quotations about superstition
I would rather dwell in the dim fog of superstition than in air rarified to nothing by the air-pump of unbelief, in which the panting breast expires, vainly and convulsively gasping for breath.
JEAN PAUL
Titan
You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion.... Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough.
ALDOUS HUXLEY
"Amor Fati", Texts and Pretexts
Superstition is the spleen of the soul.
ALEXANDER POPE
"Thoughts on Various Subjects"
How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables for us?
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
The Complete Essays
Inclinations of illusion make weak men superstitious and superstitious men weak.... The illusion that leads them to mistake the subjective for the objective, to take the voice of inner sense for knowledge of things themselves, also makes the tendency to superstition comprehensible.
IMMANUEL KANT
Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View
The scientific spirit has cast out the demons, and presented us with nature clothed in her right mind and living under the reign of law. It has given us, for the sorceries of the alchemist, the beautiful laws of chemistry; for the dreams of the astrologer, the sublime truths of astronomy; for the wild visions of cosmogony, the monumental records of geology; for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws of God.
JAMES A. GARFIELD
speech given while a member of the U. S. House of Representatives, December 16, 1867
If the hunters think we do all things by chants and spells, they may believe so -- it does not hurt them.
STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT
By the Waters of Babylon
I don't consider myself superstitious, but if I spill salt, you can bet your cloven hooves I am throwing a pinch over my shoulder to blind the devil.
FLAVIA BERTOLINI
"Don't do that, it's bad luck! There are a lot of superstitions out there, and some of them are really quite peculiar", Mirror, April 30, 2017
We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. We can tell the truth, and we can enjoy the blessed freedom that the brave have won. We can destroy the monsters of superstition, the hissing snakes of ignorance and fear. We can drive from our minds the frightful things that tear and wound with beak and fang. We can civilize our fellow-men. We can fill our lives with generous deeds, with loving words, with art and song, and all the ecstasies of love. We can flood our years with sunshine -- with the divine climate of kindness, and we can drain to the last drop the golden cup of joy.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
"Why I Am an Agnostic", The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin' strong,
You don't wanna save me, sad is my song
STEVIE WONDER
"Superstition", Talking Book
Face the demons of the past
Portend a lost continent
Follow the tracks to carnage
Forever it will seal your fate
Beyond the superstition
No man's land
SINISTER
"Beyond the Superstition"
Superstitions offer a way for humans to shape our destinies--or try to. Many of us follow rituals to stave off bad luck, attract romance, or keep our own inner worlds intact.
NATALIE ZARRELLI
"The Totally Jinxed Map of Global Superstitions", Atlas Obscura, December 15, 2016
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
Men become superstitious, not because they have too much imagination, but because they are not aware that they have any.
GEORGE SANTAYANA
Atoms of Thought
Superstition is the ape of true devotion.
JOSEPH HALL
Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old and New Testaments
Death approaches, which is always impending like the stone over Tantalus: then comes superstition with which he who is imbued can never have peace of mind.
CICERO
De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum
Pure religion and undefiled softens the manners by enlightening the mind, while superstition by making it blind, inspires every kind of madness.
VOLTAIRE
attributed, Day's Collacon
May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826
Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible....
BATMAN
Detective Comics #33
Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage