Superstitions Quotes - Page 25

• In the days of witchcraft it used to be believed that if one person secretly made a waxen image of another and stuck pins into the image, its counterpart would suffer tortures, and that if the image was melted the person would die. This superstition is almost realized in the relation between the private self and its social reflection. They seem to separate but are darkly united, and what is done to the one is done to the other.

  Charles Horton Cooley

  Reflection, Self, Suffering

  Charles Horton Cooley (1992). “Human Nature and the Social Order”, p.247, Transaction Publishers

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• I don't believe in hell and heaven anymore. Or angels. I think Islam is a superstition like every other superstition. But now because it's a superstition, unlike Christianity, that hasn't been tested and hasn't gone through a process of enlightenment, I think it's a dangerous superstition.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Believe, Angel, Thinking

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• The only superstition I have is that I must start a new book on the same day that I finish the last one, even if it's just a few notes in a file. I dread not having work in progress.

  Terry Pratchett

  Book, Progress, Lasts

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• There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.

  Rod Serling

  Twilight, Science, Men

  The Twilight Zone (television series), opening narration (1963)

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• The man who says to me, "Believe as I do, or God will damn you," will presently say, "Believe as I do, or I shall assassinate you."

  Voltaire

  Believe, Men, Damn You

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• If the empire of superstition and hypocrisy should be overthrown, happy indeed will it be for the world; but if all religion and morality should be over-thrown with it, what advantage will be gained?

  John Adams

  Hypocrisy, Religion, World

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• Let us therefore reject all superstition in order to become more human; but in speaking against fanaticism, let us not imitate the fanatics: they are sick men in delirium who want to chastise their doctors. Let us assuage their ills, and never embitter them, and let us pour drop by drop into their souls the divine balm of toleration, which they would reject with horror if it were offered to them all at once.

  Voltaire

  Men, Doctors, Order

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• Go get yourself crucified and then rise on the third day.

  Voltaire

  Belief, Thirds

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• The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.

  Cormac McCarthy

  Fear, Rain, Believe

  Cormac McCarthy (2015). “Blood Meridian: Picador Classic”, p.152, Pan Macmillan

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• …We were born vampires." "I thought you became –" "— vampires by being bitten? Dear me, no. Oh, we can turn people into vampires, it’s an easy technique, but what would be the point? When you eat… now what is it you eat? Oh yes, chocolate… you don’t want to turn it into another Agnes Nitt, do you? Less chocolate to go around." He sighed. "Oh dear, superstition, superstition everywhere we turn.

  Terry Pratchett

  People, Chocolate, Vampire

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• I don't know concretely if it's due to superstition, but any time a new rule is implemented into the NBA or a new piece of equipment or a new technology, there is always a transition and adjustment period by players and coaches and anyone involved with the game.

  Stu Jackson

  Technology, Player, Nba

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• I’m always intrigued by my nonsensical concern with picking out a bunch of things that look exactly alike the ones that somehow I feel are the best and belong to me. It’s that same crazy urge or superstition, or whatever it is, that makes me open a Bible in a hotel room, hoping for some great happenstance spiritual word of advice. More often than not, I hit a long passage of begats and begots, which contain little inspiration other than the fact that procreation is the highest aim of life.

  Vincent Price

  Spiritual, Crazy, Inspiration

  Vincent Price (2016). “The Book of Joe: About a Dog and His Man”, p.84, Open Road Media

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• Then idiots talk....of Energy. If there is a word in the dictionary under any letter from A to Z that I abominate, it is energy. It is such a conventional superstition, such parrot gabble! What the deuce!....But show me a good opportunity, show me something really worth being energetic about, and I'll show you energy.

  Charles Dickens

  Opportunity, Energy, Deuces

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• Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.

  John Adams

  Education, Mind, Virtue

  "John Adams: Quotes & Facts". Book by Blago Kirov, 2016.

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• This is indeed a clash of civilisations, not between Islam and Christendom but between reason and superstition.

  Polly Toynbee

  Islam, Reason, Clash

  "It is not fanciful to make the pursuit of happiness a political imperative" by Polly Toynbee, www.theguardian.com. June 15, 2006.

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• It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.

  Voltaire

  Ignorance, Knowledge, Would Be

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• He spoke of very simple things- that it is right for a gull to fly, that freedom is the very nature of his being, that whatever stands against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition or limitation in any form. "Set aside," came a voice from the multitude, "even if it be the Law of the Flock?" "The only true law is that which leads to freedom," Jonathan said. "There is no other.

  Richard Bach

  Simple, Law, Voice

  Richard Bach (2014). “Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The New Complete Edition”, p.81, Simon and Schuster

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• Superstition? Who can define the boundary line between the superstition of yesterday and the scientific fact of tomorrow?

  Garrett Fort

  Yesterday, Lines, Facts

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• Patriotism ... is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.

  Emma Goldman

  Lying, Men, Self

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.72, 谷月社

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• I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same 50% rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don't... Same as the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe...same as the Voodoo Lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat's testicles, it's all the same: 50-50. So just pick your superstition, sit back, make a wish, and enjoy yourself.

  George Carlin

  Funny, Sarcastic, Witty

  "You Are All Diseased". Book by George Carlin, 1999.

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• I tend to eat things in fours. I'll eat four nuts, four grapes, four chips at a time. I don't know why. It's not really a superstition. I don't think anything bad will happen if I don't, but three potato chips doesn't seem right.

  Jimmy Wales

  Thinking, Nuts, Three

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• An extraterrestrial being, newly arrived on Earth - scrutinizing what we mainly present to our children in television, radio, movies, newspapers, magazines, the comics, and many books - might easily conclude that we are intent on teaching them murder, rape, cruelty, superstition, credulity, and consumerism. We keep at it, and through constant repetition many of them finally get it.

  Carl Sagan

  Children, Book, Teaching

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.66, Ballantine Books

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• As science pushes forward, ignorance and superstition gallop around the flanks and bite science in the rear with big dark teeth.

  Philip Jose Farmer

  Ignorance, Dark, Teeth

  "Riders of the Purple Wage or The Great Gavage". Book by Philip Jose Farmer, 1967.

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• Human beings are poor examiners, subject to superstition, bias, prejudice, and a PROFOUND tendency to see what they want to see rather than what is really there.

  M. Scott Peck

  Profound, Prejudice, Want

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• Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.

  Richard Matheson

  Circles, Forever, Entering

  Richard Matheson (1954). “I Am Legend”, Greenwich, Connecticut : Fawcett

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