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Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.
EDMUND BURKE, Reflections on the Revolution in France
Oftimes our belief, if in another, we would regard a superstition.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy: the mad daughter of a wise mother.
The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame.
H.L. MENCKEN, Baltimore Evening Sun, Sep. 14, 1925
Superstition is the poetry of life.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.
JOSÉ BERGAMÍN, El cohete y la estrella
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
BERTRAND RUSSELL, An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish
O superstition! Your inflexible rigours deprive humanity of the most sensitive hearts.
VOLTAIRE, Fanatacism, or Mahomet the Prophet
How weak our mind is; how quickly it is terrified and unbalanced as soon as we are confronted with a small, incomprehensible fact. Instead of dismissing the problem with: "We do not understand because we cannot find the cause," we immediately imagine terrible mysteries and supernatural powers.
GUY DE MAUPASSANT, "The Horla"
Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.
As it is the chief concern of wise men, to retrench the evils of life, by reasonings of philosophy; so it is the employment of fools, to multiply them, by sentiments of superstition.
WELLINS CALCOTT, Thoughts Moral and Divine
Superstition is a part of the very being of humanity; and when we fancy that we are banishing it altogether, it takes refuge in the strangest nooks and corners, and then suddenly comes forth again, as soon as it believes itself at all safe.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
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