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Philosophers |
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Faith means not wanting to know what is true. —Friedrich Nietzsche
Miracles are propitious accidents. The idea is that of the earth not only becoming covered by myriads of grains of thought
but becoming enclosed in a single thinking envelope
so as to form, functionally, no more than a single vast grain of thought
on the sidereal scale... The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing. My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease
born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense:
no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has. The more you know, the more you know you don't know. The more you own, the more you know you don't own. One cannot step twice into the same river. The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its
brightest ornaments, of those most distinguished ever in popular estimation
for wisdom and virtue, are complete sceptics in religion. |
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A good mind possesses a kingdom. We think in generalities, but we live
in detail. We do not do what we want
and yet we are responsible for what we are--that is the
fact. Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter. Come let us
kill the spirit of gravity. —Arthur Schopenhauer If I were granted omnipotence, and millions of years to experiment in, I
should not think Man much to boast of as the final result of all my efforts. Sometimes the dabblings seem to come together for no clear
reason. Truth emerges from the clash of adverse ideas. The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea
into the water of mediocrity. Invention is the mother of necessity. Lord, make me chaste, but not yet. By nature's kindly disposition most questions
which it is beyond a man's power to answer do not
occur to him at all.
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That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the
chief danger of the time. One cannot conceive anything so strange and
implausible
that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another. There is much pleasure to be gained from useless
knowledge. The unexpected connection is more powerful than one that is obvious. Wit is educated insolence. Religion is all right, so long as you don't take it too seriously. Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies. There is no great genius without some touch of madness. No man treats a motor car as foolishly as he treats another human being.
When the car will not go, he does not attribute its annoying behavior to
sin, he does not say, "You are a wicked motorcar, and I shall not give you
any more petrol until you go." He attempts to find out what is wrong and set
it right. What good could talking to yourself do,
if you already know what you intended to say? When I am working on a
problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong. Sanity is a madness put to good uses. The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure
uniformity, but the one that removes awareness of other possibilities, that
makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the
sense that there is an outside. And I wish no one to believe anything I have written,
unless he is personally persuaded by the evidence of reason. Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism. |
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The harm that theology has done is not to create cruel impulses, but to
give them the sanction of what professes to be a lofty ethic, and to
confer an apparently sacred character upon practices which have dome down
from more ignorant and barbarous ages.
I think, therefore I am.
The "silly question" is the first intimation of some totally new development. That which opposes produces a benefit. Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so. A scholar is just a library's way of making another library. The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular
things in all literature. The errors of great men are venerable
because they are more fruitful that the truths of little men. A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion.
Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they
consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move
against him, believing that he has the gods on his side. The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won't keep.
Something must be done about them.
When the idea is new, its custodians have fervor,
live for it,
and if need be, die for it. There is no slavery but ignorance. Liberty is the child of intelligence. The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves,
and wiser people so full of
doubts. |
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From a scientific point of view, we can make no distinction between the
man who eats little and sees heaven and the man who drinks much and sees
snakes.
Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific
methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know. If the king loves music,
there is little wrong in the land. In the thick of active life, there is more need to stimulate fancy than to
control it. Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for
responsibility. Great ideas, it has been said, come into the world as gently as doves.
Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we can individuals
whose deeds and works every day
negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history. All movements go too far. |
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Comments, corrections, and new quotations |
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1. Blaker, Kimberly; Fundamental of Extremism, Ch. 8 p. 231 2. Mark Edmundson "Defender of the Faith?" New York Times Magazine, Sept. 9, 2007, p. 19 |
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