Religious Extremism Quotes

• Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

  Blaise Pascal

  Inspirational, Sad, Religious

  Pensees no. 894 (1670 ed.)

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• Extremism can flourish only in an environment where basic governmental social responsibility for the welfare of the people is neglected. Political dictatorship and social hopelessness create the desperation that fuels religious extremism.

  Benazir Bhutto

  Religious, Responsibility, People

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• The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Heart, Creativity, Creative

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1968). “I Have a Dream: The Quotations of Martin Luther King, Jr”

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• We will see that the greatest problem confronting civilization is not merely religious extremism: rather, it is the larger set of cultural and intellectual accommodations we have made to faith itself.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, Atheist, Civilization

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.45, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Political dictatorship and social hopelessness create the desperation that fuels religious extremism.

  Benazir Bhutto

  Religious, Political, Religion

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• The United States is off the international spectrum in religious extremism.

  Noam Chomsky

  Religious, United States, Spectrum

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

  Albert Einstein

  God, Religious, Atheist

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.328, Princeton University Press

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• Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Funny, Witty

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• 

  Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

  Barry Goldwater

  Memorial Day, Freedom, Gay

  Speech accepting nomination for president at Republican National Convention, San Francisco, Cal., 16 July 1964

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• A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

  Albert Einstein

  Sympathy, God, Death

  Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.39, Broadway Books

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• Let's not leave an educational vacuum to be filled by religious extremists who go to families who have no other option and offer meals, housing and some form of education. If we are going to combat extremism then we must educate those very same children.

  Hillary Clinton

  Education, Religious, Children

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• According to UNESCO: there are over 154 million children in the world deprived of education due to poverty, slavery, racism, religious extremism, gender discrimination, and geographical isolation. The cost to educate a child in the third world is about $ 1 per month per child. To achieve global literacy, the investment would be $ 8 billion per year for 15 years.

  Greg Mortenson

  Religious, Children, Racism

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• Although the far territory of the extreme can exert an intoxicating pull on susceptible individuals of all bents, extremism seems to be especially prevalent among those inclined by temperament or upbringing toward religious pursuits. Faith is the very antithesis of reason, injudiciousness a crucial component of spiritual devotion. And when religious fanaticism supplants ratiocination, all bets are suddenly off.

  Jon Krakauer

  Spiritual, Religious, Atheist

  Jon Krakauer (2013). “Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith”, p.18, Pan Macmillan

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• Perhaps...the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Creative, Needs, Political Extremism

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964). “Why we can't wait”, Signet

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• The same failure of liberalism is evident in Western Europe, where the dogma of multiculturalism has left a secular Europe very slow to address the looming problem of religious extremism among its immigrants. The people who speak most sensibly about the threat that Islam poses to Europe are actually fascists. To say that this does not bode well for liberalism is an understatement: It does not bode well for the future of civilization.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, Europe, Civilization

  "The End Of Liberalism?" by Sam Harris, samharris.org. September 19, 2006.

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• The take-home message is that we should blame religion itself, not religious extremism - as though that were some kind of terrible perversion of real, decent religion. Voltaire got it right long ago: 'Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.' So did Bertrand Russell: 'Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.

  Richard Dawkins

  Religious, Real, Believe

  Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.345, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• It is my vision that we all will dedicate the next decade to achieve universal literacy and education for all children, especially for girls. More than 145 million of the world's children are deprived of education due to poverty, exploitation, slavery, gender discrimination, religious extremism, and corrupt governments. May Three Cups of Tea be a catalyst to bring the gift of literacy to each of those children who deserves a chance to go to school.

  Greg Mortenson

  Girl, Education, Religious

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• Masterpieces of art possess immense potential to advance a worldview that could help assuage the societal terrors posed by globalization, the most thoroughgoing socioeconomic upheaval since the Industrial Revolution, which has set off a pandemic of retrogressive nationalism, regional separatism, and religious extremism.

  Martin Filler

  Religious, Art, Pandemics

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