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Superstition Quotes

Browse 331 quotes about Superstition.

Superstition Quotes

“Sonnet of Unlearning Peace is not a matter of learning harmony, It's about unlearning division. Science is not about learning logic, It's about unlearning superstition. Health is not about learning medicine, It's about unlearning over-indulgence. Justice is not about learning accountability, It's about unlearning indifference. Order is not about learning law, It's about unlearning recklessness. Holiness is not about learning scripture, It's about unlearning hatefulness. More than learning, we got plenty to unlearn. All of it starts with unsubmission to tradition.”

Life LessonsSocial JusticeIndifferenceHolinessAccountabilityWorld PeaceSuperstitionCivic DutySpiritual Poem
Book:Divane Dynamite: Only truth in the cosmos is love
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“Brave, Sound & Sane (The Sonnet) Brave is not the one who has no dark corners in their mind, Brave is the one who is friends with their dark corners. Courageous is not the one who never sheds a single tear, Courageous is the one who draws strength from their tears. A sound mind is not one that has no superstition, A sound mind is one that has a grip over its superstition. A sane mind is not one that does not believe in fiction, A sane mind is one that knows good fiction from bad fiction. Education is needed, but not mere education of the head, What's really needed is education of the whole being. It is easy to fill the head with facts and figures, Use a fact to lift the world, then you're an educated being. More than in head and body, we gotta grow up in heart. A billion pounds of head is worthless, if there is no heart.”

CourageWeaknessPrejudiceResilienceHuman BehaviorBraveheartSuperstitionBiasesHumanitarian ScientistPsychology Poetry
Book:Divane Dynamite: Only truth in the cosmos is love
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“It was the general opinion of ancient nations, that the divinity alone was adequate to the important office of giving laws to men... and modern nations, in the consecrations of kings, and in several superstitious chimeras of divine rights in princes and nobles, are nearly unanimous in preserving remnants of it... Is the jealousy of power, and the envy of superiority, so strong in all men, that no considerations of public or private utility are sufficient to engage their submission to rules for their own happiness? Or is the disposition to imposture so prevalent in men of experience, that their private views of ambition and avarice can be accomplished only by artifice? — … There is nothing in which mankind have been more unanimous; yet nothing can be inferred from it more than this, that the multitude have always been credulous, and the few artful. The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature: and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had any interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of heaven, any more than those at work upon ships or houses, or labouring in merchandize or agriculture: it will for ever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses. As Copley painted Chatham, West, Wolf, and Trumbull, Warren and Montgomery; as Dwight, Barlow, Trumbull, and Humphries composed their verse, and Belknap and Ramzay history; as Godfrey invented his quadrant, and Rittenhouse his planetarium; as Boylston practised inoculation, and Franklin electricity; as Paine exposed the mistakes of Raynal, and Jefferson those of Buffon, so unphilosophically borrowed from the Recherches Philosophiques sur les Américains those despicable dreams of de Pauw — neither the people, nor their conventions, committees, or sub-committees, considered legislation in any other light than ordinary arts and sciences, only as of more importance. Called without expectation, and compelled without previous inclination, though undoubtedly at the best period of time both for England and America, to erect suddenly new systems of laws for their future government, they adopted the method of a wise architect, in erecting a new palace for the residence of his sovereign. They determined to consult Vitruvius, Palladio, and all other writers of reputation in the art; to examine the most celebrated buildings, whether they remain entire or in ruins; compare these with the principles of writers; and enquire how far both the theories and models were founded in nature, or created by fancy: and, when this should be done, as far as their circumstances would allow, to adopt the advantages, and reject the inconveniences, of all. Unembarrassed by attachments to noble families, hereditary lines and successions, or any considerations of royal blood, even the pious mystery of holy oil had no more influence than that other of holy water: the people universally were too enlightened to be imposed on by artifice; and their leaders, or more properly followers, were men of too much honour to attempt it. Thirteen governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favour of the rights of mankind. [Preface to 'A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America', 1787]”

ReasonPhilosophyGovernmentHappinessSciencePoliticsRightsInfluenceMankindDiscoveryAdvantageConstitutionInventionDivinitySecularSuperstitionLawsExpectationArtificeDivine RightHoly WaterPaineThomas JeffersonJeffersonThomas PaineSecular Government
Book:A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America: Akashic U.S. Presidents Series
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“The world, viewed philosophically, remains a series of slave camps, where citizens – tax livestock – labor under the chains of illusion in the service of their masters.”

StatesPhilosophyGovernmentReligionEvilPoliticsNationsFreedomLibertyKnowledgeDemocracySelf EsteemLibertarianSocialismCommunismPatriotismNationalismDelusionAnarchyFascismSelf KnowledgeRationalityTaxationTheftMafiaSuperstitionCollectivismPsychopathStatismVoluntaryismNazisAncapAnarcho CapitalismCountries
Author:Stefan Molyneux
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“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.”

LifePleasureMoonSeasonsSuperstitionsBeliefsHabitsSuperstitionSuperstitiousRomanBountyFull MoonRoman PaynePayneHarvests
Book:Rooftop Soliloquy
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“The more pleasure a universe can yield, other things being equal, the more beneficent and generous is its general nature; the more pains its constitution involves, the darker and more malign its total temper. To deny this would seem impossible, yet it is done daily; for there is nothing people will not maintain when they are slaves to superstition; and candor and a sense of justice are, in such a case, the first things lost.”

TruthPainEvilJusticePleasureGoodSuperstitionCandor
Book:The Life of Reason: Five Volumes in One
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“England has her Stratford, Scotland has her Alloway, and America, too, has her Dresden. For there, on August 11, 1833, was born the greatest and noblest of the Western World; an immense personality, -- unique, lovable, sublime; the peerless orator of all time, and as true a poet as Nature ever held in tender clasp upon her loving breast, and, in words coined for the chosen few, told of the joys and sorrows, hopes, dreams, and fears of universal life; a patriot whose golden words and deathless deeds were worthy of the Great Republic; a philanthropist, real and genuine; a philosopher whose central theme was human love, -- who placed 'the holy hearth of home' higher than the altar of any god; an iconoclast, a builder -- a reformer, perfectly poised, absolutely honest, and as fearless as truth itself -- the most aggressive and formidable foe of superstition -- the most valiant champion of reason -- Robert G. Ingersoll.”

LoveReasonTruthAmericaJoyHopeFearNatureDreamsHonestyPoetHonorSorrowRespectEnglandPraisePhilosopherNobleGenuineFearlessChampionAdmirationLovingSublimeScotlandSuperstitionBiographyPhilanthropistDresdenValiantIngersollRobert G IngersollRobert IngersollRobert Green IngersollOratorUniversal LifeIconoclastAllowayStratford
Book:Ingersoll: A Biographical Appreciation
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“{The final resolutions at Robert Ingersoll's funeral, quoted here} Whereas, in the order of nature -- that nature which moves with unerring certainty in obedience to fixed laws -- Robert G. Ingersoll has gone to that repose which we call death. We, his old friends and fellow-citizens, who have shared his friendship in the past, hereby manifest the respect due his memory. At a time when everything impelled him to conceal his opinions or to withhold their expression, when the highest honors of the state were his if he would but avoid discussion of the questions that relate to futurity, he avowed his belief; he did not bow his knee to superstition nor countenance a creed which his intellect dissented. Casting aside all the things for which men most sigh -- political honor, the power to direct the futures of the state, riches and emoluments, the association of the worldly and the well- to-do -- he stood forth and expressed his honest doubts, and he welcomed the ostracism that came with it, as a crown of glory, no less than did the martyrs of old. Even this self-sacrifice has been accounted shame to him, saying that he was urged thereto by a desire for financial gain, when at the time he made his stand there was before him only the prospect of loss and the scorn of the public. We, therefore, who know what a struggle it was to cut loose from his old associations, and what it meant to him at that time, rejoice in his triumph and in the plaudits that came to him from thus boldly avowing his opinions, and we desire to record the fact that we feel that he was greater than a saint, greater than a mere hero -- he was a thoroughly honest man. He was a believer, not in the narrow creed of a past barbarous age, but a true believer in all that men ought to hold sacred, the sanctity of the home, the purity of friendship, and the honesty of the individual. He was not afraid to advocate the fact that eternal truth was eternal justice; he was not afraid of the truth, nor to avow that he owed allegiance to it first of all, and he was willing to suffer shame and condemnation for its sake. The laws of the universe were his bible; to do good, his religion, and he was true to his creed. We therefore commend his life, for he was the apostle of the fireside, the evangel of justice and love and charity and happiness. We who knew him when he first began his struggle, his old neighbors and friends, rejoice at the testimony he has left us, and we commend his life and efforts as worthy of emulation.”

LoveTruthHappinessDeathNatureFriendshipJusticeDoubtHonestyHeroHonorGloryRespectBraveryPraiseCharityIntellectTriumphObedienceResolutionRejoiceMartyrSuperstitionSelf SacrificeEulogyCreedIngersollRobert G IngersollRobert IngersollRobert Green Ingersoll
Book:Ingersoll: A Biographical Appreciation
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“Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. Therefore atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further: and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus Cæsar) were civil times. But superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the people; and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reversed order.”

PhilosophyGovernmentReligionPracticeVirtueWiseAtheismMoralityArgumentConfusionReputationMonarchyPietySuperstitionSenseMasterLawsCivilCaesarAugustus CaesarNatural Piety
Author:Francis Bacon
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“Water has to be the right temperature, For it to appease our human thirst. Too cold, it'll give you frost-bite, Too hot, and it'll burn your throat. Intellect has to be rightly moderated, For it to push mind and society upward. Too little, it facilitates superstition, Too much, and it turns the mind cold.”

FactsHumanismIntelligenceIntellectExistentialismSuperstitionRational ThinkingIntellectualismLogical ThinkingScience Poetry
Book:Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World
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“For the most part, people strenuously resist any redefinition of morality, because it shakes them to the very core of their being to think that in pursuing virtue they may have been feeding vice, or in fighting vice they may have in fact been fighting virtue.”

SelfReasonPhilosophyFactsGovernmentEvilBeliefPeaceFreedomEducationLibertyKnowledgeLearningVirtueDangerousMoralityEthicsEvidenceUniversalLibertarianProofRationalAnarchySecularSelf KnowledgeRationalityCoercionCritical ThinkingSuperstitionIndoctrinationStatismBrainwashingVoluntaryismAncapRelearningUniversal EthicsUniversally Preferable Behavior
Author:Stefan Molyneux
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“What I'd like to read is a scientific review, by a scientific psychologist--if any exists--of 'A Scientific Man and the Bible'. By what route do otherwise sane men come to believe such palpable nonsense? How is it possible for a human brain to be divided into two insulated halves, one functioning normally, naturally and even brilliantly, and the other capable only of such ghastly balderdash which issues from the minds of Baptist evangelists? Such balderdash takes various forms, but it is at its worst when it is religious. Why should this be so? What is there in religion that completely flabbergasts the wits of those who believe in it? I see no logical necessity for that flabbergasting. Religion, after all, is nothing but an hypothesis framed to account for what is evidentially unaccounted for. In other fields such hypotheses are common, and yet they do no apparent damage to those who incline to them. But in the religious field they quickly rush the believer to the intellectual Bad Lands. He not only becomes anaesthetic to objective fact; he becomes a violent enemy of objective fact. It annoys and irritates him. He sweeps it away as something somehow evil...”

FactsHumorFunnyScienceReligionBeliefReligiousBrainEnemyPsychologyViolenceEvidenceLogicWitDamageNonsenseSanityHypothesisPsychologistSuperstitionBaptistsUnknownSuperstitiousEvangelistsNecessityScientificEvangelicalsBaptistGod Of The GapsBadlandsBalderdashA Scientific Man And The BibleScientific Review
Book:American Mercury
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“{The resolution of the surviving members of the Eleventh Illinois Cavalry, whom Robert Ingersoll was the commander of, at his funeral quoted here} Robert G. Ingersoll is dead. The brave soldier, the unswerving patriot, the true friend, and the distinguished colonel of the old regiment of which we have the honor to be a remanent, sleeps his last sleep. No word of ours, though written in flame, no chaplet that our hands can weave, no testimony that our personal knowledge can bring, will add anything to his fame. The world honors him as the prince of orators in his generation, as its emancipator from manacles and dogmas; philosophy, for his aid in beating back the ghosts of superstition; and we, in addition to these, for our personal knowledge of him, as a man, a soldier, and a friend. We know him as the general public did not. We knew him in the military camp, where he reigned an uncrowned king, ruling with that bright scepter of human benevolence which death alone could wrest from his hand. We had the honor to obey, as we could, his calm but resolute commands at Shiloh, at Corinth, and at Lexington, knowing as we did, that he would never command a man to go where he would not dare to lead the way. We recognize only a small circle who could know more of his manliness and worth than we do. And to such we say: Look up, if you can, through natural tears; try to be as brave as he was, and try to remember -- in the midst of grief which his greatest wish for life would have been to help you to bear -- that he had no fear of death nor of anything beyond.”

LovePhilosophyDeathWishFearFriendshipKnowledgeSadnessMilitaryTearsHonorFameRespectBraveryBraveMemoryResolutionBrotherhoodWorthFriendGhostsBenevolenceSuperstitionEulogyPrinceCamaraderieIngersollRobert G IngersollRobert IngersollRobert Green IngersollOratorDogmasColonelEmancipator
Book:Ingersoll: A Biographical Appreciation
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“Creationists have also changed their name ... to intelligent design theorists who study 'irreducible complexity' and the 'abrupt appearance' of life—yet more jargon for 'God did it.' ... Notice that they have no interest in replacing evolution with native American creation myths or including the Code of Hammurabi alongside the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.”

SchoolScienceEvolutionNative AmericanFirst AmendmentSuperstitionSeparation Of Church And StateTen CommandmentsMythsJargonPseudoscienceIntelligent DesignOrigin Of LifeSophistryCreation MythsCreationistsGod Did ItIrreducible ComplexityHammurabiCode Of HammurabiGoddidit
Author:Michael Shermer
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“In spite of being complicated people choose superstitions over common sense.”

PeopleInspirationalInspirationMotivationalFunnyInspirational QuotesJoyMotivationChoicesBeliefFunMotivational QuotesIgnoranceWittyComplicatedWitCommon SenseChoiceSuperstitionsBeliefsFunny QuotesChooseAmit KalantriAmit Kalantri QuotesSuperstitionSuperstitiousWitty QuotesCommon KnowledgeComplicationsCommon Sense QuotesFalse BeliefIgnorance Of PeopleComplicateGeneral Sense
Book:Wealth of Words
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“Women and children are the tradition-carriers of the world. They pass on the folklore of hearth and kitchen, old beliefs, rites, superstitions, rituals, and customs. In the days when folklorists were inclined to make sweeping statements about the "strong feminine element" in folklore, it was argued that women and children were responsive to this field “because its origin antedates the emergence of reason." For many years old wives' tales were the target of ridicule, but in many old wives' tales there was, we know today, more than a bit of truth.”

WomenHistoryTraditionRitualWomen EmpowermentSuperstitionFolkloreWomen In Literature
Book:Ladies of Fantasy: Two Centuries of Sinister Stories by the Gentle Sex
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“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Steal a fish from one guy and give it to another--and keep doing that on a daily basis--and you'll make the first guy pissed off, but you'll make the second guy lazy and dependent on you. Then you can tell the second guy that the first guy is greedy for wanting to keep the fish he caught. Then the second guy will cheer for you to steal more fish. Then you can prohibit anyone from fishing without getting permission from you. Then you can expand the racket, stealing fish from more people and buying the loyalty of others. Then you can get the recipients of the stolen fish to act as your hired thugs. Then you can ... well, you know the rest.”

GovernmentEvilPoliticsFreedomLibertyViolenceCapitalismSlaveryLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyTaxationFree MarketTheftCoercionSuperstitionCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsInitiation Of ForceVoluntaryist
Author:Larken Rose
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“It isn't a coincidence that governments everywhere want to educate children. Government education, in turn, is supposed to be evidence of the state's goodness and its concern for our well-being. The real explanation is less flattering. If the government's propaganda can take root as children grow up, those kids will be no threat to the state apparatus. They'll fasten the chains to their own ankles.”

KidsEvilPoliticsForceFreedomEducationLibertyLearningViolenceSocietyDangerousSlaveryPopulationLibertarianSocialismAnarchyLearnFreeCoercionAnarchistSuperstitionSchoolingSystemIndoctrinationStatismPublicBrainwashingEnslavementVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismDumbing DownPublic SchoolsInitiation Of ForceVoluntaryist
Author:Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.
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“Every dictator is a mystic, and every mystic is a potential dictator. A mystic craves obedience from men, not their agreement. He wants them to surrender their consciousness to his assertions, his edicts, his wishes, his whims—as his consciousness is surrendered to theirs. He wants to deal with men by means of faith and force—he finds no satisfaction in their consent if he must earn it by means of facts and reason. Reason is the enemy he dreads and, simultaneously, considers precarious; reason, to him, is a means of deception; he feels that men possess some power more potent than reason—and only their causeless belief or their forced obedience can give him a sense of security, a proof that he has gained control of the mystic endowment he lacked. His lust is to command, not to convince: conviction requires an act of independence and rests on the absolute of an objective reality. What he seeks is power over reality and over men’s means of perceiving it, their mind, the power to interpose his will between existence and consciousness, as if, by agreeing to fake the reality he orders them to fake, men would, in fact, create it.”

GovernmentReligionEvilFreedomLibertyVirtueMoralityEthicsLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyAggressionRationalityCoercionSuperstitionCollectivismStateStatismVoluntaryismIrrationalityObjectivismNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismNap
Author:Ayn Rand
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“Walpurgis Night, when, according to the belief of millions of people, the devil was abroad - when the graves were opened and the dead came forth and walked. When all evil things of earth and air and water held revel. This very place the driver had specially shunned. This was the depopulated village of centuries ago. This was where the suicide lay; and this was the place where I was, alone - unmanned, shivering with cold in a shroud of snow with a wild storm gathering again upon me! It took all my philosophy, all the religion I had been taught, all my courage, not to collapse in a paroxysm of fright. (Dracula's Guest)”

EvilHorrorSuperstitionWalpurgisnacht
Book:Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Tales
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“All that Delaura noticed, though, was the uproarious crowing of the roosters. 'There are only six of them, but they make enough noise for a hundred,' said the Abbess. 'Furthermore, a pig spoke and a goat gave birth to triplets.' And she added with fervor: 'Everything has been like this since your Bishop did us the favor of sending us his poisoned gift.' She viewed with equal alarm the garden flowering with so much vigor that it seemed contra natura. As they walked across it she pointed out to Delaura that there were flowers of exceptional size and color, some with an unbearable scent. As far as she was concerned, everything ordinary has something supernatural about it.”

OrdinarySupernaturalSuperstitionConfirmation Bias
Author:Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
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“How I suffered when I had to preach to you those pious lies that I detest in my heart. What remorse your credulity caused me! A thousand times I was on the point of breaking out publicly and opening your eyes, but a fear stronger than myself held me back, and forced me to keep silence until my death.”

DeathFearAtheismLiesAtheistSuperstitionCredulityPious LiesFirst Atheist
Book:Testament: Memoir of the Thoughts and Sentiments of Jean Meslier
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“Like all great things which then become fashions, science, as now the universal stamp of approval, probably receives more abuse than any other field of study. Glaze the word itself over whatever vague ideology one may presume ratified, no matter the degree of pseudo-science or lack of scholarly credibility packaged within, and the many will consume it like gravy on a feast. My thought for the time is that as the promise of true science increases, so shall rise its many more superficial counterparts as provided by the agenda-bound trendies and hyper-ambitious laypersons to boot.”

TruthScienceFictionStudyMediaFashionIgnoranceTheoryDiscoveryLiesIntelligenceIdeologyPropagandaFakeExplorationSuperficialFactNon FictionSuperstitionValidationScientific MethodPseudoscienceLaymanVaguenessAgendaTrendPseudo ScienceRatificationVagueness Of Language
Book:Healology
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“We have to HIDE from each other because we think that we are the only ones BROKEN. We think we're the only ones whose original selves we ground up and smashed under the jack-booted heel of cultural lies and superstition, patriotism, war lust, war hunger, and a denial of AGGRESSION AGAINST CHILDREN THAT IS THE FOUNDATION OF CULTURE. Culture is everything that is NOT TRUE. If it's true, it's called 'math' or 'science' or 'facts'. Culture is the Stockholm syndrome we have with the historical lies that are convenient to the rules. We love the lies, because we don't think we can be loved if we don't.”

ChildrenWarCultureLiesPatriotismSuperstition
Author:Stefan Molyneux
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“The name of Robert G. Ingersoll is in the pantheon of the world. More than any other man who ever lived he destroyed religious superstition. He was the Shakespeare of oratory -- the greatest that the world has ever known. Ingersoll lived and died far in advance of his time. He wrought nobly for the transformation of this world into a habitable globe; and long after the last echo of destruction has been silenced, his name will be loved and honored, and his fame will shine resplendent, for his immortality is fixed and glorious. {Debbs had this much respect for Ingersoll, despite their radically different political views. This statement was made at Ingersoll's funeral}”

LoveInspirationalGreatnessHonorRespectPraiseAdmirationSuperstitionShakespeareLegendaryOratoryWilliam ShakespearePantheonIngersollRobert G IngersollRobert IngersollRobert Green IngersollReligious Superstition
Author:Eugene Victor Debs
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“What do you see, Galahad?" He shivered again, and said, "I beg you, do not call me by that name, cousin." She laughed, "So, even though you live among Christians you have the old belief of the Faerie Folk, that one who knows your true name can command your spirit if you will. You know my name cousin, what would you have me call you? Lance, then?" "What you will, save for the name my mother gave me. I still fear her voice when she speaks that name in a certain tone. I seem to have drunk in that fear from her breasts.”

NamesChristianityRespectTraumaPaganismSuperstitionVoices
Book:The Mists of Avalon
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“There are those whose views about religion are not very different from my own, but who nevertheless feel that we should try to damp down the conflict, that we should compromise it. … I respect their views and I understand their motives, and I don't condemn them, but I'm not having it. To me, the conflict between science and religion is more important than these issues of science education or even environmentalism. I think the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief; and anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done, and may in fact be our greatest contribution to civilization.”

ScienceBeliefConflictRespectAncientMythCompromiseOppositionSuperstitionMyths
Author:Steven Weinberg
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“When I was fifteen, a companion and I, on a dare, went into the mound one day just at sunset. We saw some of those Indians for the first time; we got directions from them and reached the top of the mound just as the sun set. We had camping equiptment with us, but we made no fire. We didn't even make down our beds. We just sat side by side on that mound until it became light enough to find our way back to the road. We didn't talk. When we looked at each other in the gray dawn, our faces were gray, too, quiet, very grave. When we reached town again, we didn't talk either. We just parted and went home and went to bed. That's what we thought, felt, about the mound. We were children, it is true, yet we were descendants of people who read books and who were, or should have been, beyond superstition and impervious to mindless fear.”

FearSuperstitionNative AmericansIndiansEarthworksMound
Book:Collected Stories of William Faulkner
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“It will seem to many persons very inconsistent with their ideas of the dignity of a spirit that they should appear and act in the manner I have described, and shall describe further; and I have heard it objected that we cannot suppose God would permit the dead to return merely to frighten the living, and that it is showing Him little reverence to imagine He would suffer them to come on such trifling errands, or demean themselves in so undignified a fashion. But God permits men of all degrees of wickedness, and of every kind of absurdity, to exist, and to harass and disturb the earth, whilst they expose themselves to its obloquy or its ridicule.”

FearGhostsSuperstitionIneffability
Book:The Night Side of Nature
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