#superstition

Ah, yes, superstition: it would appear to be cowardice in face of the supernatural. ↗

— Theophrastus

#appear #cowardice #face #supernatural #superstition

I'm a third done into a new book but sorry - I have a superstition about talking about it! ↗

— Joanna Trollope

#book #done #i #into #new

Let this circumstance of our constitution therefore be directed to this noble purpose, and then all the objections urged against it by jealous tyranny and affrighted superstition will vanish. ↗

— Adam Weishaupt

#circumstance #constitution #directed #jealous #noble

This is the great object held out by this association; and the means of attaining it is illumination, enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason which will dispell the clouds of superstition and of prejudice. ↗

— Adam Weishaupt

#attaining #clouds #enlightening #great #held

We continue to need exhortations to be sympathetic and just, even if we do not believe that there is a God who has a hand in wishing to make us so. We no longer have to be brought into line by the threat of hell or the promise of paradise; we merely have to be reminded that it is we ourselves -- that is, the most mature and reasonable parts of us (seldom present in the midst of our crises and obsessions) -- who want to lead the sort of life which we once imagined supernatural beings demanded of us. An adequate evolution of morality from superstition to reason should mean recognizing ourselves as the authors of our own moral commandments. ↗

— Alain de Botton

#commandments #god #life #morality #morals

Mankind accepts good fortune as his due, but when bad occurs, he thinks it was aimed at him, done to him, a hex, a curse, a punishment by his deity for some transgression, as though his god were a petty storekeeper, counting up the day's receipts. ↗

— Sheri S. Tepper

#curse #destiny #divine-intervention #fate #fortune

Superstition is the poison of the mind. ↗

— Joseph Lewis

#poison #superstition

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable. ↗

— H. L. Mencken

#almost #any #comes #conclusion #dangerous

Ignorance and superstition ever bear a close and mathematical relation to each other. ↗

— James F. Cooper

#close #each #ever #ignorance #mathematical

In better times the religion of the tribe or state has nothing in common with the private and foreign superstitions or magical rites that savage terror may dictate to the individual. ↗

— William Robertson Smith

#common #dictate #foreign #individual #magical