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Granted, religion is wishful thinking, but there is no other kind of thinking.

— John Leonard Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

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Religion

More quotes by John Leonard

When the state murders, it assumes an authority I refuse to concede: the authority of perfect knowledge in final things.

Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing such a child notices is that adults don't make sense.

Isn't it amazing the way the future succeeds in creating an appropriate past?

Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

The life, no matter how traumatic, never explains the work, if the work is any good.

From an international leader in the cause of human rights and democratic values, the U.S. has turned into an unaccountable bully.

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Leonard (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.