Noel Coward Quotes
It is hard to imagine, considering the inherent silliness, cruelty and superstition of the human race, how it has contrived to last as long as it has. The witch-hunting, the torturing, the gullibility, the massacres, the intolerance, the wild futility of human behaviour over the centuries is hardly credible. And the laws, as they stand today, are almost inconceivably stupid. With all this brilliant scientific knowledge of atom splitting and nuclear physics, etc., we are still worshipping at different shrines, imprisoning homosexuals, imposing unnecessary and completely irrelevant restrictions on each other. Hearts can be withdrawn from human beasts, dead hearts, and, after a little neat manipulation, popped back again as good as new. The skies can be conquered. Sputniks can whiz round and round the globe and be controlled and guided. People are still genuflecting before crucifixes and Virgin Marys, still persecuting other people for being coloured or Jewish or in some way different from what they apparently should be. There are wars being waged at this very moment in Indonesia, Algeria, the Middle East, Cyprus, etc. The Pope still makes pronouncements against birth control. The Ku-Klux-Klan is still, if permitted, ready to dash out and do some light lynching. God, for millions of people, is still secure in his heaven, and My Fair Lady opened in London last night.
Noel Coward, 1899-1973, British Playwright, Diary, May 1, 1958
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Some of the founding fathers were deeply religious men while others were not so. Some varied in their believes at different times of their lives, and a number were not very facorable towards orthodox religion. At the time, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches were persecuting other religions throughout Europe and people were still being killed for their heretical beliefs. Most important to some of them, kings and other monarchs whom they abhorred, all at the time claimed the Divine Right of Kings and the established churches were the most important support for monarchs. At the time most organized religions were opposed to freedom of conscience and certainly opponents of separation of church and state. American churches tended to take on American values but were never given the chance to dominate the American government they way many had in Europe and the rest of the world.
He was the son of LeRoy Percy a Governor of Mississippi, who was running for that post against James Kimble Vardaman, an unabashed Racist, populist, and hate-monger. (See the related quotes for examples.) He appealed to the worst of the Mississippi. This was his famous description of the crowd that turned out for a Vardaman rally in 1903,
Disraeli was the 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Both Puritans and Quakers were persecuted and physically abused in England by the Anglican Church. The Puritans as soon as they became dominant in part of the American colonies began persecuting Quakers. The Quakers who were the majority in the Pennsylvania colony, however were tolerant of other religions. This history was another of the many reasons the Founding Fathers wanted no established church. A “scorpion” was a type of whip that was particularly painful.
Ignorant political opposition to new scientific findings has been characteristic of some of the politicians in most governments in most eras.
Billy Sunday was the most famous preacher of the day. Unlike the vast majority of white preachers, he not only preached to black audiences but exuded an atmosphere of friendliness and comfort around Blacks that amazed most. Most Black leaders thought Sunday was very good for race relations, but there were some clergy like Grimke who criticized him. Sunday was castigated by many racist whites for preaching to Blacks, but he did not go as far as to condemn or preach against racism and the discrimination of the day and he would not preach to an integrated audience. Grimke, in contrast, preached to an integrated congregation and was one of the few white clergy who did in the South. (Washington DC was then a southern, segregated city.) See {585415} for another critique of Sunday.
This quotation is typical of the anti-Semitic view of the World that is held by many Islamic fundamentalists. Saudi Arabia promulgates this type of venom throughout the Muslim World. This, along with diatribes like it, are recorded in video and audio tape, and with the permission of the Saudi Arabian government if not with government funds.
Many would argue that the situation is the same today, over a hundred years later.
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".
