ESOTERIC - NON MASONIC - Non Masonic / Quotations
Could we make one point clear? Do we use quotations as expressions of thoughts more artfully expressed by others, or as authorities to lend weight to our own thoughts? Just so we know!
“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”- Michel de Montaigne.
Here are some I picked earlier.
“What is wrong with inciting intense dislike of a religion if the activities or teachings of that religion are so outrageous, irrational or abusive of human rights that they deserve to be intensely disliked?” - Rowan Atkinson.
“The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.” - Francis Bacon.
"The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only fault that is laughable is vanity." - Henri Bergson.
“Destruction means construction, for to destroy a false belief is indeed most constructed work.” - Alexander Berkman.
“Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.” - Ambrose Bierce.
“Cynic: A blackguard whose faulty vision causes him to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.” - Ambrose Bierce.
“Sir, the pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing, a very horrid thing.” - Joseph Butler.
“Beware: Ignorance protects itself. Ignorance promotes suspicion. Suspicion engenders fear. Fear quails, irrational and blind, or fear looms, defiant and closed. Blind, closed, suspicious, afraid, ignorance protects itself, and protected, Ignorance grows.” - Octavia E. Butler.
“An egoist can be won over by being respected, a crazy person can be won over by allowing him to behave in an insane manner and a wise person can be won over by truth.” - Chanakya.
“By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.” - Richard Dawkins.
“I accept that there may be things far grander and more incomprehensible than we can possibly imagine.” - Richard Dawkins.
““Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.” - Finley Peter Dunne.
“The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion.” - Albert Einstein.
“It seems hard to sneak a look at God's cards. But that He plays dice and uses "telepathic" methods... is something that I cannot believe for a single moment.” - Albert Einstein.
“I believe that we have to content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding and treat values and moral obligations as a purely human problem—the most important of all human problems.” - Albert Einstein.
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” - Epicurus.
“The quest for absolute certainty is an immature, if not infantile, trait of thinking.” - Herbert Feigl.
“It is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the results of the known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence than of the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestrial intelligence.” - Richard Feynman.
“Human consensus does not generate reality. Were it able to do so, the Sun would have taken to orbiting the Earth some time ago.” - Ursula Goodenough.
In science, “fact” can only mean “confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.” I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.” - Stephen Jay Gould.
“Belief is a moral act for which the believer is to be held responsible.” - Lillian Hellman.
“What is it you most dislike? ‘Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition’.” - Christopher Hitchens.
“The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge.” - Thomas Huxley.
“If there's something you really want to believe, that's what you should question the most.” - Penn Jillette.
“Mathematics is the only true metaphysics.” - Lord Kelvin.
“The fear of questioning one’s belief is superstition at its worst and the major stumbling block to freedom of thought.” - Tony Lee.
“If understanding followed no rule at all, there would be no good in the understanding nor in the matter understood, and to remain in ignorance would be the greatest good.” - Ramon Llull.
“It is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge.” - John Locke.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Underlabourer“A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.” - Thomas Mann.
“It is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded.” - Isaac Newton.
“We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.” - Isaac Newton.
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” - George Orwell.
“What we don't understand we can make mean anything.” - Chuck Palahniuk.
“When the mind has once begun to yield to the weakness of superstition, trifles impress it with the force of conviction.” - Ann Radcliffe.
“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.” - Bertrand paul.
“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 dare 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 paul.
“What science cannot tell us, mankind cannot know.” - Bertrand paul.
“Hypocrites get offended by the truth.” - Jess C. Scott.
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw.
“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.” - Adam Smith.
The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling. - Thomas Sowell.
“It’s best to read the weather forecast before praying for rain.” - Mark Twain.
“When he to whom a person speaks does not understand, and he who speaks does not understand himself, that is metaphysics.” - Voltaire.
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