Superstitions Quotes - Page 17

• Superstition always inspires littleness, religion grandeur of mind; the superstitious raises beings inferior to himself to deities.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Inspire, Mind, Deities

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• Accurate and just reasoning is the only catholic remedy, fitted for all persons and all dispositions; and is alone able to subvert that abstruse philosophy and metaphysical jargon, which, being mixed up with popular superstition, renders it in a manner impenetrable to careless reasoners, and gives it the air of science and wisdom.

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Air, Giving

  David Hume (1854). “The Philosophical Works of David Hume: Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Pub. by the Author”, p.9

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• That the corruption of the best thing produces the worst, is grown into a maxim, and is commonly proved, among other instances, by the pernicious effects of superstition and enthusiasm, the corruptions of true religion.

  David Hume

  Enthusiasm, Corruption, Produce

  David Hume, Knud Haakonssen (1994). “Hume: Political Essays”, p.46, Cambridge University Press

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• Weakness, fear, melancholy, together with ignorance, are the true sources of superstition. Hope, pride, presumption, a warm indignation, together with ignorance, are the true sources of enthusiasm.

  David Hume

  Ignorance, Pride, Together

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• The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It's a battle you can't hope to win - it's a battle that's going to go on forever. It's part of the human condition.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Winning, Forever, Battle

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• Young men of this class never do anything for themselves that they can get other people to do for them, and it is the infatuation, the devotion, the superstition of others that keeps them going. These others in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred are women.

  Henry James

  Men, Ninety Nine, Class

  Henry James (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry James (Illustrated)”, p.1147, Delphi Classics

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• The left sees nothing but bigotry and superstition in the popular defense of the family or in popular attitudes regarding abortion, crime, busing, and the school curriculum.

  Christopher Lasch

  Attitude, School, Abortion

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• The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.

  Thomas Paine

  Heart, Daggers, Belief

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• Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.

  Pope John Paul II

  Science, Errors, Catholic

  Letter to the Rev. George V. Coyne on June 01, 1988. "John Paul II on science and religion: reflections on the new view from Rome". Book edited by George Coyne, 1990.

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• A dull, dark, depressing day in Winter: the whole world looks like a Methodist church at Wednesday night prayer meeting.

  H. L. Mencken

  Depressing, Prayer, Dark

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.13, Knopf

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• Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism.

  Denis Diderot

  Atheism, Positive Atheism

  "Philosophical Thoughts". Book by Denis Diderot, 1746.

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• There is not really any courage at all in attacking hoary or antiquated things, any more than in offering to fight one's grandmother. The really courageous man is he who defies tyrannies young as the morning and superstitions fresh as the first flowers. The only true free-thinker is he whose intellect is as much free from the future as from the past.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Courage, Morning, Flower

  "What's Wrong With the World". Book by G. K. Chesterton, 1910.

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• I wouldn't say that religion has promoted the social progress of mankind. I say that it has been a detriment to the progress of civilization, and I would also say this: that the emancipation of the mind from religious superstition is as essential to the progress of civilization as is emancipation from physical slavery.

  Culbert Olson

  Religious, Civilization, Mind

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• Science and reason liberate us from the shackles of superstition by offering us a framework for understanding our shared humanity. Ultimately, we all have the capacity to treasure life and enrich the world in incalculable ways.

  Gad Saad

  Atheist, Offering, Understanding

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• A superstition which pretends to be scientific creates a much greater confusion of thought than one which contents itself with simple popular practices.

  Johan Huizinga

  Simple, Practice, Confusion

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• This is the great object held out by this association; and the means of attaining it is illumination, enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason which will dispell the clouds of superstition and of prejudice.

  Adam Weishaupt

  Mean, Clouds, Illumination

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• So much of the knowledge in our minds is based on lies and superstitions that come from thousands of years ago. Humans create stories long before we are born, and we inherit those stories, we adopt them, and we live in those stories.

  Miguel Angel Ruiz

  Spiritual, Lying, Years

  AMBER-ALLEN PUBLISHING Interview, www.amberallen.com. June 4, 2013.

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• The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epoch when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period.

  George Washington

  Ignorance, Rights, Age

  George Washington (1852). “The life of General Washington: first president of the United States”, p.112

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• This idea of body is a simple superstition. It is superstition that makes us happy or unhappy. It is superstition caused by ignorance that makes us feel heat and cold, pain and pleasure.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Pain, Ignorance, Simple

  Swami Vivekananda (2012). “Raja Yoga (Annotated Edition)”, p.119, Jazzybee Verlag

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• I am not a historian. I happen to think that the content of my mother's life - her myths, her superstitions, her prayers, the contents of her pantry, the smell of her kitchen, the song that escaped from her sometimes parched lips, her thoughtful repose and pregnant laughter - are all worthy of art.

  August Wilson

  Mother, Song, Art

  August Wilson (1997). “Seven Guitars”, p.10, Penguin

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• I have inherited this burden of superstition and nonsense. I govern innumerable men but must acknowledge that I am governed by birds and thunderclaps

  Thornton Wilder

  Men, Bird, Nonsense

  Thornton Wilder (2014). “The Ides of March: A Novel”, p.5, Harper Collins

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• Prejudice is not bigotry or superstition, although prejudice sometimes may degenerate into these. Prejudice is pre-judgment, the answer with which intuition and ancestral consensus of opinion supply a man when he lacks either time or knowledge to arrive at a decision predicated upon pure reason.

  Russell Kirk

  Men, Decision, Intuition

  Russell Kirk (2001). “The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot”, p.38, Regnery Publishing

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• There are, however, some potentates I would kill by any and all means at my disposal. They are Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry — the most sinister and tyrannical rulers on earth.

  Emma Goldman

  Ignorance, Mean, Earth

  Emma Goldman (2012). “Living My Life”, p.207, Courier Corporation

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• I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.

  Anne Tyler

  Writing, Thinking, Literature

  Penguin Random House interview, www.penguinrandomhouse.com.

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• Punishment [by Nero] was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition.

  Suetonius

  Christian, Men, Class

  Suetonius (1997). “Suetonius: Lives of the Caesars, book V-VIII ; Lives of illustrious men”, Loeb Classical Library

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