Superstitious Quotes - Page 3

• A touch of science, even bogus science, gives an edge to the superstitious tale.

  V. S. Pritchett

  Giving, Storytelling, Tales

  1946 The Living Novel,'An Irish Ghost'.

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• Wherever modern Science has exploded a superstitious fable or even a picturesque error, she has replaced it with a grander and even more poetical truth.

  George Perkins Marsh

  Truth, Science, Errors

  George Perkins Marsh, Stephen C. Trombulak (2001). “So Great a Vision: The Conservation Writings of George Perkins Marsh”, p.80, UPNE

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• In "Mother-Father-God," I talk about how the new thought movement led me to be superstitious. I think that might resonate with a lot of Americans, the superstition around optimism, like 'don't say anything negative' because you might jinx yourself with your thinking.

  Sarah Gerard

  Thinking, Optimism, Say Anything

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Their origin is commonly unknown; for the practice often continues when the cause has ceased, and concerning superstitious ceremonies it is in vain to conjecture; for what reason did not dictate, reason cannot explain.

  Samuel Johnson

  Practice, Causes, Reason

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.150, Univ of California Press

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• Among the English authors, Shakespeare has incomparably excelled all others. That noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great perfection, thoroughly qualified him to touch the weak, superstitious part of his readers' imagination, and made him capable of succeeding where he had nothing to support him besides the strength of his own genius.

  Joseph Addison

  Imagination, Perfection, Support

  Joseph Addison (1975). “Essays in Criticism and Literary Theory”, Harlan Davidson

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• miss my daily Mass, and have a superstitious feeling that anything may happen on the days I don't go. However, nothing in particular has.

  Rose Macaulay

  Missing, Feelings, May

  Rose Macaulay, Constance Babington Smith (2011). “Letters to a Friend”, p.280, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Skaters are infamously superstitious.

  Ashley Wagner

  Skater

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• I'm a little bit superstitious, and I think that just comes from playing hockey. I won't avoid the number thirteen. A big one for me, though, is walking under a ladder. I've always felt like that's tempting fate. That's just throwing it right in their face. Check me out. I just walked under a ladder. What are you going to do about it?

  James Badge Dale

  Hockey, Fate, Thinking

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• Specifically, I would suggest that the effective organization is garrulous, clumsy, superstitious, hypocritical, monstrous, octopoid, wandering, and grouchy.

  Karl E. Weick

  Business, Organization, Hypocritical

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• It is superstitious to put one's hopes in formalities, but arrogant to refuse to submit to them.

  Blaise Pascal

  Arrogant, Ceremony, Submit

  Blaise Pascal (1966). “Pascal Pensées”, Penguin Classics

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• There was this superstitious fear on the part of the pygmies of the present for the relics of the giants of the past.

  Isaac Asimov

  Past, Giants, Relics

  Isaac Asimov (1984). “Second foundation”, Del Rey

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• I still like to keep tapes of the few minutes before the final take, things that happen before the session. Maybe it's superstitious, but I believe if I had done things differently - if I had walked around the studio or gone out - it wouldn't have turned out that way.

  Ray Davies

  Believe, Done, Way

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• I had hated these ponies for the part they played in my father's death but now I realized the notion was fanciful, that it was wrong to charge blame to these pretty beasts who knew neither good nor evil but only innocence. I say that of these ponies. I have known some horses and a good many more pigs who I believe harbored evil intent in their hearts. I will go further and say all cats are wicked, though often useful. Who has not seen Satan in their sly faces? Some preachers will say, well, that is superstitious "claptrap." My answer is this: Preacher, go to your Bible and read Luke 8: 26-33

  Charles Portis

  Horse, Father, Believe

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.40, A&C Black

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• Should it concern us that the bible never calls us to ask Jesus into our hearts. Should it concern us that the bible never mentions such a superstitious sinners prayer and yet that is exactly what we have sold to so many as salvation.

  David Platt

  Jesus, Prayer, Heart

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• When...did it become irrational to dislike religion, any religion, even to dislike it vehemently? When did reason get redescribed as unreason? When were the fairy stories of the superstitious placed above criticism, beyond satire? A religion was not a race. It was an idea, and ideas stood (or fell) because they were strong enough (or too weak) to withstand criticism, not because they were shielded from it. Strong ideas welcomed dissent.

  Salman Rushdie

  Strong, Race, Fairy Stories

  Salman Rushdie (2012). “Joseph Anton”, p.345, Random House

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• I'm not superstitious because it brings bad luck.

  Placido Domingo

  Luck, Bad Luck

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• Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favourable to virtue. Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad.

  Samuel Johnson

  Mad, Solitude, Remember

  "Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. during the last twenty years of his life".

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• Creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set days and times.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Debtors, Creditors, Poor Richard

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.253

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• The proverb says, "Born lucky, always lucky," and I am very superstitious. As a small boy I was notoriously lucky. It was usual for one or two of our lads (per annum) to get drowned in the Mississippi or in Bear Creek, but I was pulled out in a 2/3 drowned condition 9 times before I learned to swim, and was considered to be a cat in disguise.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Humorous, Cat

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain’s Letters & Speeches (Annotated Edition)”, p.706, Jazzybee Verlag

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• His mother called such people ignorant and superstitious, but his father only shook his head slowly and puffed his pipe and said that sometimes old stories had a grain or two of truth in them and it was best not to take chances. It was why, he said, he crossed himself whenever a black cat crossed his path.

  Stephen King

  Fathers Day, Mother, Cat

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• The whole fabric of our religion is based on superstitious beliefin lies that have been foisted upon us for ages by those directly above us, to whose personal profit and aggrandizement it was to have us continue to believe as they wished us to believe.

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Atheist, Lying, Believe

  Edgar Rice Burroughs (2009). “The Gods of Mars”, p.200, The Floating Press

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• Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs' legs (especially if the frogs are decapitated) and that, on the other hand, any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings (with heads on their shoulders) must be benighted and superstitious.

  William James

  Science, Thinking, Hands

  1907 Pragmatism.

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• The greatest crimes have been found, in many instances, to be compatible with a superstitious piety and devotion; hence it is justly regarded as unsafe to draw any inference in favor of a man's morals, from the fervor or strictness of his religious exercises, even though he himself believe them sincere.

  David Hume

  Religious, Believe, Exercise

  David Hume (2016). “The Natural History of Religion: Revision of Great Book”, p.50, VM eBooks

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• As you grow older, it becomes harder to feel 100 percent happy; you learn all the things that can go wrong, you become superstitious about tempting fate, about bringing disaster upon your life by accidentally feeling too good one day.

  Douglas Coupland

  Fate, Feelings, One Day

  Douglas Coupland (1993). “Shampoo Planet”, p.131, Simon and Schuster

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• Maybe she'd seen too many Japanese horror movies, and maybe it was just a tingle of warning from generations of superstitious ancestors, but suddenly she knew that what Alyssa wanted was not to be saved, but for Shane to join her. In death.

  Rachel Caine

  Generations, Warning, Horror

  Rachel Caine (2012). “Bitter Blood: The Morganville Vampires”, p.125, Penguin

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