quotations about superstition
The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever dangerous.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to William Short, August 4, 1820
It is the business of science to offer rational explanations for all the events in the real world, and any scientist who calls on God to explain something is falling down on his job. This applies as much to the start of the expansion as to any other event. If the explanation is not forthcoming at once, the scientist must suspend judgment: but if he is worth his salt he will always maintain that a rational explanation will eventually be found. This is the one piece of dogmatism that a scientist can allow himself--and without it science would be in danger of giving way to superstition every time that a problem defied solution for a few years.
WILLIAM B. BONNER
The Mystery of the Expanding Universe
The causes of superstition are: pleasing and sensual rites and ceremonies; excess of outward and pharisaical holiness; overgreat reverence of traditions, which cannot but load the church; the stratagems of prelates, for their own ambition and lucre; the favoring too much of good intentions, which openeth the gate to conceits and novelties; the taking an aim at divine matters, by human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations: and, lastly, barbarous times, especially joined with calamities and disasters.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Superstition", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
Science of to-day -- the superstition of to-morrow. Science of to-morrow -- the superstition of to-day.
CHARLES FORT
The Book of the Damned
The superstitions of today are the scientific facts of tomorrow.
JOHN L. BALDERSTON
Dracula
If superstition is driven from the mind ... all must be the work of man. The grand victories of the future must be won by man, and by man alone.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
On the Gods and Other Essays
Religion was the lullaby of the cradle, the ghost-story told by the old woman, Superstition.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage
To combat superstition one must be a believer.
MADAME SWETCHINE
attributed, Day's Collacon
As darkness encourages the growth of reptiles, so in an inverse manner, do the creatures of superstition promote the growth of darkness.
LADY BLESSINGTON
attributed, Day's Collacon
There is in superstition a senseless fear of God; religion consists in the pious worship of Him.
CICERO
De Natura Deorum
History warns us ... that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions.
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
"The Coming Age of the Origin of Species", Collected Essays
We were children, it is true, yet we were descendants of people who read books and who were, or should have been, beyond superstition and impervious to mindless fear.
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Collected Stories
On the hills the fires burned at midnight
Superstition plagued the air
Sparks fly as the fires burn at midnight
The stars are out and magic is here...
BLACKMORE'S NIGHT
"Fires at Midnight"
O superstition! Your inflexible rigours deprive humanity of the most sensitive hearts.
VOLTAIRE
Fanatacism, or Mahomet the Prophet
The glossy surface of our civilization hides a real intellectual decadence. There is no area in our minds reserved for superstition, such as the Greeks had in their mythology; and superstition, under cover of an abstract vocabulary, has revenged itself by invading the entire realm of thought.
SIMONE WEIL
"The Power of Words", Selected Essays
Foul Superstition! howsoe'er disguised,
Idol, saint, virgin, prophet, crescent, cross,
For whatsoever symbol thou art prized,
Thou sacerdotal gain, but general loss!
Who from true worship's gold can separate thy dross?
LORD BYRON
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
When man seized the loadstone of science, the loadstar of superstition vanished in the clouds.
WILLIAM R. ALGER
attributed, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources
"Superstition" is simply a derogative term for a belief about the supernatural that you don't share.
WENDY KAMINER
Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials
Refuge in superstitions and dreams
Toying with the imaginary
Memory becomes a luxury
Refuge in superstitions and dreams
It's no way to make History
STEREOLAB
"Check and Double Check"
A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
"Maxims for Revolutionists", Man and Superman