Humanism Quotes

• Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Inspirational, Motivational, Atheist

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• The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.

  E. M. Forster

  Race, Curiosity, Mind

  E.M. Forster (1951). “Two Cheers for Democracy”

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• Humanism is an approach to life which encourages ethical and fulfilling living on the basis of reason and humanity, and rejects superstition and religion. The most immediate impact of living as a Humanist is that we believe this life is all there is - so what we do and the choices we make really count.

  Stephen Fry

  Believe, Impact, Choices

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• Humanism is a philosophy of joyous service for the greater good of all humanity, of application of new ideas of scientific progress for the benefit of all.

  Linus Pauling

  Philosophy, Ideas, Humanity

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• Since Humanism as a functioning credo is so closely bound up with the methods of reason and science, plainly free speech and democracy are its very lifeblood. For reason and scientific method can flourish only in an atmosphere of civil liberties.

  Corliss Lamont

  Atmosphere, Democracy, Liberty

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• A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Party, Men, Thinking

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2014). “The Heart of Emerson's Journals”, p.49, Courier Corporation

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• There is nothing new about humanism. It is the yielding to Satan's first temptation of Adam and Eve: "Ye shall be as gods." (Gen. 3:5)

  Billy Graham

  Temptation, Firsts, Satan

  Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Donna Lee Toney (2011). “Billy Graham in Quotes”, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• Morality comes from humanism and is stolen by religion for its own purposes.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Purpose, Morality, Stolen

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• I think students should know something about religion as a historical phenomenon, in the same way that they should know something about socialism and humanism and the other great ideas that have shaped political philosophies and therefore the course of human events.

  Steven Pinker

  Philosophy, Thinking, Ideas

  "Proud atheists". Interview with Steve Paulson, www.salon.com. October 15, 2007.

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  Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Life, Beauty

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.15, St. Martin's Press

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• To embrace humanism is to embrace the concept that caring for our fellow human beings is our highest calling.

  Sean Faircloth

  Caring, Calling, Embrace

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• Humanism involves far more than the negation of supernaturalism. It requires an affirmative philosophy . . . translated into a life devoted to one's own improvement and the service of all mankind.

  Corliss Lamont

  Philosophy, Improvement, Humanist

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• America is not dying because of the strength of humanism but the weakness of evangelism.

  Leonard Ravenhill

  America, Dying, Weakness

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• Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests.

  Isaac Asimov

  Thinking, People, Needs

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  For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

  Carl Sagan

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Carl Sagan (1997). “Contact”, p.430, Simon and Schuster

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  In the end anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Black, Female, Social Justice

  Shirley Chisholm (1970). “Unbought and Unbossed”

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• Humanism . . . is not a single hypothesis or theorem, and it dwells on no new facts. It is rather a slow shifting in the philosophic perspective, making things appear as from a new centre of interest or point of sight.

  William James

  Sight, Perspective, Shifting

  Dr. William James (2013). “The William James Reader”, p.102, Simon and Schuster

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  When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

  Jimi Hendrix

  Love, Inspirational, Life

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• Secular humanism proposes ... the complete implementation of the agenda of modernism ... what is necessary for it to occur is a ... New Enlightenment.

  Paul Kurtz

  Enlightenment, Atheism, Agendas

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• For humanism also appeals to man as man. It seeks to liberate the universal qualities of human nature from the narrow limitations of blood and soil and class and to create a common language and a common culture in which men can realize their common humanity.

  Christopher Dawson

  Men, Blood, Common Humanity

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• What the world needs is not redemption from sin but redemption from hunger and oppression; it has no need to pin its hopes upon Heaven, it has everything to hope for from this earth.

  Friedrich Durrenmatt

  Heaven, Needs, Redemption

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• Almost by definition, secularism cannot be a future: it's a present-tense culture that over time disconnects a society from cross-generational purpose. Which is why there are no examples of sustained atheist civilizations. "Atheistic humanism" became inhumanism in the hands of the Fascists and Communists and, in its less malign form in today's European Union, a kind of dehumamism in which a present-tense culture amuses itself to extinction. Post-Christian European culture is already post-cultural and, with its surging Muslim populations, will soon be post-European.

  Mark Steyn

  Christian, Atheist, Hands

  "America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It". Book by Mark Steyn, 2006.

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• Does religion fill a much needed gap? It is often said that there is a God-shaped gap in the brain which needs to be filled: we have a psychological need for God -- imaginary friend, father, big brother, confessor, confidant -- and the need has to be satisfied whether God really exists or not. But could it be that God clutters up a gap that we'd be better off filling with something else? Science, perhaps? Art? Human friendship? Humanism? Love of this life in the real world, giving no credence to other lives beyond the grave?

  Richard Dawkins

  Art, Brother, Father

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• Humanism is not alive and well in Texas. Different colors and types of Texans do not like one another, nor do they pretend to.

  Molly Ivins

  Texas, Color, Different

  Molly Ivins (2010). “Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?”, p.4, Vintage

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• Humanism inspires a lot of enthusiasm for everyday life and urges people to be better to one another, to work towards a better future and a common good. If I believed there was an afterlife I would have so much less motive for filling this life with every experience that is offered up to me.

  Stephen Fry

  Afterlife, People, Inspire

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