Quotes About Superstition

Possibility is everything that has ever happened. The purpose of science is to find out where the limits of possibility end. When we have achieved that - and we shall - there will be no more magic, no more superstition, there will just be what is.

People believed in witches because it made things easier. People don't just need an enemy, they need an explanation. And it's often useful, in unsettled times, where ignorance is everywhere, for people to believe in witches . . . Who do you think believed in witches?

White folks' belief that Negroes were magically gifted struck her as the most absurd form of superstition. Sorcery was in the Bible, which meant it was real, but to Momma it was self-evident that like every other kind of power it would be concentrated in the hands of the mighty.

smartass ice heathens from the north descended upon small-town America to laugh at the superstitious but numerically superior yokels of the heartland. In a breathtakingly accurate preview of things to come, the yokels actually won the trial, but history judged them the losers—thanks mainly to the flamboyant propaganda of a godless misanthrope named H. L. Mencken, the brilliant Darwinian ancestor of the modern liberal media.

Religion and natural science are fighting a joint battle in an incessant, never relaxing crusade against skepticism and against dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition... [and therefore] 'On to God!

Animals like crows, owls or black cats are not ominous at all; it is the men's superstitious mind which is the inauspicious one!

The inauspiciousness of the owl is nothing but the inauspiciousness of the man who thinks that owl is inauspicious!

My father believed in signs,' she says. 'Not that they change events or predict what's going to happen. It's more about what we do when we come across one.

It is really striking," says Gary Snyder, "that so very many people at Zen Center reject the term religion when it is applied to what they are doing. What is any religion? A little ritual, a little superstition, and some magic. That's Buddhism.

Maybe nothing's so unfunny as an omen read wrong.

He just knew we would find luck, but believing something don't make it true.

we make the mistake of viewing history through modern eyes. Instead, it must be evaluated with an open mind. We must take into account the fears and superstitions of the times, for they are critical to understanding the people and their motivations.

Why do people think everything will be better if they pour boiling water on dried leaves?

Perenelle shuddered. "You know I hate leprechauns more than almost anything.

The Age of Reason, then, was the age when humanity was born again, not from original sin, but from original ignorance and dependence on authority and superstition. Never again should we allow ourselves to be the intellectual slaves of those who would bind our minds with the chains of dogma and authority. In its stead we use reason and science as the arbiters of truth and knowledge.

And it wasn't just astrology. "Religion, astrology and magic all purported to help men with their daily problems by teaching them how to avoid misfortune and how to account for it when it struck." With such sweeping power over people, Thomas concludes, "If magic is to be defined as the employment of ineffective techniques to allay anxiety when effective ones are not available, then we must recognize that no society will ever be free from it.

We're still in the Dark Ages. The scared and the superstitious savage still lurks behind the mask of civilization and he will remain there for untold generations to come.

Three weeks after New Year, she lost her faith. It happened quite suddenly. She simply woke up and it was gone. As she lay in bed it occurred to her that between religion and superstition there was no difference, since both were based on unreason. To kill a man to redeem the sins of others was as irrational as tapping a hole in one's eggshell to stop a witch using it as a boat.

Blood diamonds, she thought. That's exactly what these are. She felt almost as superstitious as the Africans now, as if the pink diamonds themselves had somehow caused all this hardship and death.

All religions, with their gods, their demi-gods, and their prophets, their messiahs and their saints, were created by the prejudiced fancy of men who had not attained the full development and full possession of their faculties.

fault. Everyone knows it's bad luck to say the name of Shakespeare's Scottish Play. At least for

Many French women (moi included) believe that the right day to cut is on a full moon.

She was opening the window as high as the sash would go – that's one of their superstitions, something to do with letting the spirit go freely. They do it.

As I was walking to my car, a crow that was sitting on a wall suddenly scooped down and did number two on my head. Luckily I was holding a newspaper on my head at that time because sun was very strong and I didn't want to become tanned. So thanks god my blow-dried hair didn't get spoiled. People say it is a good amen when a bird does potty on you, but I am sorry, what's so good about your head being used as a toilet?