Edward Teller Quotes

The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it, is the root of all evil in the world.

Claiming that you have got the truth wrapped up does breed violence and intolerance.

I'm intrigued by fanatics - people who are seduced by the promise, or the illusion, of the absolute.

Those who believe that they have absolute truth and the only moral system are destructive both to themselves and to those whom they try to convert.

They are not reformers who simply abhor evil. Such men become in the end abhorrent themselves.

Nothing is so sure of itself as fanaticism.

Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true.

Observe, in politics, that the term extremism has become a synonym of "evil," regardless of the content of the issue (the evil is not what you are extreme about, but that you are "extreme"—

It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel.

We are all capable of becoming fundamentalists because we get addicted to other people's wrongness.

Certainty is the enemy of mankind. If you're certain about everything, you have the Inquisition, you have Nazis and you have - that certainty is something to be guarded about.

I don't believe in Jesus or God. But I do believe that fundamentalists in religion or anything else are bad, and that they have more hate than love.

[Friedrich] Nietzsche said something marvellous, he said "Madness is not a consequence of uncertainty but of certainty", and this is fanaticism.

There is nothing more terrifying than the absoluteness of one who believes he's right.

Those who are convinced they have a monopoly on The Truth always feel that they are only saving the world when they slaughter the heretics.

In religious and in secular affairs, the more fervent beliefs attract followers. If you are a moderate in any respect - if you're a moderate on abortion, if you're a moderate on gun control, or if you're a moderate in your religious faith - it doesn't evolve into a crusade where you're either right or wrong, good or bad, with us or against us.

It is not possible to unknow what you do know - the result of that is fanaticism.

But as in all cults, what's central to the Communist Party is the belief system and the elimination of nuance. From there you're very slowly led down the road to fanaticism and mass murder.

Throughout human history, the apostles of purity, those who have claimed to possess a total explanation, have wrought havoc among mere mixed-up human beings.

Moral certainty can deafen people to any truth other than their own.

I don't think people by nature are extremists. You will never find a population of extremists. Extremists have existed throughout the centuries on all religions. And what happens is, extremists start to have more leverage when the situation is bad.

When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.

From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.

The enemy of idealism is zealotry.

There are many who lust for the simple answers of doctrine or decree. They are on the left and right. They are not confined to a single part of the society. They are terrorists of the mind.