Jeremy Taylor Quotes

Superstition is an unreasoning fear of God.

No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man.

I have this fear of clowns, so I think that if I surround myself with them, it will ward off all evil.

Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism.

The thing with Catholicism, the same as all religions, is that it teaches what should be, which seems rather incorrect. This is what should be. Now, if you're taught to live up to a what should be that never existed - only an occult superstition, no proof of this should be - then you can sit on a jury and indict easily, you can cast the first stone, you can burn Adolf Eichmann, like that!

I think superstition has a lot to do with fear: the less, the better.

Superstition always inspires littleness, religion grandeur of mind; the superstitious raises beings inferior to himself to deities.

Superstition is but the fear of belief.

Superstition! that horrid incubus which dwelt in darkness, shunning the light, with all its racks, and poison chalices, and foul sleeping draughts, is passing away without return. Religion cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky; but the stars are there and will reappear.

I don't believe in superstitions. I just do certain things because I'm scared in case something will happen if I don't do them

Superstition moulds nature into an arbitrary semblance of the supernatural, and then bows down to the work of its own hands.

My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear.

Ah, yes, superstition: it would appear to be cowardice in face of the supernatural.

It is indeed better … that men should be led to worship God by teaching, than that they should be driven to it by fear of punishment or pain; but it does not follow that because the former course produces the better men, therefore those who do not yield to it should be neglected. For many have found advantage … in being first compelled by fear or pain, so that they might afterwards be influenced by teaching…

Fear of power invisible, feigned by the mind or imagined from tales publicly allowed, is religion; not allowed, superstition

Superstition, then, is engendered, preserved, and fostered by fear.

I don't have any superstitions, because I am a Christian.

There is in superstition a senseless fear of God.

Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.

Not going to God because your faith is weak is like not going to the doctor because you feel sick.

Fear is a weakness. It makes a person lose her nerve and her cool. It makes people jumpy and organizations nervous, and when that happens, there is always a chance to take advantage.

I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge.

Fear and God do not occupy the same space.

We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition.

Danger is the very basis of superstition. It produces a searching after help supernaturally when human means are no longer supposed to be available.