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2011 December 30
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"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances,
the more certain it seems to me that the path
to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life,
and the fear of death, and blind faith,
but through striving after rational knowledge." |
"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire,
I think the system of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us,
the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has
received various corrupting Changes; and I have, with most of the
present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity." |
"Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths
without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty:
that what we believe is not necessarily true;
that what we like is not necessarily good;
and that all questions are open." |
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2011 December 29
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"A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion.
Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment
from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious." |
"I don't know a more irreligious attitude, one more utterly bankrupt of any human content, than one which permits children to be destroyed." |
"Communism and fascism or nazism, although poles apart in their intellectual content, are similar in this, that both have emotional appeal to the type of personality that takes pleasure in being submerged in a mass movement and submitting to superior authority." |
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2011 December 28
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"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." |
"Truth: the most deadly weapon ever discovered by humanity.
Capable of destroying entire perceptual sets, cultures, and realities.
Outlawed by all governments everywhere.
Possession is normally punishable by death." |
"Freedom of thought is the only guarantee
against an infection of people by mass myths,
which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues,
can be transformed into bloody dictatorships." |
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2011 December 27
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"Believe nothing merely because you have been told it.
Do not believe what your teacher tells you
merely out of respect for the teacher.
But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis,
you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit,
the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to,
and take it as your guide." |
"The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly
over the nature of the thinking process in man, but no matter
how violently they differ otherwise they all agree that
it has little to do with logic and is not much conditioned
by overt facts." |
"Do the people of this land…desire to preserve those [liberties] protected by the First Amendment… If so, let them withstand all beginnings of encroachment. For the saddest epitaph which can be carved in memory of a vanquished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed to stretch for a saving hand while yet there was time." |
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2011 December 26
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"That the religious right completely took over the word Christian is a given. At one time, phrases such as Christian charity and Christian tolerance were used to denote kindness and compassion. To perform a "Christian" act meant an act of giving, of acceptance, of toleration. Now, Christian is invariably linked to right-wing conservative political thought -- Christian nation, Christian morality, Christian values, Christian family." |
"If there is a God who will damn his children forever, I would rather go to hell than to go to heaven and keep the society of such an infamous tyrant. I make my choice now. I despise that doctrine. It has covered the cheeks of this world with tears. It has polluted the hearts of children, and poisoned the imaginations of men. It has been a constant pain, a perpetual terror to every good man and woman and child. It has filled the good with horror and with fear; but it has had no effect upon the infamous and base. It has wrung the hearts of the tender, it has furrowed the cheeks of the good. This doctrine never should be preached again. What right have you, sir, Mr. clergyman, you, minister of the gospel to stand at the portals of the tomb, at the vestibule of eternity, and fill the future with horror and with fear? I do not believe this doctrine, neither do you. If you did, you could not sleep one moment. Any man who believes it, and has within his breast a decent, throbbing heart, will go insane. A man who believes that doctrine and does not go insane has the heart of a snake and the conscience of a hyena." |
"The objection to Puritans is not that
they try to make us think as they do,
but that they try to make us do as they think." |
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