Meditation 75
Quotations II
"I hate quotations, tell me what you know." Ralph Waldo Emerson.
But as some people do like quotations and think they can be useful in succinctly communicating an opinion, we will post a selection occasionally. This is the second in a series.
- There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably, some part of him is aware that they are myths, and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dares not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed. Bertrand Russell
- Man is certainly stark mad: he cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen. Michel de Montaigne
- The theory that you should always treat the religious convictions of other people with respect finds no support in the Gospels. Arnold Lunn
- Why has a religious turn of mind always a tendancy to narrow and harden the heart? Robert Burns
- The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad. Nietzsche
- If you talk to God, you're praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. Thomas Szasz
- Fundamentalism isn't about religion. It's about power. Salman Rushdie
- History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it. Lazarus Long (Robert A. Heinlein)
- Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. Bertrand Russell
- The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone: the civilized man to idols of flesh and blood. George Bernard Shaw
- I judge a religion as being good or bad based on whether its adherents become better people as a result of practicing it. Joe Mullally
- The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church. Ferdinand Magellan
- I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously. Douglas Adams
- I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell's ass. Barry Goldwater
- Civilization has come about by going to school more than to church.
Lemuel K. Washburn - I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: ’The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.’ In these words he epitomized the history of the human race. Bertrand Russell
- As the days go by, we face the increasing inevitability that we are alone in a godless, uninhabited, hostile, and meaningless universe. Still... you've got to laugh, haven't you. Holly (ship's computer on Red Dwarf)
- Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Robert A. Heinlein
- Over 10, 000 different religions. Over 35,000 different Christian denominations. They all can't be right. But they all could be wrong. John Tyrrell
- There is a God-shaped vacuum in every heart. Blaise Pascal