Quotes on Religion and Philosophy

Alexander Herzen:

All religions have based morality on obedience, that is to say, on voluntary slavery. That is why they have always been more pernicious than any political organisation. For the latter makes use of violence, the former - of the corruption of the will.

From the Other Shorem, "Omnia Mea Mecum Porto" (1855). Quoted from: The Columbia Dictionary Of Quotations

John F. Kennedy:

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, (1962)

Baron de Montesquieu:

History is full of religious wars; but, we must take care to observe, it was not the multiplicity of religions that produced these wars, it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought she had the power of governing.

Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters (1721).

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James Waller:

To offer a psychological explanation for the atrocities committed by perpetrators is not to forgive, justify or condone their behavior. Instead, the explanation simply allows us to understand the conditions under which many of us could be transformed into killing machines. When we understand the ordinariness of extraordinary evil, we will be less surprised by evil, less likely to be unwitting contributors to evil, and perhaps better equipped to forestall evil.

Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (2002)