#eli

If you want to teach your children that they are the tools of God, you had better not teach them that they are God's rifles, or we will have to stand firmly opposed to you: your doctrine has no glory, no special rights, no intrinsic and inalienable merit. If you insist on teaching your children false-hoods—that the Earth is flat, that "Man" is not a product of evolution by natural selection—then you must expect, at the very least, that those of us who have freedom of speech will feel free to describe your teachings as the spreading of falsehoods, and will attempt to demonstrate this to your children at our earliest opportunity. Our future well-being—the well-being of all of us on the planet—depends on the education of our descendants. ↗

— Daniel C. Dennett

#religion #science #education

The Professor never really seemed to care whether we figured out the right answer to a problem. He preferred our wild, desperate guesses to silence, and he was even more delighted when those guesses led to new problems that took us beyond the original one. He had a special feeling for what he called the "correct miscalculation," for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers. ↗

— Yoko Ogawa

#delight #guesses #math #struggle #math

Reflection is the lamp of the heart. If it departs, the heart will have no light. ↗

— Imam 'Abdallah ibn 'Alawi al-Haddad

#religion #spirituality #sufism #religion

The thought manifests the word; The word manifests the deed; The deed develops into habit; And habit hardens into character; So watch the thought and its ways with care, And let them spring forth from love Born out of compassion for all beings. As the shadow follows the body, as we think, so we become. ↗

— Juan Mascaró

#compassion #integrity #religion #love

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. ↗

— Napoleon Bonaparte

#organized-religion #religion #religion

The exaltation and happiness of any community, goes hand in hand with the knowledge possessed by the people, when applied to laudable ends; whereupon we can exclaim like the wise man; righteousness exalteth a nation; for righteousness embraces knowledge and knowledge is power. ↗

— Joseph Smith Jr.

#inspiriational #knowledge #lds #mormon #religion

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self. ↗

— May Sarton

#loneliness #solitude #rich

I said, I prefer the ocean when it's gray. Or not really gray. A pale, in-between color. It reminds me of waiting for something good to happen. ↗

— Lauren Oliver

#waiting

The belief that the world was created yesterday seems to hold great appeal to those born at that time. ↗

— Gary Malone

#creationism #religion #religious-fundamentalism #science #stupidity

Adrian's new research partner stepped through the door, and I knew the uneasy peace we'd just established in Palm Springs was about to shatter. Dimitri Belikov had arrived. ↗

— Richelle Mead

#dimitri-belikov #spring