“Atheism is a natural result of intellectual honesty.”
Source: Liberated from Religion: The Inestimable Pleasure of Being a Freethinker
“Perhaps it is this attitude, this mental turning away, or perhaps the combination of all these responses to calamity brought upon others, that one of Saul Bellow's characters, Artur Sammler, a survivor of the shooting pits in Poland, has in mind when he says: 'I know now that humankind marks certain people for death. Against them there shuts a door”
Source: The Contract of Mutual Indifference: Political Philosophy After the Holocaust
“You don't have to agree with a person completely, to love them.”
Source: Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets
“Mr. Babbitt is a stout upholder of tradition and continuity, and he knows, with all his immense and encyclopaedic information, that the Christian religion is an essential part of the history of our race. Humanism and religion are thus, as historical facts, by no means parallel; humanism has been sporadic, but Christianity continuous. It is quite irrelevant to conjecture the possible development of the European races without Christianity — to imagine, that is, a tradition of humanism equivalent to the actual tradition of Christianity. For all we can say is that we should have been very different creatures, whether better or worse. Our problem being to form the future, we can only form it on the materials of the past; we must use our heredity, instead of denying it. The religious habits of the race are still very strong, in all places, at all times, and for all people. There is no humanistic habit: humanism is, I think, merely the state of mind of a few persons in a few places at a few times. To exist at all, it is dependent upon some other attitude, for it is essentially critical — I would even say parasitical. It has been, and can still be, of great value; but it will never provide showers of partridges or abundance of manna for the chosen peoples.”
Source: For Lancelot Andrewes: Essays Ancient & Modern
“I admit that all humanists — as humanists — have been individualists. As humanists, they have had nothing to offer to the mob. But they have usually left a place, not only for the mob, but (what is more important) for the mob part of the mind in themselves. Mr. Babbitt is too rigorous and conscientious a Protestant to do that: hence there seems to be a gap between his own individualism (and indeed intellectualism, beyond a certain point, must be individualistic) and his genuine desire to offer something which will be useful to the American nation primarily and to civilization itself. But the historical humanist, as I understand him, halts at a certain point and admits that the reason will go no farther, and that it cannot feed on honey and locusts.
Humanism is either an alternative to religion, or is ancillary to it. To my mind, it always flourishes most when religion has been strong; and if you find examples of humanism which are anti-religious, or at least in opposition to the religious faith of the place and time, then such humanism is purely destructive, for it has never found anything to replace what it destroyed. Any religion, of course, is for ever in danger of petrifaction into mere ritual and habit, though ritual and habit be essential to religion. It is only renewed and refreshed by an awakening of feeling and fresh devotion, or by the critical reason. The latter may be the part of the humanist. But if so, then the function of humanism, though necessary, is secondary. You cannot make humanism itself into a religion.”
Source: For Lancelot Andrewes: Essays Ancient & Modern
“When God ushers you into victory, you will change the course of history.”
Source: A Manual for Victory
“And when all humanity has agreed on the necessity for something, we may be perfectly certain that some sort of humanitarian will want to destroy it.”
Source: Selected essays
“The grand picture of life lies in the little moments, which the intellectual never finds, nor the superstitious. Grand picture of life dawns upon the life lived grand, It unfolds on its own once you're no more a tribal dunce.”
Source: Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat
“Citizenry is the problem,
Citizenry is the answer.
When citizenry decides on peace,
Albeit reluctant, world leaders wither.
I know no constitution but conscience,
I know no tradition but compassion.
Belonging is my Bible, kindness is my Quran -
The living need no handbook to right and wrong.
Recognition or no recognition,
Human never forgets to be human.
The entire Abhijit Naskar legacy
was created without any recognition.
Then why did I continue you ask,
Because I never wrote for admiration.
I write to provide shelter to all,
And electrify their veins into action.
Whining might suit the spineless,
Bravehearts are ever vigilant in duty.
Once you make people your life's cause,
Nothing can diminish your tenacity.”
Source: Yaralardan Yangın Doğar: Explorers of Night are Emperors of Dawn
“Recognition or no recognition,
Human never forgets to be human.
The entire Abhijit Naskar legacy
was created without any recognition.
Then why did I continue you ask,
Because I never wrote for admiration.
I write to provide shelter to all,
And electrify their veins into action.”
Source: Yaralardan Yangın Doğar: Explorers of Night are Emperors of Dawn