Freethought Quotes
Quotes tagged as "freethought"
Showing 1-30 of 222
“If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and the fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind that he was an impostor... We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications... That sect [Jews] had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust... Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of the superstition, a blood thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law... That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.
[Letter to William Short, 4 August, 1820]”
― Letters of Thomas Jefferson
[Letter to William Short, 4 August, 1820]”
― Letters of Thomas Jefferson
“No idea is above scrutiny and no people are beneath dignity.”
― Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue
― Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue
“If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. For the dissenter, the skeptical mentality is at least as important as any armor of principle.”
― Letters to a Young Contrarian
― Letters to a Young Contrarian
“As nature has uncovered from under this hard shell the seed for which she most tenderly cares - the propensity and vocation to free thinking - this gradually works back upon the character of the people, who thereby gradually become capable of managing freedom; finally, it affects the principles of government, which finds it to its advantage to treat men, who are now more than machines, in accordance with their dignity.”
― An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?
― An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?
“In an average day, you may well be confronted with some species of bullying or bigotry, or some ill-phrased appeal to the general will, or some petty abuse of authority. If you have a political loyalty, you may be offered a shady reason for agreeing to a lie or a half-truth that serves some short-term purpose. Everybody devises tactics for getting through such moments; try behaving "as if" they need not be tolerated and are not inevitable.”
― Letters to a Young Contrarian
― Letters to a Young Contrarian
“I leave pansies, the symbolic flower of freethought, in memory of the Great Agnostic, Robert Ingersoll, who stood for equality, education, progress, free ideas and free lives, against the superstition and bigotry of religious dogma. We need men like him today more than ever. His writing still inspires us and challenges the 'better angels' of our nature, when people open their hearts and minds to his simple, honest humanity. Thank goodness he was here.”
―
―
“People know when they are being lied to, they know when their rulers are absurd, they know they do not love their chains.”
― Letters to a Young Contrarian
― Letters to a Young Contrarian
“Indeed it may be said with some confidence that the average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. There are moments when his cogitations are relatively more respectable than usual, but even at their climaxes they never reach anything properly describable as the level of serious thought. The mental activity of such people is only a mouthing of clichés. What they mistake for thought is simply a repetition of what they have heard. My guess is that well over eighty per cent. of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought. That is to say, they never think anything that has not been thought before and by thousands.”
― Minority Report
― Minority Report
“Nearly all people stand in great horror of annihilation, and yet to give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself. Mental slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul.”
―
―
“As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect.”
― Self-Reliance: An Excerpt from Collected Essays, First Series
― Self-Reliance: An Excerpt from Collected Essays, First Series
“The terrible error in the course of human civilization is undoubtedly the defective judgment that allowed religious authorities usurp the foundation of societal morality, in which all collective ethics of humankind must take a cause. This appalling blunder is comparable only to assigning the leper exclusive franchise to run beauty clinics in the society; this can only lead to cycles upon cycles of common infection syndrome.”
― Echoes of Common Sense
― Echoes of Common Sense
“[n regard to Jesus believing himself inspired]
This belief carried no more personal imputation than the belief of Socrates that he was under the care and admonition of a guardian demon. And how many of our wisest men still believe in the reality of these inspirations while perfectly sane on all other subjects (Works, Vol. iv, p. 327).”
―
This belief carried no more personal imputation than the belief of Socrates that he was under the care and admonition of a guardian demon. And how many of our wisest men still believe in the reality of these inspirations while perfectly sane on all other subjects (Works, Vol. iv, p. 327).”
―
“Atheism is a natural result of intellectual honesty.”
― Liberated from Religion: The Inestimable Pleasure of Being a Freethinker
― Liberated from Religion: The Inestimable Pleasure of Being a Freethinker
“I don't reject God, because for me to be able to reject him he first would have to exist.”
― Wasting Time on God: Why I Am an Atheist
― Wasting Time on God: Why I Am an Atheist
“For every existence wasted in unexistence,
Civilization is set back a hundred years.
Object of existence is the unfolding of life,
Not the worship of spiritless structures.”
― Yarasistan: My Wounds, My Crown
Civilization is set back a hundred years.
Object of existence is the unfolding of life,
Not the worship of spiritless structures.”
― Yarasistan: My Wounds, My Crown
“Some people hate pigs,
Some people love pigs,
Some people behave like pigs.
Some people worship cows,
Some people feast on cows,
Some people just act like cows.
Eat what you like,
Believe what you like.
As long as you don't
behave like pigs and cows,
let no tradition be your guide.”
― Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World
Some people love pigs,
Some people behave like pigs.
Some people worship cows,
Some people feast on cows,
Some people just act like cows.
Eat what you like,
Believe what you like.
As long as you don't
behave like pigs and cows,
let no tradition be your guide.”
― Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World
“Conscience is my constitution,
Compassion is my culture,
Character is my government.
I don't need any second hand
constitution, second hand culture,
second hand government.”
― Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch
Compassion is my culture,
Character is my government.
I don't need any second hand
constitution, second hand culture,
second hand government.”
― Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch
“In a world that rewards
second-hand existence,
Stand alone and original,
as a first-hand sapiens.”
― Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat
second-hand existence,
Stand alone and original,
as a first-hand sapiens.”
― Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat
“De som styr har inte det mod som krävs, och jag hör dig säga att man måste ha vuxit upp som jag, i städer där man kan tänka allt och säga allt utan att frukta något, för att kunna avstå från att ta risker.”
― All Those Things We Never Said
― All Those Things We Never Said
“Hur skulle jag kunna hålla kvar dig, du som saknat friheten så mycket?”
― All Those Things We Never Said
― All Those Things We Never Said
“More than being the spark of reason,
Be the reason for someone's spark.
Better than bearing the light of faith,
Instill faith in someone's light.”
― Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets
Be the reason for someone's spark.
Better than bearing the light of faith,
Instill faith in someone's light.”
― Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets
“Tradition divides, tradition unites;
Choose carefully the tradition you live.
Not all traditions imposed on you are good,
You gotta use conscience to pick and mix.”
― Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets
Choose carefully the tradition you live.
Not all traditions imposed on you are good,
You gotta use conscience to pick and mix.”
― Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets
“A consensus by itself is meaningless. It was once the consensus that the earth was flat, that the sun orbited the stationary earth, that the Catholic Church was the source of all Truth, that Jesus Christ was God, and that classical physics was almost perfect, bar a fee minor details. All great advances have come about by overturning the consensus. That’s actually the definition of a great advance! To say that no one should be allowed to challenge or doubt the consensus is just about the most serious anti-science statement that anyone can make. That’s turning science into religion, a faith that no one is allowed to question!
It’s a simple fact that no matter what the scientific consensus is – and science has been wrong about countless things in its history, and even defines itself according to the principles that all of its claims must be capable of falsification or verification, hence it always places a doubt over itself – the consensus can be completely misguided and mistaken. The dogmatic assertion that it is wrong to spread “doubt and confusion” after “a scientific consensus had been reached” is simply chilling. This is the quintessence of the paradigmatic, blinkered scientific thinking attacked by Thomas Kuhn.”
― The Sam Harris Delusion
It’s a simple fact that no matter what the scientific consensus is – and science has been wrong about countless things in its history, and even defines itself according to the principles that all of its claims must be capable of falsification or verification, hence it always places a doubt over itself – the consensus can be completely misguided and mistaken. The dogmatic assertion that it is wrong to spread “doubt and confusion” after “a scientific consensus had been reached” is simply chilling. This is the quintessence of the paradigmatic, blinkered scientific thinking attacked by Thomas Kuhn.”
― The Sam Harris Delusion
“A cup is just crockery
till there is coffee in it.
A head is just a skull
till there's a mind in it.”
― World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets
till there is coffee in it.
A head is just a skull
till there's a mind in it.”
― World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets
“Prejudice is sense of the caves, reason is sense of civilization.”
― World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets
― World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets
“I used to use 'manifest' as taking charge, till I realized, it evoked new-age stupidity.”
― The Divine Refugee
― The Divine Refugee
“Rise, rise and rise again,
rise till cages collapse in dust.
Roar, roar and roar again,
roar till creeds crumble to past.”
― The Divine Refugee
rise till cages collapse in dust.
Roar, roar and roar again,
roar till creeds crumble to past.”
― The Divine Refugee
“Refurbished laptops are useless no more, refurbished awareness is awareness no more.”
― The Divine Refugee
― The Divine Refugee
All Quotes
|
My Quotes
|
Add A Quote
Browse By Tag
- Love Quotes 97.5k
- Life Quotes 76k
- Inspirational Quotes 72.5k
- Humor Quotes 43.5k
- Philosophy Quotes 29.5k
- Inspirational Quotes Quotes 27k
- God Quotes 26k
- Wisdom Quotes 23.5k
- Truth Quotes 23.5k
- Romance Quotes 23k
- Poetry Quotes 22k
- Death Quotes 20k
- Happiness Quotes 18.5k
- Life Lessons Quotes 18.5k
- Hope Quotes 18k
- Faith Quotes 18k
- Quotes Quotes 16.5k
- Inspiration Quotes 16.5k
- Spirituality Quotes 15k
- Religion Quotes 15k
- Motivational Quotes 15k
- Writing Quotes 14.5k
- Relationships Quotes 14.5k
- Life Quotes Quotes 14k
- Love Quotes Quotes 14k
- Success Quotes 13.5k
- Time Quotes 12.5k
- Motivation Quotes 12k
- Science Quotes 11.5k
- Knowledge Quotes 11k