Humanist Quotes - Page 2

• A final victory is an accumulation of many short-term encounters. To lightly dismiss a success because it does not usher in a complete order of justice is to fail to comprehend the process of achieving full victory.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Order, Justice, Victory

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

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• Our humanist attitude should therefore throughout be to stress what we all have in common with each other and relegate quarrelsome religion to the private domain where it can do [less] harm.

  Hermann Bondi

  Attitude, Stress, Common

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• To be a 'believer' does not make you superior to others; but to be a 'humanist' does make it so!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Doe, Believer, Superiors

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• Humanism involves far more than the negation of supernaturalism. It requires an affirmative philosophy . . . translated into a life devoted to one's own improvement and the service of all mankind.

  Corliss Lamont

  Philosophy, Improvement, Mankind

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• Confucius was a humanist and an agnostic.

  Hu Shih

  Agnostic

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• Yet humanitarianism is not a purely Christian movement any more than it is a purely humanist one

  Christopher Dawson

  Christian, Movement, Literature

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• There is no evidence that God ever interfered in the affairs of man. The hand of earth is stretched uselessly towards heaven. From the clouds there comes no help.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Men, Clouds, Hands

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1216, Library of Alexandria

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• Humanism is a philosophy of joyous service for the greater good of all humanity, of application of new ideas of scientific progress for the benefit of all.

  Linus Pauling

  Philosophy, Ideas, Humanity

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• Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests.

  Isaac Asimov

  Thinking, People, Needs

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• Power is the flower of organization.

  A. Philip Randolph

  Flower, Organization

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• To me, a feminist belong in the same category as a humanist or an advocate for human rights. I don't see why someone who's a feminist should be thought of differently.

  Suzanne Vega

  Inspirational, Motivational, Rights

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• As with military campaigns, cultural warfare is always decided over the pragmatic problems of strategy, organization and resources. . . . The factions with the best strategies, most efficient organization, and access to resources will plainly have the advantage and very possibly, the ultimate victory.

  James Davison Hunter

  Military, Organization, Victory

  James Davison Hunter (1992). “Culture Wars: The Struggle To Control The Family, Art, Education, Law, And Politics In America”, p.64, Basic Books

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• 

  A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

  David Hume

  Wise, Wisdom, Knowledge

  1748 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section 10, pt.1.

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• It was the schoolboy who said, ""Faith is believing what you know ain't so.""

  Mark Twain

  Faith, Atheist, Believe

  Following the Equator ch. 12, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897)

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• Strange a God who mouths Golden Rules and forgiveness, then invented hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none Himself; who frowns upon crimes yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon Himself; and finally with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship Him!

  Mark Twain

  Atheist, Responsibility, Men

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• I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say that one is an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or agnostic. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.

  Isaac Asimov

  Atheist, Science, Years

  Free Inquiry Journal, Spring 1982.

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• I have no notions of a perfect society, I don’t know what that means. I know we can do much better than what we’ve got, I’m no utopian, I’m not a humanist that would like to see everybody living in warmth and harmony: I know that if we don’t live that way, we’ll kill each other and destroy the Earth.

  Jacque Fresco

  Mean, Perfect, Earth

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• No, not a feminist. I'm a humanist. I'm neither one side nor the other.

  David Attenborough

  Feminist, Sides

  "Sir David Attenborough interview: The one question about life that still baffles him". Interview with Jenn Selby, www.independent.co.uk. January 28, 2015.

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• I would define myself as a Marxian, and that means of course also as a humanist.

  Erich Fromm

  Mean, Courses

  Source: www.scribd.com

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• Intelligence, guided by kindness, is the highest wisdom. . . .

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Kindness, Highest

  Joseph Lewis, Robert Green Ingersoll (1957). “Ingersoll the Magnificent: To which Has Been Added a Special Arrangement of Some Gems from Ingersoll for Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage”

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• We have to claim anarchy and realize that systems have a life of their own that is anti-humanist. There is definitely an anti-humanist tendency in all systems.

  Terence McKenna

  Anarchy, Realizing, Claims

  "Psychedelic Society". Terence McKenna's speech at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, February 1984.

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• . . . the weal of the race, and the cause of humanity, here and now, are enough To give life meaning and death as well.

  Edgar Lee Masters

  Race, Giving, Humanity

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• The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection.

  Irving Babbitt

  Sympathy, Balance, Selection

  Irving Babbitt (1908). “Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities”

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• I'm a humanist; I'd rather kill a man than a snake.

  Edward Abbey

  Men, Snakes

  Edward Abbey (1968). “Desert Solitaire”, p.17, Simon and Schuster

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• Jewish intellectuals contributed a great deal to insure that Europe became a continent of humanism, and it is with these humanist ideals that Europe must now intervene in the Middle East conflict.

  Daniel Barenboim

  Europe, Middle East, Conflict

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