Skip to content

It is thus superstition infatuates man from his infancy, fills him with vanity, and enslaves him with fanaticism.

— Baron d'Holbach

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

Date and place of publication unknown. Original publication in French, 1770, as La Système de la nature, under the name of Jean Baptiste de Mirabaud.

Topics

Religion

More quotes by Baron d'Holbach

All children are born Atheists; they have no idea of God.

If the ignorance of nature gave birth to such a variety of gods, the knowledge of this nature is calculated to destroy them.

Pascal proves nothing in favour of Religion, unless that a man of genius may be foolish on some subjects, and is but a child, when he is weak enough to listen to his prejudices.

Now, if the ignorance of nature gave birth to Gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them.

Everything that passes in the world, proves to us, in the clearest manner, that it is not governed by an intelligent being.

All Baron d'Holbach quotes →

You may also like

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: Baron d'Holbach (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.