has been changed.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses

“I don't remember Moses writing, 'Thou shalt not kill.. unless you think you have a good reason.”
― Willie Nelson, The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart, Library Edition

“Each of those churches shows certain books, which they call revelation, or the Word of God. The Jews say that their Word of God was given by God to Moses face to face; the Christians say, that their Word of God came by divine inspiration; and the Turks say, that their Word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from heaven. Each of those churches accuses the other of unbelief; and, for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

“As the Qur’an itself had quoted Moses to declare (and as Muhammad had cited in his final letter to the assassin Musailimah): “The earth belongs to the Loving Divine, who allots it to whomever He wills; yet the most lasting legacy will be the enduring impact of those who have action-based hope.” Tellingly, when Al-Mansur inaugurated his new capital, the cornerstone of Baghdad featured that very verse etched for all to see.”
― Mohamad Jebara, The Life of the Qur'an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy

“All questions of right to one side, I have never been able to banish the queasy inner suspicion that Israel just did not look, or feel, either permanent or sustainable. I felt this when sitting in the old Ottoman courtyards of Jerusalem, and I felt it even more when I saw the hideous 'Fort Condo' settlements that had been thrown up around the city in order to give the opposite impression. If the statelet was only based on a narrow strip of the Mediterranean littoral (god having apparently ordered Moses to lead the Jews to one of the very few parts of the region with absolutely no oil at all), that would be bad enough. But in addition, it involved roosting on top of an ever-growing population that did not welcome the newcomers.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“These opportunities, then, gave these men the chance they needed, and their great abilities made them recognize it.”
― Machiavelli Niccolo

“The only thing I know about Moses is him coming down from the mountain with the commandments and saying 'The good news is I got him down to 10. The bad news is adultery is still in.”
― Steve Kluger, Last Days of Summer

“Moses’ epic achievement is establishing a divinely inspired system for provoking both Abrahamic critical thinking (Hanif ) and channeling it toward restorative growth (Muslim). This system, embodied in a scripture called the Torah (“instruction” or “guidance”), had to be accessible and practical for ordinary people, with structures designed to assist free-thinkers to unleash their individual potential. Not surprisingly, Moses finds the generation of emancipated slaves quite set in their ways despite the dramatic exodus from Egypt. He ultimately concentrates his energies on training a new generation of disciples—“Only the youth among Moses’ people were open to his mes- sage” (10:83).”
― Mohamad Jebara, The Life of the Qur'an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy

“I am who I am', said God to Moses regarding His name,
because none was worth to be compared to His godhead.”
― Toba Beta

“You all talk like somebody else made these laws and Pharaoh don't know nothing about 'em. He makes 'em his own self and he's glad when we come tell him they hurt. Why, that's a whole lot of pleasure to him, to be making up laws all the time and to have a crowd like us around handy to pass all his mean ones on. Why, he's got a law about everything under the sun! Next thing you know, he'll be saying cats can't have kittens. He figures that it makes a big man out of him to be passing and passing laws and rules. He thinks that makes him look more like a king.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Moses, Man of the Mountain

“1:1. Moses. In the Hebrew Bible's picture of human history, Moses is the first great man—and the first great leader.”
― Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah

“1:1. the words that Moses spoke. In developing from a man of actions to a man of words, Moses imitates God. The Tanak depicts God as becoming more and more hidden over the course of history. In the first books of the Bible God apperas to humans, is seen and heard at Sinai, makes His presence known through miracles, angels, and the column of cloud and fire. But these visible signs of divine action in history disappear from the story one by one. And by the last books of the Tanak, there are no angels or miracles. The words of "YHWH appeared to" and "YHWH spoke to" do not occur to anyone. Instead, the priest Ezra reads the Torah aloud to the people. In the place of the acts of God there is the word of God. When the Torah pictures Moses ending his life in words, he imitates and prefigures the transformation of the human experience of God that will occur in the Bible.”
― Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah

“Musa ho, isaa ho , ya khatmun-nabi Mohammad
Ae aadam, ae Abraham teri aualado ke dil ki gaflate mitaa

—Wajid shaikh


Be you Moses, Jesus Christ, or Muhammad divine,
O Adam, O Abraham, in your grace we entwine,
Forgive the hearts of your kin, let your light shine.”

—Wajid Shaikh

Translation:
"Whether you are Moses, Jesus, or the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad,
O Adam, O Abraham, erase the errors of your descendants' hearts."

Explanation:

This verse appears to be expressing a plea to figures from various religious traditions, such as Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and the final Prophet, Muhammad. It suggests a desire for them to help remove the mistakes or sins from the hearts of their descendants. It reflects a universal and spiritual message of seeking guidance, forgiveness, and purity in the context of different religious beliefs.”
― Wajid Shaikh

“Weren’t we supposed to be serving food?” Theodore suddenly asked, standing up from his chair. “Who was in charge of that?”

“Moses,” Reed said, his smile sharp. “Did none of you idiots think it was strange he volunteered to do everything? I don’t even want to see what he deemed worthy for us to eat.”
― Jane Washington, Plier

“Neither the gallows of cruel dictators nor armies in armor with swords in their hands could stop Musa.
The grief and mourning in the eyes of his starving people could not deter Musa, who was also hungry.
People's ignorance, ingratitude and betrayal could not distract him from his ideals.
He fought day and night for his people's salvation, freedom, independence, for their right to be born, right to breathe, right to live, right to a piece of bread, and right to their homeland, thereby become a full human.”
― Jeyhun Aliyev Silo, The Quranic Israel The Islamic Zionism

“Moses, the survivor of the first genocide ever, the son of Israel Nabi, smitten with Jerusalem, the spring of miracles, the separator of the sea, the free man, the brave man, the great teacher, the great Messenger, the great human, and a heartbroken man, fought until the end.
However, while the Sons of Israel Nabi wandered in the desert, Musa, Kalimullah, reunited with Lord Creator, without uniting with Jerusalem, the earthly Paradise of the Sons of Israel Nabi.
But he succeeded to leave a great school, one of the greatest heritages in history, to humankind: Zionism, the passionate love to Lord Almighty and motherland.”
― Jeyhun Aliyev Silo, The Quranic Israel The Islamic Zionism

“Musa succeeded to leave a great school, one of the greatest heritages in history, to humankind: Zionism, the passionate love to Lord Almighty and motherland.”
― Jeyhun Aliyev Silo, The Quranic Israel The Islamic Zionism

“Though the Israelis rejected fighting for Jerusalem, Allah Almighty would not cancel the mission. During their 40 years in the desert, Musa and Harun would grow a new generation, the divine role-model society who believed in Lord Creator and His orders, and were thirsty for jihad and qital for their motherland.”
― Jeyhun Aliyev Silo, The Quranic Israel The Islamic Zionism

“Finally, Moses Kalimullah gathered an Israeli army and initiated the Zionist war to conquer the whole Holy Land.”
― Jeyhun Aliyev Silo, The Quranic Israel The Islamic Zionism

“Allah rewarded the Sons of Israel Nabi with the Musawi revelation, the Divine Zionism, and the Musawi Shariah (commandments) in Sinai and Tuwa, the Holy Land”
― Jeyhun Aliyev Silo, The Quranic Israel The Islamic Zionism

“Moses came down from the mount and told people that murder, theft, and perjury were wrong, and all the assembled rolled their collective eyes. "We already knew that!" But the problem is that ancient man didn't know that, and modern man still doesn't know it. To state some of the issues that are subsumed under just one of the three categories you mention is to point to controversies that continue down to this day. Consider some of the issues clustered under the easiest of these to condemn --murder. We have abortion, infanticide, partial-birth abortion, euthanasia, genocide, stem-cell research, capital punishment, and unjust war. Murder is the big E on the eye chart, and we still can't see it that clearly.”
― Douglas Wilson, Is Christianity Good for the World?

“People are not always good ambassadors for God. But Hulda held firm. To her last breath, she praised him. And I saw in her what I had never seen in empty religious observance. I saw the joy that comes from the presence of God."
Roxannah crossed her arms over her belly. "Even when she was dying?"
"Even as she lay dying. One night, toward the end, as I sat by her bed, weeping, she laid her hand on my head. 'Adin, you must be like Moses,' she said. I stopped my sniveling and stared at her in shock. She had not spoken for several days by then. 'Moses?' I stammered."
Roxannah gave him a puzzled look.
"He is our greatest prophet," Aden explained. "Hulda said, 'Remember how God spoke to Moses mouth to mouth? You must learn to speak to him like that.'"
"What does that mean?"
"In our language, speaking mouth to mouth is an expression of closeness. It means you are on intimate terms with someone. Friends who share their hearts openly. God spoke to Moses mouth to mouth. With the familiarity of a friend. Hulda wanted me to understand that true faith leads to that kind of friendship with God.”
― Tessa Afshar, The Queen's Cook