Superstitions Quotes - Page 12

• Truth without enthusiasm, morality without emotion, ritual without soul, are things Christ unsparingly condemned. Destitute of fire, they are nothing more than a godless philosophy, an ethical system, and a superstition.

  Samuel Chadwick

  Christian, Philosophy, Fire

  Samuel Chadwick (2007). “The Way to Pentecost”, CLC Publications

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• The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame.

  H. L. Mencken

  Light, Forever, Criticism

  "Aftermath". Baltimore Evening Sun, September 14, 1925.

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• Such crimes has superstition caused.

  Lucretius

  Crime

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• The teaching of the church, theoretically astute, is a lie in practice and a compound of vulgar superstitions and sorcery.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Lying, Teaching, Practice

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• I maintain that the human mystery is incredibly demeaned by scientific reductionism, with its claim in promissory materialism to account eventually for all of the spiritual world in terms of patterns of neuronal activity. This belief must be classed as a superstition. ... We have to recognize that we are spiritual beings with souls existing in a spiritual world as well as material beings with bodies and brains existing in a material world.

  John Eccles

  Spiritual, Science, Soul

  "Evolution of the Brain: Creation of the Self", p.241, 1989.

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• True education is to learn how to think, not what to think. If you know how to think, if you really have that capacity, then you are a free human being-free of dogmas, superstitions, ceremonies-and therefore you can find out what religion is.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Powerful, Thinking, Being Free

  Jiddu Krishnamurti (1970). “Think on these things”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God??

  George Deacon

  Funny, Badass, Humor

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• Faith is a euphemism for prejudice and religion is a euphemism for superstition.

  Paul Kenneth Keller

  Religion, Prejudice, Euphemism

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• We need to be much clearer about what we do and do not know so that we don't continually confuse the two. If I could have one wish for education, it would be the systematic ordering of our basic knowledge in such a way that what is known and true can be acted on, while what is superstition, fad, and myth can be recognized as such and used only when there is nothing else to support us in our frustration and despair.

  Benjamin Bloom

  Inspirational, Education, Frustration

  Benjamin Samuel Bloom (1981). “All our children learning: a primer for parents, teachers, and other educators”, McGraw-Hill Companies

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• ... superstitions, which, being unable to defend themselves on fair ground, raise these intangling brambles to cover and protect their weakness. Chased from the open country, these robbers fly into the forest, and lie in wait to break in upon every unguarded avenue of the mind, and overwhelm it with religious fears and prejudices. ... The idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom.

  David Hume

  Wise, Country, Religious

  David Hume (1779). “An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion”, p.10

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• [St. Patrick] was a terror to any snake that came in his path, whether it was the cold, slimy reptile sliding along the ground or the more dangerous snake that oppresses men through false teachings. And he drove the snakes out of the minds of men, snakes of superstition and brutality and cruelty.

  Arthur Brisbane

  Teaching, Men, Snakes

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• Theology is Classified Superstition.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Atheism, Theology, Positive Atheism

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• when knowledge comes in at the door, fear and superstition fly out of the window.

  Mary Roberts Rinehart

  Knowledge, Doors, Window

  Mary Roberts Rinehart (2013). “The Red Lamp”, p.64, Overamstel Uitgevers

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• Organized religion, being founded on superstition, is, perforce, not scientific. And all that which is not scientific - that is, truthful - must be bolstered up by force, fear and falsehood. Thus we always find slavery and organized religion going hand in hand.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Hands, Atheism, Slavery

  Elbert Hubbard (1922). “Selected Writings of Elbert Hubbard ...”

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• Fear of power invisible, feigned by the mind or imagined from tales publicly allowed, is religion; not allowed, superstition.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Mind, Atheism, Invisible

  Thomas Hobbes (2008). “Leviathan: Or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil”, p.41, Simon and Schuster

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• When I remember thee in days to come, O Jerusalem, it will not be with pleasure. The musty deposits of 2,000 years of inhumanity, intolerance, and uncleanliness lie in the foul-smelling alleys... The amiable dreamer of Nazareth has only contributed to increasing the hatred... What superstition and fanaticism on every side!

  Theodor Herzl

  Lying, Years, Hatred

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• Religion glorifies the dogma of a despotic, mythical God. Atheism ennobles the interests of free and progressive Man. Religion is superstition. Atheism is sanity. Religion is medieval. Atheism is modern.

  E. Haldeman-Julius

  Men, Atheism, Dogma

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• A state of skepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the practice of superstition is so congenial to the multitude that, if they are forcibly awakened, they still regret the loss of their pleasing vision.

  Edward Gibbon

  Regret, Loss, Practice

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, M. Guizot (François), William Smith (1872). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.68

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• Real religion should be something that liberates men. But churches don't want free men who can think for themself and find their own divinity within. When a religion becomes organized it is no longer a religious experience but only superstition and estrangement.

  Federico Fellini

  Religious, Real, Men

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• I've always thought it was important not to attach too much superstition to the space where you're writing, because once you get into the mindset that you can only do it a certain way in a certain place, your creativity can get blocked.

  Sadie Jones

  Writing, Creativity, Space

  "My space". Interview with Anita Sethi, www.theguardian.com. August 30, 2008.

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• Superstition is the need to view the world in terms of simple cause and effect.

  Bernard Beckett

  Simple, Views, Needs

  "Genesis". Book by Bernard Beckett, 2006.

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• Through my observations, it became clear that most of society's rules and customs are rooted in fear and superstition!

  RuPaul

  Observation, Clear, Rooted

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• Many books have been written to show that Christianity has emasculated the world, that it shoved aside the enlightenment and wisdom of Hellas for a doctrine of superstition and ignorance.

  Edgar Lee Masters

  Book, Ignorance, Atheism

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• My own feeling of concern arises from seeing how much moral injury and suffering is created by the superstitions of the Christian mythology.

  Harriet Martineau

  Christian, Feelings, Suffering

  Harriet Martineau, Maria Weston Chapman (2010). “Harriet Martineau's Autobiography”, p.444, Cambridge University Press

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• The only really respectable Protestants are the fundamentalists. Unfortunately, they are also palpable idiots.

  H. L. Mencken

  Belief, Idiot, Respectable

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.121, Knopf

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