Superstitious Quotes

“[Said during a debate when his opponent asserted that atheism and belief in evolution lead to Nazism:]

Atheism by itself is, of course, not a moral position or a political one of any kind; it simply is the refusal to believe in a supernatural dimension. For you to say of Nazism that it was the implementation of the work of Charles Darwin is a filthy slander, undeserving of you and an insult to this audience. Darwin’s thought was not taught in Germany; Darwinism was so derided in Germany along with every other form of unbelief that all the great modern atheists, Darwin, Einstein and Freud were alike despised by the National Socialist regime.

Now, just to take the most notorious of the 20th century totalitarianisms – the most finished example, the most perfected one, the most ruthless and refined one: that of National Socialism, the one that fortunately allowed the escape of all these great atheists, thinkers and many others, to the United States, a country of separation of church and state, that gave them welcome – if it’s an atheistic regime, then how come that in the first chapter of Mein Kampf, that Hitler says that he’s doing God’s work and executing God’s will in destroying the Jewish people? How come the fuhrer oath that every officer of the Party and the Army had to take, making Hitler into a minor god, begins, “I swear in the name of almighty God, my loyalty to the Fuhrer?” How come that on the belt buckle of every Nazi soldier it says Gott mit uns, God on our side? How come that the first treaty made by the Nationalist Socialist dictatorship, the very first is with the Vatican? It’s exchanging political control of Germany for Catholic control of German education. How come that the church has celebrated the birthday of the Fuhrer every year, on that day until democracy put an end to this filthy, quasi-religious, superstitious, barbarous, reactionary system?

Again, this is not a difference of emphasis between us. To suggest that there’s something fascistic about me and about my beliefs is something I won't hear said and you shouldn't believe.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“Note, to-day, an instructive, curious spectacle and conflict. Science, (twin, in its fields, of Democracy in its)—Science, testing absolutely all thoughts, all works, has already burst well upon the world—a sun, mounting, most illuminating, most glorious—surely never again to set. But against it, deeply entrench'd, holding possession, yet remains, (not only through the churches and schools, but by imaginative literature, and unregenerate poetry,) the fossil theology of the mythic-materialistic, superstitious, untaught and credulous, fable-loving, primitive ages of humanity.”
― Walt Whitman, Complete Prose Works

“Study, along the lines which the theologies have mapped, will never lead us to discovery of the fundamental facts of our existence. That goal must be attained by means of exact science and can only be achieved by such means. The fact that man, for ages, has superstitiously believed in what he calls a God does not prove at all that his theory has been right. There have been many gods – all makeshifts, born of inability to fathom the deep fundamental truth. There must be something at the bottom of existence, and man, in ignorance, being unable to discover what it is through reason, because his reason has been so imperfect, undeveloped, has used, instead, imagination, and created figments, of one kind or another, which, according to the country he was born in, the suggestions of his environment, satisfied him for the time being. Not one of all the gods of all the various theologies has ever really been proved. We accept no ordinary scientific fact without the final proof; why should we, then, be satisfied in this most mighty of all matters, with a mere theory?

Destruction of false theories will not decrease the sum of human happiness in future, any more than it has in the past... The days of miracles have passed. I do not believe, of course, that there was ever any day of actual miracles. I cannot understand that there were ever any miracles at all. My guide must be my reason, and at thought of miracles my reason is rebellious. Personally, I do not believe that Christ laid claim to doing miracles, or asserted that he had miraculous power...

Our intelligence is the aggregate intelligence of the cells which make us up. There is no soul, distinct from mind, and what we speak of as the mind is just the aggregate intelligence of cells. It is fallacious to declare that we have souls apart from animal intelligence, apart from brains. It is the brain that keeps us going. There is nothing beyond that.

Life goes on endlessly, but no more in human beings than in other animals, or, for that matter, than in vegetables. Life, collectively, must be immortal, human beings, individually, cannot be, as I see it, for they are not the individuals – they are mere aggregates of cells.

There is no supernatural. We are continually learning new things. There are powers within us which have not yet been developed and they will develop. We shall learn things of ourselves, which will be full of wonders, but none of them will be beyond the natural.

[Columbian Magazine interview]”
― Thomas A. Edison

“Life is not easy. We all have problems-even tragedies-to deal with, and luck has nothing to do with it. Bad luck is only the superstitious excuse for those who don't have the wit to deal with the problems of life. ”
― Joan Lowery Nixon, In the Face of Danger

“Somewhere I’d heard, or invented perhaps, that the only pleasures found during a waning moon are misfortunes in disguise. Superstition aside, I avoid pleasure during the waning or absent moon out of respect for the bounty this world offers me. I profit from great harvests in life and believe in the importance of seasons.”
― Roman Payne, Rooftop Soliloquy

“As you grow older, it becomes harder to feel 100 percent happy; you learn all the things that can go wrong, you become superstitious about tempting fate, about bringing disaster upon your life by accidentally feeling too good one day.”
― Douglas Coupland

“Modern society must show courage and willingness to replace common superstitions with common sense.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“As I am sure you know, we seafaring men are a superstitious lot.”
― Wilbur Smith, The Golden Lion

“It is this simple, not everything that is old is bad, but at the same time, just because it is old and traditional, doesn't make it civilized.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mucize Insan: When The World is Family

“Why does the mind crave superstition! It's because superstition is a psychological apparatus for self-preservation. And it appears to us as truth because the only truth our brain is concerned with is the one that takes away our anxiety and aids in our survival, even if that truth happens to be just another lie our brain cooks up to maintain internal order.

However, neurologically speaking, there is no such thing as a mind without superstition. Your belief that you have no superstition, is just another superstition. So, it's not about developing a mind without superstition, which is impossible, rather it is about being aware of the superstitions as much as possible, and reject those that are particularly harmful, for the self and society.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Divane Dynamite: Only truth in the cosmos is love

“There is of course a perfectly rational explanation, but Tchitcherine has never read Martín Fierro.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow

“When the heart awakens from superstition, everybody will be hometown human.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Shape of A Human: Our America Their America

“The superstitious never lives, the intellectual may live a little, but the being of love never dies.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Heart Force One: Need No Gun to Defend Society

“Suspicion, like superstition, is something fear-fueled - for the former is a sort of death, firing at the natural, while the latter is a life frozen by the supernatural.”
― Criss Jami

“Nothing happens for a reason,
But a human determined can turn the table.
The question is, will you make something happen,
Or keep on believing myths as spinally disabled.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amor Apocalypse: Canım Sana İhtiyacım

“There is no such thing as a mind without superstition. Your belief that you have no superstition, is just another superstition.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Divane Dynamite: Only truth in the cosmos is love

“Superstition is a psychological apparatus for self-preservation.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Divane Dynamite: Only truth in the cosmos is love

“There is no law of attraction, there is only law of action.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yarasistan: My Wounds, My Crown

“Superstition is the opium of the ill-informed public. Conspiracy is the opium of the over-informed public.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“Lines of hands don't make destiny, labor of hands does.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“Qi, Atman, Sentience, Corazon,
All are but varied names of humanity.
Put superstitions aside and you'll find,
Just plain goodness is the supreme epitome.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Her Insan Ailem: Everyone is Family, Everywhere is Home

“Curiosity is a challenge to superstition.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“We cannot aim for the stars, with our mind smashing rocks together.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Right or Human: 300 Limericks of Inclusion

“Only the superstitious deny the supernatural.”
― J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, The Book of the SubGenius

“Superstition mustn't be forwarded as culture.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yüz Şiirlerin Yüzüğü (Ring of 100 Poems, Bilingual Edition): 100 Turkish Poems with Translations

“Superstition is not divinity, any more than phrenology is brain science. Conspiracy is not enlightenment, any more than astrology is astrophysics.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“Superstition is not divinity,
Phrenology is not brain science.
Astrology is not astrophysics,
Conspiracy is not enlightenment.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“To learn from yesterday is growth,
To be stuck in yesterday is decay.
To look for a better future is vision,
To be stuck there only causes dismay.

Glance at the past, aim for the future,
But keep your feet grounded in present.
Learn from history, envision the destiny,
‘N dive in today with your sweat valiant.

Memory is meant to give you ground,
Not to impede in your prosperity.
Vision is to embolden your footsteps,
Not to disconnect you from reality.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“This was the place where the Darcys lived - Plymouth Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, in an unlucky house which the landlord had renumbered from Thirteen to Twelve-and-a-Half.”
― Ruth Park, The Harp in the South

“Spirituality is supposed to be an act of self awareness – an act of self-discovery - instead it has become a domain of new-age superstitions.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch