Sigrid Undset Quotes

Where there is a duty to worship the sun, it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat.

People tend not to want to question dogma. But I'm afraid of dogma.

An objective truth and individual reason are feared above all.

A lot of people believe that if everybody just did what they were told - obeyed - everything would be fine. But that's not what life is all about. That's not real. It's never going to happen.

We too often bind ourselves by authorities rather than by the truth.

Notwithstanding this high Ecclesiastical authority, he who dared accept truth only because it could be proved, or proved to be good, and disregard authority, was commonly stigmatized as an infidel.

I've always been suspicious of collective truths.

But I don't believe in organised politics, organised religion, organised music, organised anything.

Whoever ventures to attack a system received so generally, and supported by so great a weight of authority, is exposed to various evils. They who have embraced its principles are apt to slight and neglect, or, if that may not he, to conceive it their business to overthrow the heterodox doctrines. What of error they may contain is eagerly seized on, what of truth, is overlooked.

Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified.

The passion for truth is silenced by answers which have the weight of undisputed authority.

There are good reasons for being obedient, but being unable to be disobedient is not one of the best reasons.

What did you learn in school that you still use today? Go ahead teachers, tell me. What? Fear, conformity, don't question authority.

We've gone all the way from foolishly accepting authority to foolishly rejecting all authority.

As soon as we cease to pry about at random, we shall come to rely upon accredited bodies of authoritative dogma; and as soon as we come to rely upon accredited bodies of authoritative dogma, not only are the days of our liberty over, but we have lost the password that has hitherto opened to us the gates of success as well.

Custom and authority are no sure evidence of truth.

Doctrines like Christianity or Islam or Marxism require unanimity of belief. One dissenter casts doubt on the creed of millions.

Public opinion is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it is the voice of God.

The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice -- and always has been.

Fear is a strange soil. It grows obedience like corn, which grow in straight lines to make weeding easier. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground.

What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority.

Don't swallow your moral code in tablet form.

If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power.