Felix Adler Quotes - Page 2

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• It is the moral element contained in it that alone gives value and dignity to a religion, and only in so far as its teachings serve to stimulate and purify our moral aspirations does it deserve to retain its ascendency over mankind.

  Felix Adler

  Teaching, Giving, Elements

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

  12 Copy quote

• Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt.

  Felix Adler

  Roots, Fruit, Corruption

  Founding address of New York Society for Ethical Culture, May 15, 1876.

  10 Copy quote

• It is written that the last enemy to be vanquished is death. We should begin early in life to vanquish this enemy by obliterating every trace of the fear of death from our minds. Then can we turn to life and fill the whole horizon of our souls with it, turn with added zest to all the serious tasks which it imposes and to the pure delights which here and there it affords.

  Felix Adler

  Zest, Soul, Mind

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

  5 Copy quote

• The platform of an Ethical Society is itself the altar; the address must be the fire that burns thereon.

  Felix Adler

  Fire, Addresses, Ethical

  Felix Adler (1926). “The Fiftieth anniversary of the ethical movement, 1876-1926”

  8 Copy quote

• An anxious unrest, a fierce craving desire for gain has taken possession of the commercial world, and in instances no longer rare the most precious and permanent goods of human life have been madly sacrificed in the interests of momentary enrichment.

  Felix Adler

  Taken, Desire, Unrest

  "Patricians, Professors, and Public Schools: The Origins of Modern Educational Thought in America". Book by Allan Stanley Horlick, 1994.

  10 Copy quote

• By what sort of experience are we led to the conviction that spirit exists? On the whole, by searching, painful experience. The rose Religion grows on a thorn-bush, and we must not be afraid to have our fingers lacerated by the thorns if we would pluck the rose.

  Felix Adler

  Painful Experiences, Rose, Thorns

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

  12 Copy quote

• In order to join vigorously in the moral work of the world I must believe that somehow the best I can accomplish will endure, will leave its trace on things, will aid the final consummation.

  Felix Adler

  Believe, Order, World

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

  8 Copy quote

• We should seek to free the moral life from the embarrassments and entanglements in which it has been involved by the quibbles of the schools and the mutual antagonisms of the sects; to introduce into it an element of downrightness and practical earnestness; above all, to secure to the modern world, in its struggle with manifold evil, the boon of moral unity, despite intellectual diversity.

  Felix Adler

  Struggle, School, Diversity

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

  10 Copy quote

• Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each include the other, each is enriched by the other.

  Felix Adler

  Relationship, Fashion, Inspirational Love

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

  8 Copy quote

• Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.

  Felix Adler

  God, Religious, Real

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

  5 Copy quote

• Few are there that will leave the secure seclusion of the scholar's life, the peaceful walks of literature and learning, to stand out a target for the criticism of unkind and hostile minds.

  Felix Adler

  Peaceful, Mind, Criticism

  9 Copy quote

• FOR a long time the conviction has been dimly felt in the community that, without prejudice to existing institutions, the legal day of weekly rest might be employed to advantage for purposes affecting the general good.

  Felix Adler

  Long, Community, Prejudice

  8 Copy quote

• No religion can long continue to maintain its purity when the church becomes the subservient vassal of the state

  Felix Adler

  Freedom, Long, Church

  FELIX ADLER (1880). “CREED AND DEED A SERIES OF DISCOURSES”

  8 Copy quote

• The office of the public teacher is an unenviable and thankless one.

  Felix Adler

  Teacher, Office, Thankless

  6 Copy quote

• The human race may be compared to a writer. At the outset a writer has often only a vague general notion of the plan of his work, and of the thought he intends to elaborate. As he proceeds, penetrating his material, laboring to express himself fitly, he lays a firmer grasp on his thought; he finds himself. So the human race is writing its story, finding itself, discovering its own underlying purpose, revising, recasting a tale pathetic often, yet none the less sublime.

  Felix Adler

  Writing, Race, Sublime

  Felix Adler (1914). “The Standard”

  8 Copy quote

• It is our hope, that men in proportion as they grow more enlightened, will learn to hold their theories and their creeds more loosely, and will none the less, nay, rather all the more be devoted to the supreme end of practical righteousness to which all theories and creeds must be kept subservient.

  Felix Adler

  Men, Enlightened, Theory

  Felix Adler (1904). “New statement of the aim of the ethical culture societies”

  5 Copy quote

• Ethical religion affirms the continuity of progress toward moral perfection. It affirms that the spiritual development of the human race cannot be prematurely cut off, either gradually or suddenly; that every stone of offence against which we stumble is a stepping-stone to some greater good; that, at the end of days, if we choose to put it so, or, rather, in some sphere beyond the world of space and time, all the rays of progress will be summed and centred in a transcendent focus.

  Felix Adler

  Spiritual, Cutting, Space

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

  8 Copy quote

• No one can fail to see that the power of the Church among large numbers in many communities is today diminishing, or has already ceased.

  Felix Adler

  Numbers, Community, Church

  8 Copy quote

• I believe in the supreme excellence of righteousness; I believe that the law of righteousness will triumph in the universe over all evil; I believe that in the attempt to fulfil the law of righteousness, however imperfect it must remain, are to be found the inspiration, the consolation, and the sanctification of human existence.
  We live in order to finish an, as yet, unfinished universe, unfinished so far as the human, that is, the highest part of it, is concerned. We live in order to develop the superior qualities of man which are, as yet, for the most part latent.

  Felix Adler

  Inspiration, Believe, Men

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

  8 Copy quote

• For more than three thousand years men have quarreled concerning the formulas of their faith. The earth has been drenched with blood shed in this cause, the face of day darkened with the blackness of the crimes perpetrated in its name.

  Felix Adler

  Men, Blood, Years

  Freedom from Religion foundation profile, ffrf.org.

  8 Copy quote

• But even our pleasures are calculated and business like. We measure our enjoyments by the sum expended. Our salons are often little better than bazaars of fashion.

  Felix Adler

  Enjoyment

  Founding address of New York Society for Ethical Culture, May 15, 1876.

  5 Copy quote

• Religion is a wizard, a sibyl . . . She faces the wreck of worlds, and prophesies restoration. She faces a sky blood-red with sunset colours that deepen into darkness, and prophesies dawn. She faces death, and prophesies life.

  Felix Adler

  Religious, Sunset, Blood

  Felix Adler (1956). “Life and destiny”

  5 Copy quote

• You do not build your own houses, nor make your own garments, nor bake your own bread, simply because you know that if you were to attempt all these things they would all be more or less ill done.

  Felix Adler

  House, Done, Bread

  5 Copy quote

• The Infinite, from which comes the impulse that lead us to activity, is not the highest Reason, but higher than reason; not the highest Goodness, but higher than goodness.

  Felix Adler

  Infinite, Reason, Goodness

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

  6 Copy quote

• There is a universal element in man which he can assert by so acting as if the purpose of the Universe were also his purpose. It is the function of the supreme ordeals of life to develop in men this power, to give to their life this distinction, this height of dignity, these vast horizons.

  Felix Adler

  Men, Giving, Acting

  Felix Adler (1956). “Life and destiny”

  5 Copy quote

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