This is one of three books of religious quotations I keep handy for preparing my sermons and other religious writings. The other two are The Quotable Spirit (Lorie & Mascetti) and Treasury of Religious Quotations (Tomlinson).

Parrinder is Emeritus Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions at the University of London. His book is the most scholarly and philosophical of the three. Many of the quotations seem to be chosen to illustrate theological positions rather than for any power to inspire. The book also has a greater emphasis on British sources than the other two.

The 3000 quotes are grouped under 177 topics. Unlike other sources which order topics alphabetically, Parrinder divides the 177 topics into 18 thematic chapters. A subject index is included for the more alphabetically inclined. However, variants of the same term (e.g. agnostic, agnosticism, and agnostics) are indexed separately. An author index is also included.

Parrinder's Christian orientation shows both in the selection of topics and in the selection of quotations. Nearly every topic starts with a quote from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and a quote from the New Testament (usually using the King James translation for both). Some of these selections seem forced, as if Parrinder feels he must include two Bible quotes for each topic. All other quotations are placed after the Bible quotes.

The sources most frequently cited (other than scriptures or founders of world religions) are: Aristotle, Augustine of Hippo, Francis Bacon, William Blake, Book of Common Prayer, Albert Camus, John Donne, Meister Eckhart, Mircea Eliade, R. W. Emerson, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Samuel Johnson, C. G. Jung, John Milton, Blaise Pascal, Plato, John Ruskin, William Shakespeare, Alfred Tennyson, Charlotte Vaudeville (on Kabir), and William Wordsworth.

An earlier edition of the book was published as A Dictionary of Religious & Spiritual Quotations.