rigid adherence Quotes

Orthodoxy is a relaxation of the mind accompanied by a stiffening of the heart.

Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, openness - an act of trust in the unknown.

Adherence to dogmas has destroyed more armies and cost more battles than anything in war.

It must be noted that it is often the colleague or direct disciple of a new thinker who gets stuck in literal interpretations of the work, tending to freeze the new ideas and language into an inflexible, static condition.

The way in which modern German poetry follows theories reminds me of pupils who, scolded by their teacher for their insubordination, justify themselves by saying that they invented new rules of propriety according to which they are quite well- behaved.

Adhesion to one idea is monomania; to few, slavery.

Nothing is more dangerous in practice, than an obstinate, unbending adherence to a system.

To rest upon a formula is a slumber that, prolonged, means death.

… some parties think that only the rules laid down by their doctrines are the right ones.

In an age of relativism, orthodoxy is the only possible rebellion left

By such literalism, fundamentalism, religions betrayed the best intentions of their founders. Reducing thought to formula, replacing choice by obedience, these preachers turned the living word into dead law.

Nothing is more dangerous in practice, than an obstinate, unbending adherence to a system, particularly in its application to the wants and errors of mankind.

Consistency is the defense of a small mind

Remember: Bureaucracy elevates conformity ... Make that elevates 'fatal stupidity' to the status of religion.

Clinging uncritically to traditional ideas and beliefs often serves to obscure or deny real facts of our life history.

To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well.

Curiosity has no important place in my work, only conformity.

We are very defensive, and therefore aggressive, when we hold on to a particular belief, a dogmas, or when we worship our particular nationality, with the rag that is called the flag.

In theology the conservative temper tends to formalism.

One of the most marked characteristics of our day is a reckless neglect of principles, and a rigid adherence to their semblance.

At some fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise. It insists on the impossible. If God has spoken, then followers are expected to live up to God's edicts, regardless of the consequences. To base one's life on such uncompromising commitment may be sublime; to base our policy making on such commitments would be a dangerous thing.

This doctrine ['that the condition of man cannot be ameliorated, that what has been must ever be, and that to secure ourselves where we are we must tread with awful reverence in the footsteps of our fathers']is the genuine fruit of the alliance between Church and State, the tenants of which finding themselves but too well in their present condition, oppose all advances which might unmask their usurpations and monopolies of honors, wealth and power, and fear every change as endangering the comforts they now hold.

For any student of history, change is the law of life. Any attempt to contain it guarantees an explosion down the road; the more rigid the adherence to the status quo, the more violent the ultimate outcome will be.

I am not so foolish as to declaim against forms. Forms are as essential as bodies; but to exalt particular forms, to adhere to oneform a moment after it is outgrown, is unreasonable, and it is alien to the spirit of Christ.