Voltaire Quotes

The difference between faith and superstition is that the first uses reason to go as far as it can, and then makes the jump; the second shuns reason entirely — which is why superstition is not the ally, but the enemy, of true religion.

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

The beauty of science hugely outranks the charms of superstition.

Faith is the surrender of the mind; it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It's our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated.

Reason shapes the future, but superstition infects the present.

This is one of the great social functions of science - to free people from superstition

Fear is bred from ignorance. So knowledge is a weapon against it, and reason is the tool of knowledge.

In theology we must consider the predominance of authority; in philosophy the predominance of reason.

The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.

The real war is not between the West and the East. The real war is between intelligent and stupid people.

The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence.

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

Science stands for rational thought, faith for superstition and unreason.

One of the greatest gifts science has brought to the world is continuing elimination of the supernatural …. We can live our lives without the constant fear that we have offended this or that deity who must be placated by incantation or sacrifice, or that we are at the mercy of devils or the Fates. With increasing knowledge, the intellectual darkness that surrounds us is illuminated and we learn more of the beauty and wonder of the natural world.

Science must begin with myths and with the criticism of myth.

Tyrants would have cause to tremble if reason were to become the rule of duty in any of the relations of life, for the light might spread till perfect day appeared. And when it did appear, how would men smile at the sight of the bugbears at which they started during the night of ignorance, or the twilight of timid inquiry?

If prejudice could reason, it would dispel itself.

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

When man seized the loadstone of science, the loadstar of superstition vanished in the clouds.

The more people are exposed to science, the more we will move away from superstition.

I believe in the religion of reason -- the gospel of this world; in the development of the mind, in the accumulation of intellectual wealth, to the end that man may free himself from superstitious fear, to the end that he may take advantage of the forces of nature to feed and clothe the world.

I think the cultural task is to separate our impulses and needs and desires from the supernatural and, above all, from the superstitious.