Humanism Quotes

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  Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Life, Beauty

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.15, St. Martin's Press

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• The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.

  E. M. Forster

  Race, Curiosity, Mind

  E.M. Forster (1951). “Two Cheers for Democracy”

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• Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Inspirational, Motivational, Atheist

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• Humanism is an approach to life which encourages ethical and fulfilling living on the basis of reason and humanity, and rejects superstition and religion. The most immediate impact of living as a Humanist is that we believe this life is all there is - so what we do and the choices we make really count.

  Stephen Fry

  Believe, Impact, Choices

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• Humanism is a philosophy of joyous service for the greater good of all humanity, of application of new ideas of scientific progress for the benefit of all.

  Linus Pauling

  Philosophy, Ideas, Humanity

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• To embrace humanism is to embrace the concept that caring for our fellow human beings is our highest calling.

  Sean Faircloth

  Caring, Calling, Embrace

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  When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

  Jimi Hendrix

  Love, Inspirational, Life

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• Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests.

  Isaac Asimov

  Thinking, People, Needs

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  For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

  Carl Sagan

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Carl Sagan (1997). “Contact”, p.430, Simon and Schuster

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• Faith in God means believing absolutely in something with no proof whatsoever. Faith in humanity means believing absolutely in something with a huge amount of proof to the contrary. We are the true believers.

  Joss Whedon

  Believe, Mean, Humanity

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• In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

  Anne Rice

  Christian, Gay, Names

  FaceBook post by Anne Rice from Jul 28, 2010

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• Humanism is the philosophy that you should be a good guest at the dinner table of life.

  A.C. Grayling

  Philosophy, Dinner Table, Guests

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• Morality comes from humanism and is stolen by religion for its own purposes.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Purpose, Morality, Stolen

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• Humanism believes that the individual attains the good life by harmoniously combining personal satisfactions and continuous self-development with significant work and other activities that contribute to the welfare of the community.

  Corliss Lamont

  Good Life, Believe, Self

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• Humanism is the only - I would go so far as saying the final- resistance we have against the inhuman practices and injustices that disfigure human history.

  Edward Said

  Practice, Finals, Resistance

  Edward W. Said (2014). “Orientalism”, p.29, Vintage

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• Humanism involves far more than the negation of supernaturalism. It requires an affirmative philosophy . . . translated into a life devoted to one's own improvement and the service of all mankind.

  Corliss Lamont

  Philosophy, Improvement, Humanist

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• Does religion fill a much needed gap? It is often said that there is a God-shaped gap in the brain which needs to be filled: we have a psychological need for God -- imaginary friend, father, big brother, confessor, confidant -- and the need has to be satisfied whether God really exists or not. But could it be that God clutters up a gap that we'd be better off filling with something else? Science, perhaps? Art? Human friendship? Humanism? Love of this life in the real world, giving no credence to other lives beyond the grave?

  Richard Dawkins

  Art, Brother, Father

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• What the world needs is not redemption from sin but redemption from hunger and oppression; it has no need to pin its hopes upon Heaven, it has everything to hope for from this earth.

  Friedrich Durrenmatt

  Heaven, Needs, Redemption

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• America is not dying because of the strength of humanism but the weakness of evangelism.

  Leonard Ravenhill

  America, Dying, Weakness

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• There is nothing new about humanism. It is the yielding to Satan's first temptation of Adam and Eve: "Ye shall be as gods." (Gen. 3:5)

  Billy Graham

  Temptation, Firsts, Satan

  Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Donna Lee Toney (2011). “Billy Graham in Quotes”, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• Secular humanism does not have the essential attributes of a religion: belief in a deity, the wish for some sort of afterlife, sacred dogma or texts, or an absolutist moral creed. Instead, it expresses a philosophical and ethical point of view, and it draws upon the scientific method in formulationg its naturalistic view of the nature.

  Paul Kurtz

  Philosophical, Views, Afterlife

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• I think students should know something about religion as a historical phenomenon, in the same way that they should know something about socialism and humanism and the other great ideas that have shaped political philosophies and therefore the course of human events.

  Steven Pinker

  Philosophy, Thinking, Ideas

  "Proud atheists". Interview with Steve Paulson, www.salon.com. October 15, 2007.

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• A picture can express a universal humanism, or simply reveal a delicate and poignant truth by exposing a slice of life that might otherwise pass unnoticed.

  Steve McCurry

  Might, Poignant, Unnoticed

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• The toxic mix of religion and tribalism has become so dangerous as to justify taking seriously the alternative view, that humanism based on science is the effective antidote, the light and the way at last placed before us.

  E. O. Wilson

  Light, Views, Toxic

  "Can Biology Do Better Than Faith?". www.newscientist.com. November 02, 2005.

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• A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Party, Men, Thinking

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2014). “The Heart of Emerson's Journals”, p.49, Courier Corporation

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