Proselytizing Quotes

• Man is emphatically a proselytizing creature.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Nature, Men, Humanity

  Thomas Carlyle (2009). “Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdrockh: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.10, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• I don't think we should discriminate against an organization or congregation because they're religious, if they're doing good work. But government can't subsidize proselytizing or worship or religious activity. It can't.

  Jim Wallis

  Religious, Thinking, Organization

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• The act of bell ringing is symbolic of all proselytizing religions. It implies the pointless interference with the quiet of other people.

  Ezra Pound

  People, Church, Literature

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• Evangelization does not consist in proselytizing, for proselytizing is a caricature of evangelization, but rather evangelizing entails attracting by our witness those who are far off, it means humbly drawing near to those who feel distant from God in the Church, drawing near to those who feel judged and condemned outright by those who consider themselves to be perfect and pure.

  Pope Francis

  Mean, Drawing, Perfect

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• Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already have. It is a search for a final and irrefutable demonstration that our absolute truth is indeed the one and only truth. The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others.

  Eric Hoffer

  Society, Desire, World

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• Missionaries in the developing world waste a lot of time and money (not to mention the goodwill of non-Christians) proselytizing to the needy. . . . While missionaries do many noble things at great risk to themselves, their dogmatism still spreads ignorance and death. By contrast, volunteers for secular organizations . . . do not waste . . . time telling people about the virgin birth of Jesus. Nor do they tell people in sub-Saharan Africa - where nearly four million people die from AIDS every year - that condom use is sinful.

  Sam Harris

  Christian, Jesus, Ignorance

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• For at least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols

  Aldous Huxley

  Religious, Spring, Idols

  Aldous Huxley (2003). “Huxley and God: Essays on Religious Experience”, Crossroad 8 Avenue

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• The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others. The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse.

  Eric Hoffer

  Legitimacy, Creeds, Impulse

  Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

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• How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?

  Penn Jillette

  Hate, Everlasting Life

  "A Gift of a Bible". "Penn Says" episode 192, December 09, 2008.

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• Starting out from the fact that the frustrated predominate among the early adherents of all mass movements and that they usually join of their own accord, it is assumed: 1) that frustration of itself, without any proselytizing prompting from the outside, can generate most of the peculiar characteristics of the true believer; 2) that an effective technique of conversion consists basically in the inculcation and fixation of proclivities and responses indigenous to the frustrated mind.

  Eric Hoffer

  Frustration, Frustrated, Mind

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Contributing to others, not converting others, but for those who are interested, going where invited, speaking when asked, teaching when asked and so on, not proselytizing and missionary-izing. Not shoving the truth down people's throats, as if we know what's good for them. But being open when asked, when appropriate, and being very inclusive and open minded.

  Surya Das

  Teaching, People, Missionary

  Source: theindiespiritualist.com

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• The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

  Winston Churchill

  Children, Men, Law

  Winston Churchill (2012). “Churchill: The Power of Words”, p.50, Da Capo Press

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• How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is a fateful fatalistic apathy.

  Winston Churchill

  Dog, Men, Muslim Faith

  "The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan (Volume II)". Book by Winston Churchill, 1899.

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• If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell . . . how much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?

  Penn Jillette

  Hate, Believe, Heaven

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• If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell—or not getting eternal life or whatever—and you think that, well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward. . . . How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?

  Penn Jillette

  Life, Faith, Hate

  "A Gift of a Bible". "Penn Says" episode 192, videolog on Crackle.com, December 9, 2008.

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• Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

  Winston Churchill

  Muslim Faith, Agriculture, Religion Of Islam

  Winston Churchill (2012). “Churchill: The Power of Words”, p.50, Da Capo Press

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• How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.

  Winston Churchill

  Dog, Men, Agriculture

  Winston Churchill (2012). “Churchill: The Power of Words”, p.50, Hachette UK

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• Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die: but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.

  Winston Churchill

  Strong, Queens, Fall

  "The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan (Volume II)". Book by Winston Churchill, 1899.

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• No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.

  Winston Churchill

  Muslim Faith, Islam, Stronger

  "The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan (Volume II)". Book by Winston Churchill, 1899.

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• All religious vows, codes, and commitments are null & void herein. Please refrain from contaminating the ideosphere with harmful memes through prayer, reverence, holy books, proselytizing, prophesying, faith, speaking in tongues or spirituality. Fight the menace of second-hand faith! Humanity sincerely thanks you!

  Greg Erwin

  Thank You, Religious, Prayer

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• A wide and vague impression exists that so-called Eastern religion is more contemplative, innocuous, and humane than the proselytizing monotheisms of the West. Don't believe a word of this: try asking the children of Indochina who were dumped by their parents for inherited deformities that were attributed to sins in a previous 'life.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Atheist, Children, Believe

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• I'm not proselytizing my method. I don't believe that one writer should tell other writers how to write.

  John Irving

  Believe, Writing, Should

  "Why novelist John Irving's latest protagonist is a fiction writer". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. November 3, 2015.

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• We who don't want radical Islam to spread must compete with the agents of radical Islam. I want to see what would happen if Christians, feminists and Enlightenment thinkers were to start proselytizing in the Muslim community.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Christian, Feminist, Community

  "The Feminist". Interview with Deborah Solomon, www.nytimes.com. May 21, 2010.

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• I am a huge fan of proselytizing. I am a huge fan of speaking your mind. The only way we can share the universe... is by talking very strongly about what we believe.

  Penn Jillette

  Believe, Talking, Mind

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Orthodox Judaism is a thicket of detailed injunctions, Biblical commandments elaborated during centuries of prohibited proselytizing, functioning to limit interaction with outsiders. At the opposite extreme, Islam, still the most rapidly expanding of faiths, demands little immediate knowledge from those who would convert. The convert is permitted to enter and then to learn by participation, although there are plenty of detailed regulations and abstruse theological ideas to be pursued later, and the regulations do effectively separate believers from nonbelievers.

  Mary Catherine Bateson

  Biblical, Opposites, Ideas

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