Is it not time to cry that the blind shall see, the deaf hear, the lame walk? But that which fanaticism formerly promised to its elect, science now accomplishes for all men.

{From Lindsey’s address at the funeral of renowned scientist Luther Burbank. Burbank was one of the most beloved people in the early 20th century due to his countless contributions to humanity, but when, in an...

She could have rambled with all the fervor of a woman who had loved one entity for longer than most races live, and with the inviolable, unquestioned certainty found in dementia. There were references dated...

If I were asked for a one-sentence sound bite on religion, I would say I was against it.

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.”[My Uncle Sosthenes]

There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything.

You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission.

The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable government, Jews,...

It is also the irrational instinct of religionism, the vague yearning for something to worship—a reflection or shadow of the true devotional principle—which prompts men to project a subjective image of the lower, personal mind,...

There is no place in a fanatic’s head where reason can enter.

[W]hat makes patriotic and religious fanatics such dangerous opponents is not the deaths of the fanatics themselves, but their willingness to accept the deaths of a fraction of their number in order to annihilate or...

Think of people you consider fanatical. They’re overbearing, self-righteous, opinionated, insensitive, and harsh. Why? It’s not because they are too Christian, it’s because they are not Christian enough. They are fanatically zealous and courageous, but...

I give no shit to what extent they believe in superstitions and fanaticism. But I will fight till death, if their fallacious belief hurts any individual.

The ‘average sensual man’ who is sometimes unfaithful to his wife, sometimes tipsy, always a little selfish, now and then (within the law) a trifle sharp in his deals, is certainly, by ordinary standards, a...

fanaticism is the only way to put an end to the doubts that constantly trouble the human soul.

There are many instances in history of people who allow their skepticism to cut the nerve of moral effort, and there are numerous people, on the other hand, who are fierce crusaders at the price...

What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he’s certain he’ll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?

Freedom, too, can be a trap if you pursue it too doggedly.

Religious fanaticism and hatred are a world-devouring fire, whose violence none can quench.

The one great advantage of Bhakti is that it is the easiest and most natural way to reach the great divine end in view; it’s great disadvantage is that in its lower forms it oftentimes...

Two mystic states can be dissociated: the ecstatic-beneficent-and-benevolent, contemplation of the divine love, the divine splendour with goodwill toward others.And the bestial, namely the fanatical, the man on fire with God and anxious to stick...

People who change their religion should face the death penalty.

Everything in moderation, even the truth

There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty.

People are never so completely and enthusiastically evil as when they act out of religious conviction.

In the long run I certainly hope information is the cure for fanaticism, but I am afraid information is more the cause than the cure.

If he is terrorising the terrorists, if he is terrorising America the terrorist […] I am with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist.

All extreme opinions consume themselves.

Every November of my boyhood, we put on red poppies and attended highly patriotic services in remembrance of those who had ‘given’ their lives. But on what assurance did we know that these gifts had...

Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.

It is precisely that requirement of shared worship that has been the principal source of suffering for individual man and the human race since the beginning of history. In their efforts to impose universal worship,...

Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves. The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it.

Long before it was known to me as a place where my ancestry was even remotely involved, the idea of a state for Jews (or a Jewish state; not quite the same thing, as I...

In that face, deformed by hatred of philosophy, I saw for the first time the portrait of the Antichrist, who does not come from the tribe of Judas, as his heralds have it, or from...

Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions. It is the resistance offered to definite ideas by that vague bulk of people whose ideas are indefinite to excess. Bigotry...

Let me lose everything on earth and the world beyond, but let me not lose what I’m craving for, let it be that i died on the way than retreating from getting it.

Hitherto, the Palestinians had been relatively immune to this Allahu Akhbar style. I thought this was a hugely retrograde development. I said as much to Edward. To reprint Nazi propaganda and to make a theocratic...

Modern fanaticism thrives in proportion to the quanitity of contradictions and nonsense it poures down the throats of the gaping multitude, and the jargon and mysticism it offers to their wonder and credulity.

Fanaticism and terrorism have no place in Islam.

Fanatics are like debris following the course of the wind, they are swept around like sand, and convinced to believe in what they do not understand.

Thus identified with astronomy, in proclaiming truths supposed to be hostile to Scripture, Geology has been denounced as the enemy of religion. The twin sisters of terrestrial and celestial physics have thus been joint-heirs of...

Religious fanaticism is the most dangerous form of insanity.

If a man happen to take it into his head to assassinate with his own hands, or with the sword of justice, those whom he calls heretics, that is, people who think, or perhaps only...

There is such a thing as fanaticism, it is always wrong, and if you disagree, you’re wrong too.

It is often said that mankind needs a faith if the world is to be improved. In fact, unless the faith is vigilantly and regularly checked by a sense of man’s fallibility, it is likely...

From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.