Quotes on Religion and Philosophy

Aristotle:

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.

Aristotle, Politics.

Read a discussion about this quote

Chuck Colson:

[T]he time has come for Congress to call into question the very legitimacy of the Supreme Court’s status as sole and final arbiter of what the Constitution means.

"Whose Constitution Is It Anyway?," June 26, 1997

Tom DeLay:

The judges need to be intimidated, they need to uphold the Constitution. If they don't behave, we're going to go after them in a big way.

Tom DeLay, Republican Representative from Texas. Washington Monthly, November 1997

Keith M. Ellis:

Political beliefs are for the most part not practical beliefs that result from empirical analysis of one’s own experience; rather, they are myths that explain the mostly inexplicable. They are often similar to religious myths in function, perhaps though in a different sphere of influence.

They answer difficult questions like: Why is my life so shitty?, Who are my enemies?, and Why isn't the world structured more to my liking? One finds oneself with one’s predilections, one usually selects one’s social milieu on that basis, and within that milieu it is very easy to weave and sustain a mythology about the political workings of the world that validates those predilections. For most people, that is the very point of the exercise.

Writing in the comments section of "Tendentious dichotomies redux" of the blog Crooked Timber on July 24, 2003.

Paul Finkelman:

Scalia's dissent is very reminiscent of Dred Scott, in that it embraces Taney's cramped notion of history and the law. Scalia, like Taney, has a view that the only liberty traditions are the ones we've had since the Constitution was written. Really, that ignores the very language of the Constitution, which says you can't deny equal protection of the law to anyone.

University of Tulsa law professor quoted in a Knight Ridder column written by Stephen Henderson and published on July 18, 2003

John Stuart Mill:

There is, in fact, no recognized principle by which the propriety or impropriety of government interference is customarily tested. People decide according to their personal preferences.

On Liberty and Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill:

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

On Liberty, (1859)

Elaine Pagels:

What I'm working on now and what I find I'm passionately thinking about, has to do with the interaction of politics and religion. Certainly it's most relevant in America, as this country was founded, in its beginning at least, with the Puritans and others, who were people who were religiously motivated and saw their migration to this country as a religious act - as the people of Israel coming to the Promised Land - and of course to a land which they claimed was theirs by divine right. They were also defying the King of England and his claims to divine right, which had been worked out in a very complicated way.

Interview with Edge, July 2003

Elaine Pagels:

[A]ppeals to religion, like those that are currently being made by the religious right, can work in a democracy to subvert all of the values to which they give lip service. It worked brilliantly with the Roman Empire. Beliefs are overrated in Christianity. Religious traditions have to do with a lot more than beliefs.

Interview with Edge, July 2003

Elaine Pagels:

[P]atriotism is about patria - fatherland, father, country, place, our family, our people - all of those emotions, which are very deep and which are the source which politicians count on for political passion and political conviction - let alone conviction about war - which are deeply connected with religious impulses, and so people have always drawn on that.

Interview with Edge, July 2003

Plato:

Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it.

The Republic

Salman Rushdie:

The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes.

"Is Nothing Sacred?," Herbert Reade Memorial Lecture, February 6, 1990.