#sm

It is time we admitted, from kings and presidents on down, that there is no evidence that any of our books was authored by the Creator of the universe. The Bible, it seems certain, was the work of sand-strewn men and women who thought the earth was flat and for whom a wheelbarrow would have been a breathtaking example of emerging technology. To rely on such a document as the basis for our worldview-however heroic the efforts of redactors- is to repudiate two thousand years of civilizing insights that the human mind has only just begun to inscribe upon itself through secular politics and scientific culture. We will see that the greatest problem confronting civilization is not merely religious extremism: rather, it is the larger set of cultural and intellectual accommodations we have made to faith itself. ↗

— Sam Harris

#faith

How fortunate it was for the world that when these great trials came upon it there was a generation that terror could not conquer and brutal violence could not enslave. ↗

— Winston Churchill

#terrorism

I think writers are the most narcissistic people. Well, I musn't say this, I like many of them, a great many of my friends are writers. ↗

— Sylvia Plath

#poets #writers #poets

What is a drop of rain, compared to the storm? What is a thought, compared to the mind? Our unity is full of wonder which your tiny individualism cannot even conceive. ↗

— Ken Levine

#unity #unity

Under these conditions it is no wonder, that the movement of atheists, which declares religion to be just a deliberate illusion, invented by power-seeking priests, and which has for the pious belief in a higher Power nothing but words of mockery, eagerly makes use of progressive scientific knowledge and in a presumed unity with it, expands in an ever faster pace its disintegrating action on all nations of the earth and on all social levels. I do not need to explain in any more detail that after its victory not only all the most precious treasures of our culture would vanish, but – which is even worse – also any prospects at a better future. ↗

— Max Planck

#religion #science #religion

What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#environment #environmental-protection #materialism #possessions #environment

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#skepticism #truth #determination

I believe you need to be educated on what you want to do in life, but I don't believe you necessarily need collage to get there. ↗

— Will Smith actor

#will-smith #education

Always resignation and acceptance. Always prudence and honour and duty. Elinor, where is your heart? ↗

— Jane Austen

#duty

I don't know what he means by that, but I nod and smile at him. You'd be surprised at how far that response can get you in a conversation where you are completely confused. ↗

— Jodi Picoult

#conversation #smiling #conversation