SUPERSTITION QUOTES II

quotations about superstition

Superstition quote

Aaah ... when two Neptunes appear in the sky it is a sure sign that a midget in glasses is being born, Harry.

J. K. ROWLING

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Tags: J. K. Rowling


Superstition originates among ordinary people in the early and all too zealous instruction they receive in religion: they hear of mysteries, miracles, deeds of the Devil, and consider it very probable that things of this sort could occur in everything anywhere.

GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG

The Waste Books

Tags: Georg Christoph Lichtenberg


Religion is not removed by removing superstition.

CICERO

De Divinatione


The world's hope is centered on men devoid of superstition.

ABNER KNEELAND

attributed, Day's Collacon


The beginning of superstition was the subtlety of Satan; the beginning of true religion, the service of God.

GENNADIUS

attributed, Day's Collacon


Christianity was an epidemic rather than a religion. It appealed to fear, hysteria and ignorance. It spread across the Western world, not because it was true, but because humans are gullible and superstitious.

COLIN WILSON

The Occult: A History


The funny thing about superstitions is that the nonsense ones are perfectly reasonable if they're YOUR superstitions, it's everybody else's that are ridiculous.

FLAVIA BERTOLINI

"Don't do that, it's bad luck! There are a lot of superstitions out there, and some of them are really quite peculiar", Mirror, April 30, 2017


Primitive superstition lies just below the surface of even the most tough-minded individuals, and it is precisely those who most fight against it who are the first to succumb to its suggestive effects.

CARL JUNG

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle

Tags: Carl Jung


Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE

The Complete Essays

Tags: Michel de Montaigne


The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.

CORMAC MCCARTHY

Blood Meridian

Tags: Cormac McCarthy


Since man cannot live without miracles, he will provide himself with miracles of his own making. He will believe in witchcraft and sorcery, even though he may otherwise be a heretic, an atheist, and a rebel.

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

The Brothers Karamazov

Tags: Fyodor Dostoevsky


Aren't we supposed to free ourselves from lies and superstition? Isn't that the obligation of intelligent beings?

ANNE RICE

The Wolves of Midwinter

Tags: Anne Rice


For a set of supposedly irrational beliefs, superstitions have a surprisingly large following.

JULIANA LABIANCA

"Why Do You Believe in Superstitions? Here's What the Science Says", Reader's Digest, December 29, 2016


Superstition, without a veil, is a deformed thing; for, as it addeth deformity to an ape, to be so like a man, so the similitude of superstition to religion, makes it the more deformed. And as wholesome meat corrupteth to little worms, so good forms and orders corrupt, into a number of petty observances.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Superstition", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: Francis Bacon


There is a superstition in avoiding superstition.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Superstition", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: Francis Bacon


Superstition is the need to view the world in terms of simple cause and effect.

BERNARD BECKETT

Genesis

Tags: Bernard Beckett


I am so superstitious that if I had arrived when there was no sunshine I should have been wretched and most anxious until after my first performance. It is a perfect torture to be superstitious to this degree, and, unfortunately for me, I am ten times more so now than I was in those days, for besides the superstitions of my own country, I have, thanks to my travels, added to my stock all the superstitions of other countries. I know them all now, and in any critical moment of my life, they all rise up in armed legions for or against me. I cannot walk a single step or make any movement or gesture, sit down, go out, look at the sky or ground, without feeling some reason for hope or despair, until at last, exasperated by the trammels put upon my actions by my thought, I defy all superstitions and just act as I want to act.

SARAH BERNHARDT

My Double Life

Tags: Sarah Bernhardt


How weak our mind is; how quickly it is terrified and unbalanced as soon as we are confronted with a small, incomprehensible fact. Instead of dismissing the problem with: "We do not understand because we cannot find the cause," we immediately imagine terrible mysteries and supernatural powers.

GUY DE MAUPASSANT

"The Horla"

Tags: Guy de Maupassant


Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

CARL SAGAN

Cosmos

Tags: Carl Sagan


Take theology from the world, and the money wasted on superstition will do away with want.

ROBERT G. INGERSOLL

Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage