Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [21-30] of 30 Heresy quotesHeresy QuotesHeresy Previous 20 quotes It is the freedom to blaspheme, to transgress, to move beyond the pale, that is at the heart of all intellectual, artistic and political endeavor. Far from censoring offensive speech, a vibrant and diverse society should encourage it. In any society that is not uniform, grey and homogeneous, there are bound to be clashes of viewpoints.~ Kenan Malik There is never any fair and thorough discussion of heretical opinions... The greatest harm done is to those who are not heretics, and whose whole mental development is cramped and their reason cowed, by the fear of heresy.~ John Stuart Mill Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind.~ Henry Miller Heresy hunters are intolerant not only of unorthodox ideas; worse than that, they are intolerant of ideas -- of any ideas which are really alive and not empty cocoons.~ Philip Lee Ralph There is a lurking fear that some things are not meant “to be known,” that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make.~ Carl Sagan Those who are convinced they have a monopoly on The Truth always feel that they are only saving the world when they slaughter the heretics.~ Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one.~ George Bernard Shaw Heretics were often most bitterly persecuted for their least deviation from accepted belief. It was precisely their obstinacy about trifles that irritated the righteous to madness. Why can they not yield on so trifling a matter?~ Leo Shestov [A] function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve it’s high purpose when it indices a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with things as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for understanding.~ Justice Potter Stewart I know that most men -- not only those considered clever, but even those who are very clever and capable of understanding most difficult scientific, mathematical, or philosophic, problems -- can seldom discern even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as obliges them to admit the falsity of conclusions they have formed, perhaps with much difficulty -- conclusions of which they are proud, which they have taught to others, and on which they have built their lives.~ Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi Previous 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print