Superstitions Quotes - Page 2

• The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Thinking, Social Taboos

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.145, Vintage

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• We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we have broken any idols, it is through a transfer of idolatry.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Idols, History, Broken

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.210

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• Superstition, bigotry and prejudice, ghosts though they are, cling tenaciously to life; they are shades armed with tooth and claw. They must be grappled with unceasingly, for it is a fateful part of human destiny that it is condemned to wage perpetual war against ghosts. A shade is not easily taken by the throat and destroyed.

  Victor Hugo

  War, Taken, Destiny

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• There is in superstition a senseless fear of God.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  "De Natura Deorum", I. 42, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 770-71,

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• Those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

  Carl Sagan

  Wish, Prejudice, Cosmos

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.362, Ballantine Books

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• Storytelling: the world's second oldest profession.

  Danny Harris

  World, Storytelling, Profession

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• The devil divides the world between atheism and superstition.

  George Herbert

  Atheist, Atheism, Devil

  George Herbert (1841). “The remains of ... George Herbert”, p.186

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• We're not as materialistic and income-tax conscious as we think. At the moment our superstitions are tucked away, but come out sometimes in strange ways sex crimes, black masses.

  Terence Fisher

  Sex, Thinking, Black

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• Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

  Adam Smith

  Science, Flames, Enthusiasm

  The Wealth of Nations Bk V, Ch. 1

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• Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Secular Society

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• Superstition is related to this life, religion to the next; superstition is allied to fatality, religion to virtue; it is by the vivacity of earthly desires that we become superstitious; it is, on the contrary, by the sacrifice of these desires that we become religious.

  Madame de Stael

  Religious, Sacrifice, Desire

  "Life of Madame de Staël" by Abel Stevens, (Ch. XXXIV), 1880.

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• A visitor to Niels Bohr's country cottage, noticing a horseshoe hanging on the wall, teasing the eminent scientist about this ancient superstition. "Can it be true that you, of all people, believe it will bring you luck?'
  'Of course not,' replied Bohr, 'but I understand it brings you luck whether you believe it or not.'

  Niels Bohr

  Country, Wall, Believe

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• Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a begging.

  Martin Luther

  Truth, Begging You, Hypocrisy

  Martin Luther (1848). “The table talk or familiar discourse of Martin Luther, tr. by W. Hazlitt”, p.25

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• Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.

  Edmund Burke

  Inspirational, Mind, Religion

  Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

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• I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Death, Wisdom, Religious

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• You will not think it unnatural that those who have an object depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclining to superstition.

  Edmund Burke

  Thinking, Should, Hopes And Fears

  Edmund Burke (1847). “The Speeches of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke”, p.531

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• No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  God, Men, Judging

  Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Beecher STOWE (2016). “Collected Works (Complete and Illustrated Editions: Uncle Tom's Cabin, Queer Little Folks, The Chimney-Corner, ...)”, p.366, Harriet Beecher Stowe

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• The superstition of science scoffs at the superstition of faith.

  James Anthony Froude

  Faith, Science, Accounts

  James Anthony Froude (1871). “Short Studies on Great Subjects”, p.464

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• It is safe to say that no other superstition is so detrimental to growth, so enervating and paralyzing to the minds and hearts of the people, as the superstition of Morality.

  Emma Goldman

  Heart, People, Growth

  Emma Goldman (2016). “Anarchy and the Sex Question: Essays on Women and Emancipation, 1896–1926”, p.95, PM Press

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• Through it [Science] we believe that man will be saved from misery and degradation, not merely acquiring new material powers, but learning to use and to guide his life with understanding. Through Science he will be freed from the fetters of superstition; through faith in Science he will acquire a new and enduring delight in the exercise of his capacities; he will gain a zest and interest in life such as the present phase of culture fails to supply.

  Ray Lankester

  Faith, Believe, Science

  "The Advancement of Science: Occasional Essays & Addresses". Book by Ray Lankester, p. 108-9, "Biology and the State", 1890.

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• Superstition is part of the poetry of life.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Stuart Blackie (1883). “The Wisdom of Goethe”, Edinburgh, W. Blackwood

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• Science of to-day-the superstition of to-morrow. Science of to-morrow-the superstition of to-day.

  Charles Fort

  Science, Tomorrow, Accounts

  Charles Fort (2016). “The Book of the Damned: The Original Classic of Paranormal Exploration”, p.122, Penguin

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• Heart-chilling superstition! thou canst glaze even Pity's eye with her own frozen tear.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Heart, Eye, Tears

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1829). “The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats. Complete in One Volume”, p.89

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• The memory of my own suffering has prevented me from ever shadowing one young soul with the superstition of the Christian religion.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Christian, Memories, Soul

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1898). “Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences, 1815-1897”, p.26, UPNE

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• Superstitions are, for the most part, but the shadows of great truths.

  Tryon Edwards

  Shadow

  Tryon Edwards (2015). “The New Dictionary of Thoughts”, p.1329, Ravenio Books

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