Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

There are no forces on this planet more dangerous to us all than the fanaticisms of fundamentalism…

I cannot comprehend fundamentalism. It's fundamentally wrong.

I'm opposed to fundamentalism in any form.

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.

Obstinacy in religious understanding leads to backwardness as in Muslims’, prevalence of violence and intolerance.

In all places, and in all times, those religionists who have believed too much have been more inclined to violence and persecution than those who have believed too little.

When people decide that a certain way of faith is destined and inevitable, hatred and intolerance follow. Instead of saying, 'The Light is within you, choose the Light,' the message becomes 'Agree with our version of history or we'll kill you.'

Lebanon, Israel, Ireland, South Africa - wherever there is a bleeding sore on the body of the world, the same hard-eyed narrow-minded fanatics are busy, indifferent to life, in love with death.

Jewish extremism and Islamic fanaticism fed each other.

I am dealing with fanaticism.

Terror … is often the result of giving politics a sacred, absolute dimension.

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"—

Extremism is no more the monopoly of Islam than it is the monopoly of other religions, including Christianity.

Needless to say, oftentimes a 'religion' is not needed to breed extremism. People breed it all by themselves, oftentimes with the subjective morality of modern secularism breeding the worst kind.

Religious extremism. We hear about it all the time. We see it all the time. Heck, most of us are just sick of talking about it all the time.

Fundamentalists are crazy. They're the real world equivalent to the evil geniuses of our spy fiction and our superhero comics. They want to mold the world into a specific shape that they really believe in, and if you don't believe in that, if you can't relate to that, it just seems crazy.

Fundamentalism is rooted in fear, and it's another reason I'm interested in the horror genre, because I know the fear that fundamentalism is built upon.

History proves that those who seed extremist ideologies reap a bitter harvest.

I am nervous about dogmas of any kind, whether they be religious, political, or anti-religious. Too many heads have rolled because of them.

In every religion, you find the same extremists.

When fundamentalism comes to kill, it can kill with the language - the Apostle James says this, not me - and even with a knife, no?

People who think God is on their side are capable of the most inhumane acts. (Petrov)

Fundamentalism is still on the march.