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The Ethics of Belief QUOTES

The Ethics of Belief QUOTES

1 " It is hardly in human nature that a man should quite accurately gauge the limits of his own insight; but it is the duty of those who profit by his work to consider carefully where he may have been carried beyond it. "

― William Kingdon Clifford , The Ethics of Belief

2 " If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call in question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it—the life of that man is one long sin against mankind. "

― William Kingdon Clifford , The Ethics of Belief

3 " What shall we say of him? Surely this, that he was verily guilty of the death of those men. It is admitted that he did sincerely believe in the soundness of his ship; but the sincerity of his conviction can in no wise help him, because he had no right to believe on such evidence as was before him. He had acquired his belief not by honestly earning it in patient investigation, but by stifling his doubts. And although in the end he may have felt so sure about it that he could not think otherwise, yet inasmuch as he had knowingly and willingly worked himself into that frame of mind, he must be held responsible for it. "

― William Kingdon Clifford , The Ethics of Belief

4 " And no one man's belief is in any case a private matter which concerns himself alone. Our lives are guided by that general conception of the course of things which has been created by society for social purposes. Our words, our phrases, our forms and processes and modes of thought, are common property, fashioned and perfected from age to age; an heirloom which every succeeding generation inherits as a precious deposit and a sacred trust to be handled on to the next one, not unchanged but enlarged and purified, with some clear marks of its proper handiwork. Into this, for good or ill, is woven every belief of every man who has speech of his fellows. An awful privilege, and an awful responsibility, that we should help to create the world in which posterity will live. "

― William Kingdon Clifford , The Ethics of Belief

5 " Si una persona, al sostener una creencia que le fue enseñada en la niñez o de la que fue persuadida más tarde, rebaja y echa al un lado todas las dudas sobre ella que broten en su mente, evita a propósito la lectura de libros y la compañía que la cuestione o la discuta, y ve como impías aquellas preguntas que no puedan contestarse fácilmente sin perturbarla, entonces la vida de esa persona es un único y largo pecado contra la humanidad. "

― William Kingdon Clifford , The Ethics of Belief

6 " Pero como ninguna creencia sostenida por un hombre, por trivial que parezca la creencia, y desconocido el creyente, es en realidad insignificante o sin efecto sobre el destino de la humanidad, no tenemos más opción que extender nuestro juicio a todos los casos de creencia, sea cual sea. No solamente el líder, el hombre de Estado, el filósofo o el poeta son quienes tienen esta obligación con la humanidad. Cada lugareño que en la cantina del pueblo pronuncia sus lentas y escasas frases, puede ayudar a mantener o no vivas las fatales supersticiones que obstruyen su raza. Cada esposa de un artesano que trabaja duro puede transmitir creencias que unificarán o despedazarán a la sociedad. Ninguna simpleza mental, ninguna oscuridad de la estación puede escapar la obligación de cuestionar todo lo que creemos. "

― William Kingdon Clifford , The Ethics of Belief