"If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition - even when it seems to be doing a little good - we abet a general climate in which scepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate."
Superstitions quotes
Superstitions
237 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Superstitions
Browse quotes that often appear alongside superstitions — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Superstitions quotes (page 2 of 12)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy of superstition."
"You must develop the habit of skepticism, not swallow every piece of superstition you are told by witch-doctors and professors."
"I think we cannot too strongly attack superstition, which is the disturber of society; nor too highly respect genuine religion, which is the support of it."
"Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism."
"One of the greatest superstitions of our time is the belief that it has none."
"I have inherited this burden of superstition and nonsense. I govern innumerable men but must acknowledge that I am governed by birds and thunderclaps"
"There is in superstition a senseless fear of God; religion consists in the pious worship of Him."
"Superstition is rooted in a much deeper and more sensitive layer of the psyche than skepticism."
"Superstition is the poesy of practical life; hence, a poet is none the worse for being superstitious."
"Theology is Classified Superstition."
"I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge."
"The opinion prevailed among advanced minds that it was time that belief should be replaced increasingly by knowledge; belief that did not itself rest on knowledge was superstition, and as such had to be opposed."
"You will not think it unnatural that those who have an object depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclining to superstition."
"Wherever there is failure, there is some giddiness, some superstition about luck, some step omitted, which, Nature never pardons."
"To get any reason out of the mass of incongruity we call human life, we have to transcend our reason, but we must do it scientifically, slowly, by regular practice, and we must cast off all superstition."
"In all superstition wise men follow fools."
"When the human race has once acquired a superstition, nothing short of death is ever likely to remove it."
"We live in a time of twin credulities: the hunger for the miraculous combined with a servile awe of science. The mating of the two gives us superstition plus scientism -- a Mongoloid metaphysic."
"Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge. It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being."