Quotes About Superstition

How could I disbelieve? Charms are in our destiny.

What [Adam] Smith took from [David] Hume's demonstration of the limits of reason, the absurdity of superstition, and the primacy of the passions was not a lesson of Buddhist-Stoical indifference but something more like a sense of Epicurean intensity—if we are living in the material world, then let us make it our material.

I think there's a part of the brain, probably somewhere in the back, that won't give up believing in magic. It was the part that made cavemen believe that drawing elks on stone would make for a good hunt the next day. And it's still chugging along, making you think you have lucky socks, or that your kids' birthdays will win the lottery.

The State (meaning the gov't and society) derives no inconsiderable advantage from the peoples instruction (in other words, education). The more they are instructed, the less liable they are to the delusions of enthusiasm and superstition. . . . The expense of the institutions for education and religious instruction, is likewise, no doubt, beneficial to the whole society, and may, therefore, without injustice, be defrayed by the general contribution of society.

The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious antipathy to the sea; a superstition nearly of the same kind prevails among the Indians; and the Chinese have never excelled in foreign commerce.

It seemed impossible, from within love at least, that this could have been anything but fate. It would have taken a steady mind to contemplate without superstition the enormous probability of a meeting that had turned out to alter our lives. Someone at (30,000 feet) must have been pulling strings in the sky.

No cat is bad luck

There is now general agreement among historians that between 1400 and 1800, between forty and fifty thousand people died in Europe and colonial north America on charges of witchcraft

women, in some parts of France, were barred from the chai, or winery, during harvesttime. Their presence, according to superstition, would turn the wine sour.

Now it was rare to lose a parent or lose a child; and people wouldn't discuss it, in case it invited bad luck in. In case it was tempting fate, or superstition. She thought of how many people wouldn't talk about Hari's speechlessness in case drawing attention to it would somehow visit it upon their own children.

Dutifully I knock on the table. "What does knock on wood even mean?" Daddy perks up. "Actually, it's thought to come from Greek mythology. According to Greek myths, dryads lived in trees, and people would invoke them for protection. Hence knocking on wood: just that added bit of protection so as not to tempt fate.

Tahtaya vurman?n anlam? ne ki?" Babam canland?. "Asl?nda bu inan?? Yunan mitolojisinden geliyor. Yunan efsanelerine göre a?açlarda orman perileri ya??yordu ve insanlar korunmak için onlardan yard?m al?yorlard?. Yani tahtaya vurunca kaderi öfkelendirmeden biraz koruma eklemi? oluyorsun.

most sailors still held the belief that there was no point in knowing how to swim, since it would only prolong your suffering. Turner

We're always lucky, I said and like a fool I did not knock on wood. There was wood everywhere in that apartment to knock on too.

For luck you carried a horse chestnut and a rabbit's foot in your right pocket. The fur had been worn off the rabbit's foot long ago and the bones and the sinews were polished by the wear. The claws scratched in the lining of your pocket and you knew your luck was still there.

The blue-backed notebooks, the two pencils and the pencil sharpener (a pocket knife was too wasteful) the marble-topped tables, the smell of early morning, sweeping out and mopping, and luck were all you needed. For luck you carried a horse chestnut and a rabbit's foot in your right pocket. The fur had been worn off the rabbit's foot long ago and the bones and the sinews were polished by wear. The claws scratched in the lining of your pocket and you knew your luck was still there.

THE GAMBLER,THE NUN & THE RADIO I never carry a gun. With my luck, if i carried a gun I would be hanged ten times a year.

Dentuso, he thought. Bad luck to your mother.

In those days you did not really need anything, not even the rabbit's foot, but it was good to feel it in your pocket.

One person believes in sprites and visits the sacred grove, and another believes in Jesus and goes to the church. It's just a matter of fashion. There's no use in getting involved with just one god; they're more like brooches or pearls, just for decoration. For hanging around your neck, or for playing with.

Intolerance and superstition has always been the domain of the more stupid amongst the common folk and, I conjecture, will never be uprooted, for they are as eternal as stupidity itself. There, where mountains tower today, one day there will be seas; there where today seas surge, will one day be deserts. But stupidity will remain stupidity. Nicodemus de Boot, Meditations on life, Happiness and Prosperity

L'intolleranza e la superstizione sono sempre state prerogativa della parte più stupida del volgo e credo che non saranno mai estirpate, perché sono eterne quanto la stupidità stessa. Là dove oggi torreggiano le montagne un giorno ci saranno i mari, là dove oggi si agitano i mari un giorno ci sarà il deserto. Ma la stupidità rimarrà stupidità.

Intolerance and superstition has always been the domain of the more stupid amongst the common folk and, I conjecture, will never be uprooted, for they are as eternal as stupidity itself.

Intolerance and superstition has always been the domain of the more stupid amongst the common folk and, I conjecture, will never be uprooted, for they are as eternal as stupidity itself. There, where mountains tower today, one day there will be seas; there where today seas surge, will one day be deserts. But stupidity will remain stupidity.