Fanaticism Quotes - Page 8

• Today's terrorism is not the product of a traditional history of anarchism, nihilism, or fanaticism. It is instead the contemporary partner of globalization.

  Jean Baudrillard

  Nihilism, Today, Terrorism

  "The spirit of terrorism" by Jean Baudrillard, ("The Violence of the Global"), 2003.

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• Some have said that the clash between Catholicism and Protestantism illustrates the old maxim that religious freedom is the product of two equally pernicious fanaticisms, each cancelling the other out.

  Fareed Zakaria

  Religious, Two, Said

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• Critics of the war plans (including myself) have pointed to the disastrous political results that must be expected: Iraq would break into three parts (Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center, Shi'ites in the south), the Middle East would be exposed to the onslaught of Iranian fanaticism, pro-Western Arab regimes would collapse. Israel would be surrounded by aggressive Islamic fundamentalism, like the Crusader kingdom with the advent of Saladin.

  Uri Avnery

  War, Islamic, Israel

  "War Now!" by Uri Avnery, September 9, 2002.

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• From that moment onwards, our loathsome society rushed, like Narcissus, to contemplate its trivial image on a metallic plate. A form of lunacy, an extraordinary fanaticism took hold of these new sun-worshippers.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Sun, Moments, That Moment

  Charles Baudelaire (1981). “Baudelaire: Selected Writings on Art and Artists”, p.295, CUP Archive

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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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• it is not that religion is merely useless, it is mischievous. It is mischievous by its idle terrors; it is mischievous by its false morality; it is mischievous by its hypocrisy; by its fanaticism; by its dogmatism; by its threats; by its hopes; by its promises.

  Frances Wright

  Hypocrisy, Promise, Useless

  Frances Wright (1850). “A few days in Athens: being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum”, p.203

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• Fanatics are, for one thing, boring and, for another, unreliable. They tend to burn out just when you need them.

  Nikki Giovanni

  Needs, Boring, Burn Out

  Nikki Giovanni (1988). “Sacred cows-- and other edibles”, William Morrow & Co

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• Seven hundred thousand men are said to have perished in the first two expeditions, which had been thus commenced and carried on by the pious zeal of the Christian church, and in the total amount, several million were found numbered with the dead: the awful effects of religious fanaticism presuming upon the aid of heaven.

  Elihu Palmer

  Christian, Religious, Men

  Elihu Palmer (1823). “Principles of Nature Or A Developement of the Moral Causes of Hapiness and Misery Among the Human Species”, p.9

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• Fanaticism in many lands has surfaced as the greatest threat to the world. Indifference to its consequences would be a serious mistake.

  Elie Wiesel

  Mistake, Land, Serious

  "The Elevator Interview – Elie Wiesel (Exclusive)". The Algemeiner Interview, www.algemeiner.com. September 23, 2011.

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• An infallible method of making fanatics is to persuade before you instruct.

  Voltaire

  Method, Infallible, Fanatics

  Voltaire (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of Voltaire (Illustrated)”, p.4181, Delphi Classics

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• Faith was intended precisely for the simple, but the quest for certainty and simplicity becomes dangerous when it leads to fanaticism and narrow-mindedness. When reason as such becomes suspect, then faith itself becomes falsified.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Simple, Simplicity, Quests

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• Europeans know that their great experiment in building peace, unity and prosperity cannot survive as a privileged enclave, surrounded on its outskirts by breeding grounds of hatred and fanaticism.

  Dick Cheney

  Hatred, Unity, Prosperity

  Remarks to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. January 24, 2004.

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• It took many years to cleanse Arabia of its “false idols.” It will take many more to cleanse Islam of its new false idols-bigotry and fanaticism-worshipped by those who have replaced Muhammad's original vision of tolerance and unity with their own ideals of hatred and discord. But the cleansing is inevitable, and the tide of reform cannot be stopped. The Islamic Reformation is already here. We are all living in it.

  Reza Aslan

  Islamic, Years, Idols

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• Philosophy alone can boast (and perhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy), that her gentle hand is able to eradicate from the human mind the latent and deadly principle of fanaticism.

  Edward Gibbon

  Philosophy, Hands, History

  Edward Gibbon (1837). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.376

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• I think about fanaticism - oblivion awaits, especially for minor writers, so you have to be a fanatic; you have to be a crank to keep going, but on the other hand, what else would you do with the rest of your life? You gotta do something.

  Cynthia Ozick

  Thinking, Hands, Rest Of Your Life

  "A life in writing: Cynthia Ozick". Interview with Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. July 4, 2011.

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• I was standing next to a famed geo-politician when the first news of the Argentine attack [on the Faulkland Islands] was received, and heard him muse incredulously: "An old-fashioned naval battle. A war between two civilized nations, perhaps with even a declaration of war, and later a peace conference. Wow." No hostages, no nukes, no ideologies, no religious fanaticism; just a fair-and-square war over national interests - hard to believe, in this day and age.

  William Safire

  Religious, Peace, War

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• Fanaticism is just one step away from barbarism.

  Denis Diderot

  Steps, Barbarism, Just One

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• The recognition that no knowledge can be complete, no metaphor entire, is itself humanizing. It counteracts fanaticism. It grants even to adversaries the possibility of partial truth, and to oneself the possibility of error.

  Alvin Toffler

  Errors, Recognition, Metaphor

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• In our Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women. They have their night meetings and prayer parties, where, attended by their priests, and sometimes by a hen-pecked husband, they pour forth the effusions of their love to Jesus, in terms as amatory and carnal, as their modesty would permit them to use a mere earthly lover.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Jesus, Prayer, Husband

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.271, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Education was in danger from the source that always hampered it—religious fanaticism.

  Clarence Darrow

  Education, Religious, Danger

  Clarence Darrow (2012). “Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom”, p.175, University of Chicago Press

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• Time and again we see leaders and members of religions incite aggression, fanaticism, hate, and xenophobia - even inspire and legitimate violent and bloody conflicts.

  Hans Kung

  Xenophobia, Hate, Moving

  Hans Kung (1998). “A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics”, p.143, Oxford University Press

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• It is thus religion infatuates man from his infancy, fills him with vanity and fanaticism: if he has a heated imagination it drives him on to fury; if he has activity, it makes him a madman, who is frequently as cruel to himself, as he is dangerous and incommodious to others: if, on the contrary, he be phlegmatic or of a slothful habit, he becomes melancholy and is useless to society.

  Baron d'Holbach

  Atheist, Men, Vanity

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• BLASPHEMOUS REVERENCE. Acting on the knowledge that the most efficacious form or devotion to the Divine Wow is tinctured with playful or mischievous behavior that prevents the buildup of fanaticism.

  Rob Brezsny

  God, Acting, Wow

  Rob Brezsny (2005). “Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings”, p.267, Frog Books

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• I love that man better who swears a stream as long as my arm yet deals justice to his neighbors and mercifully deals his substance to the poor, than the long, smooth faced hypocrite.

  Joseph Smith, Jr.

  Hypocrite, Men, Long

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• They who get off on tangents and ride hobby horses to death are they who become fanatic. Let them understand that they must be tolerant of others faults but never accept as justifiable their own.

  Spencer W. Kimball

  Horse, Hobbies, Faults

  Spencer W. Kimball (1982). “The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, Twelfth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”

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