Quotessence
Home / Topics / Freethinker Quotes

Freethinker Quotes

Browse 218 quotes about Freethinker.

Related topics

Freethinker Quotes

“What is the point of you? What is your worth? And by worth I am not talking about your financial value, I am talking about something much more significant than that. So, I ask again - what is your worth? And you won't find the answer in any scripture or church - you won't find it even in this book. Because no external power can give you the answer to something so incredibly existential in nature. If you want to know your worth, ask yourself, what are you without your bank account. The worth of a person lies in character. The same goes for a nation and the same goes for a world. Therefore, a nation's worth lies not in the value of its currency, but in the character of its people. And it all begins with the individual - it all begins with you. Your character holds not just the worth of your own life, but that of the lives of your people as well. So, feel like it's the feeling of your society and act like it's the action of your society. But mark you, here I do not mean, feeling and acting like the society, rather, I am asking you to feel, think and act as an original, brave and conscientious human being, so that you become the very emblem of humanhood in front of others, for them to draw their life’s inspiration from. Doing what the society wants, makes you a second hand human - wanting the society to do what you want, makes you a narcissistic bigot - but being an embodiment of humanhood without any expectation from others, is what makes you a sentient human.”

“As children we’re instructed to ‘live well’ and strive to ‘be the best we can be.’ But we’re rarely encouraged, in good faith, to contemplate—for ourselves—what living well and being our personal best actually mean for us … as individuals.”

“When I reached intellectual maturity, and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; a Christian or a freethinker, I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until at last I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure that they had attained a certain 'gnosis'--had more or less successfully solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble. And, with Hume and Kant on my side, I could not think myself presumptuous in holding fast by that opinion ... So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of 'agnostic'. It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the 'gnostic' of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant; and I took the earliest opportunity of parading it at our Society, to show that I, too, had a tail, like the other foxes.”

“My 'morals' were sound, even a bit puritanic, but when a hidebound old deacon inveighed against dancing I rebelled. By the time of graduation I was still a 'believer' in orthodox religion, but had strong questions which were encouraged at Harvard. In Germany I became a freethinker and when I came to teach at an orthodox Methodist Negro school I was soon regarded with suspicion, especially when I refused to lead the students in public prayer. When I became head of a department at Atlanta, the engagement was held up because again I balked at leading in prayer. I refused to teach Sunday school. When Archdeacon Henry Phillips, my last rector, died, I flatly refused again to join any church or sign any church creed. From my 30th year on I have increasingly regarded the church as an institution which defended such evils as slavery, color caste, exploitation of labor and war. I think the greatest gift of the Soviet Union to modern civilization was the dethronement of the clergy and the refusal to let religion be taught in the public schools.”

“If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and the fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind that he was an impostor... We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications... That sect [Jews] had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust... Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of the superstition, a blood thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law... That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore. [Letter to William Short, 4 August, 1820]”

“Logically, this kind of atheism did not prove that there was no God.... On the contrary, Southwell was typical in placing the onus probandi on those who affirmed the existence of God and Holyoake regarded himself as an atheist only in his inability to believe what the churches would have him believe. They were content to show that the Christian concept of the supernatural was meaningless, that the arguments in its favor were illogical, and that the mysteries of the universe, insofar as they were explicable, could be accounted for in material terms.”

“Donning the cap of curiosity, Heart firmly rooted in humility, Wielding the wonder of living morale, Be the one-sided lover to humanity.”

“Humanitarian Behaviorism (The Sonnet) Give me a drop of love, I'll shower you with monsoon. Hit me with loads of hate, I'll silently disappear soon. I don't approve of hate in return, I just walk away from wrong done to me. Wrong done to another is another matter, I am the bulldozer, if you are the bully. I am a biologist and behaviorist after all, I don't need to do harm to restrain harm. Weaknesses of the apes are my common knowledge, Where there is brain, there's no need for brawn. Brain used to lift the world, is the only human brain. All else is mindless protoplasm, ever-consumed with greed and gain.”

“Himalayan Sonneteer Sonnet 2 Just like every family needs a pillar, Every generation needs a rock. All may sprinkle salt on each other's wounds, You for one, be the ointment to the epoch. Be the foundation stone to civilization, Be the walking measure of human character. You are the definition of sapience, You are the very definer. Let no law define your duty, Let no scripture determine goodness. Let no ancestor imprison your identity, Expand, explore and usher into sentience. You are the illusion, you are the truth. When evil hangs heavy, you gotta blow your fuse.”

“Kainat Calling (The Sonnet) I'll take your leave now, Kainat is calling - Ain't gonna stay amidst your narrowness no more. You conquered moon, you'll conquer mars, yet what's the point, when your heart is still beastly sore! Break your sleep, o drowsy doofus, Wake up to the auspicious joyville! Where love and light are supreme law, Wake up to that valley of joy and zeal! Everyday is Christmas there, Everyday is Ramadan and Juneteenth. Stay in your archaic muck if you like, I gotta go now, Kainat calling!”

“What’s The Difference (Sonnet 1037) If a scientist has no humility, what's the difference between a scientist and a computer! If a doctor has no warmth, what's the difference between a doctor and a butcher! If a teacher has no curiosity, what's the difference between a teacher and a circus trainer! If a filmmaker has no originality, what's the difference between a filmmaker and a photocopier! If a cop cannot practice self-correction, what's the difference between a cop and an executioner! If a theologian has no integrative spirit, what's the difference between a theologian and a mumbling parrot! If a modern human cannot balance reason and warmth, what's the difference between a sentient human and a creature from the swamp!”

“From the very beginning, we have been outsourcing morality from external imaginary agencies - first it was god, then it was government. When will the human be sentient and civilized enough to draw morality from the non-imaginary depths of their own heart!”