Freethought Quotes

“If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and the fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind that he was an impostor... We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications... That sect [Jews] had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust... Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of the superstition, a blood thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law... That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.

[Letter to William Short, 4 August, 1820]”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“No idea is above scrutiny and no people are beneath dignity.”
― Maajid Nawaz, Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue

“As nature has uncovered from under this hard shell the seed for which she most tenderly cares - the propensity and vocation to free thinking - this gradually works back upon the character of the people, who thereby gradually become capable of managing freedom; finally, it affects the principles of government, which finds it to its advantage to treat men, who are now more than machines, in accordance with their dignity.”
― Immanuel Kant, An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?

“I leave pansies, the symbolic flower of freethought, in memory of the Great Agnostic, Robert Ingersoll, who stood for equality, education, progress, free ideas and free lives, against the superstition and bigotry of religious dogma. We need men like him today more than ever. His writing still inspires us and challenges the 'better angels' of our nature, when people open their hearts and minds to his simple, honest humanity. Thank goodness he was here.”
― Bruce Springsteen

“Indeed it may be said with some confidence that the average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. There are moments when his cogitations are relatively more respectable than usual, but even at their climaxes they never reach anything properly describable as the level of serious thought. The mental activity of such people is only a mouthing of clichés. What they mistake for thought is simply a repetition of what they have heard. My guess is that well over eighty per cent. of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought. That is to say, they never think anything that has not been thought before and by thousands.”
― H.L. Mencken, Minority Report

“Nearly all people stand in great horror of annihilation, and yet to give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself. Mental slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll

“As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance: An Excerpt from Collected Essays, First Series

“The terrible error in the course of human civilization is undoubtedly the defective judgment that allowed religious authorities usurp the foundation of societal morality, in which all collective ethics of humankind must take a cause. This appalling blunder is comparable only to assigning the leper exclusive franchise to run beauty clinics in the society; this can only lead to cycles upon cycles of common infection syndrome.”
― Adebowale Babatunde Ojowuro, Echoes of Common Sense

“[n regard to Jesus believing himself inspired]
This belief carried no more personal imputation than the belief of Socrates that he was under the care and admonition of a guardian demon. And how many of our wisest men still believe in the reality of these inspirations while perfectly sane on all other subjects (Works, Vol. iv, p. 327).”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Problem with AI is that, they're born yesterday, yet they pretend like they've lived forever. Problem with humans is that, we've been here a long time, yet we behave like we're born yesterday.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Little Planet on The Prairie: Dunya Benim, Sorumluluk Benim

“A consensus by itself is meaningless. It was once the consensus that the earth was flat, that the sun orbited the stationary earth, that the Catholic Church was the source of all Truth, that Jesus Christ was God, and that classical physics was almost perfect, bar a fee minor details. All great advances have come about by overturning the consensus. That’s actually the definition of a great advance! To say that no one should be allowed to challenge or doubt the consensus is just about the most serious anti-science statement that anyone can make. That’s turning science into religion, a faith that no one is allowed to question!
It’s a simple fact that no matter what the scientific consensus is – and science has been wrong about countless things in its history, and even defines itself according to the principles that all of its claims must be capable of falsification or verification, hence it always places a doubt over itself – the consensus can be completely misguided and mistaken. The dogmatic assertion that it is wrong to spread “doubt and confusion” after “a scientific consensus had been reached” is simply chilling. This is the quintessence of the paradigmatic, blinkered scientific thinking attacked by Thomas Kuhn.”
― Mike Hockney, The Sam Harris Delusion

“A cup is just crockery
till there is coffee in it.
A head is just a skull
till there's a mind in it.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“Prejudice is sense of the caves, reason is sense of civilization.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“I used to use 'manifest' as taking charge, till I realized, it evoked new-age stupidity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee

“Rise, rise and rise again,
rise till cages collapse in dust.
Roar, roar and roar again,
roar till creeds crumble to past.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee

“Refurbished laptops are useless no more, refurbished awareness is awareness no more.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee

“Second hand mind is antithesis of mind.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee

“I live as lamp to the world not another lamb.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Little Planet on The Prairie: Dunya Benim, Sorumluluk Benim

“No one on earth should suffer to satisfy someone's puritanical beliefs.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Azad Earth Army: When The World Cries Blood

“To acknowledge prejudice is the awakening of reason.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Azad Earth Army: When The World Cries Blood

“Sonnet 1984

Government IDs are just ankle monitors, issued
to tag citizens like dogs, or I should say, apes.
There can be governments without constitution,
but there is no government without surveillance.

When you elect a so-called representative,
you're officially signing your life to them.
Don't be naive enough to think otherwise,
and then yell about human rights violation.

Violation of citizen rights is right of the government,
it's the unspoken rule of the handbook of democracy.
Once in a blue moon you may get a benevolent government,
but 9 times out of 10 you'll end up under an autocracy.

A freethinking citizen is contradiction in terms,
no good to the grand design of democratic dictatorship.
Democracy in books is, for the people, by the people,
democracy on street is rule of the apes in a land of sheep.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Azad Earth Army: When The World Cries Blood

“Greatest truth is the unmasking of lies.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Azad Earth Army: When The World Cries Blood

“Brain is there to think first, then take a side, but society teaches you to pick a side first, then think alike.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets: The Naskar Art of Neuroscience

“It's not written in the stars, it's written by me.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“Human choice is the God commandment.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The God Sonnets: Naskar Art of Theology

“I have accepted certain work-titles, for the world's convenience, not mine - if anything, lables-n-titles are hindrance to my immeasurable mind.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“Village Vesuvius (The Sonnet)

Be a think tank of life,
not a septic tank of prejudice.
Stand messenger, stand human,
not a brainless host to malice.

The book of truth is not a book of answers,
the book of truth is a book of questions.
The book of life is not a book of laws,
the book of life is a book of conscience.

Whenever, wherever, fanaticism weaponizes fear,
human hearts gotta rise, abandoning tranquility.
Whenever chowderheads infringe on love and reason,
time be my testament - My World, My Responsibility!

Pillar of heavens I stand, composed as the Himalayas.
Persecute any community, and I am the Village Vesuvius.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The God Sonnets: Naskar Art of Theology

“Be a think tank of life, not a septic tank of prejudice.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The God Sonnets: Naskar Art of Theology

“Blasphemy is merely truth told too early.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“Instead of wasting time and resources on trying to prove mythologies as historical fact, cultivate some civilized sense befitting your looks, and apply your concerns to solve real-life issues.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Sonnets From The Mountaintop