Jeffrey Burton Russell quotes

“Relativism poses as freedom but it is just another form of tyranny: You must believe that all religions are equal because we say they are. You must agree with us that everything is relative, or we will punish you.”
-- Jeffrey Burton Russell

#Believe Quotes #Form Quotes #Tyranny Quotes

“If it were true that Christianity and science were incompatible, there would be no Christians who were respected scientists. If fact, about forty percent of professional natural scientists are practicing Christians, and many others are theists of other kinds. Fewer than thirty percent are atheists.”
-- Jeffrey Burton Russell

#Christian Quotes #Atheist Quotes #Atheism Quotes

“Every sign of gratitude is a sign of hope”
-- Jeffrey Burton Russell

Source : Jeffrey Burton Russell (2007). “Paradise Mislaid: How We Lost Heaven and How We Can Regain It”, p.132, Oxford University Press

#Gratitude Quotes

“It must first be reiterated that with extraordinary few exceptions no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the earth was flat”
-- Jeffrey Burton Russell

#Civilization Quotes #Earth Quotes #Firsts Quotes

“I'm still agnostic. But in the words of Elton Richards, I'm now a reverant agnostic. Which isn't an oxymoron, I swear. I now believe that whether or not there's a God, there is such a thing as sacredness. Life is sacred. The Sabbath can be a sacred day. Prayer can be a sacred ritual. There is something transcendent, beyond the everyday. It's possible that humans created this sacredness ourselves, but that doesn't take away from its power or importance.”

“Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe, having surveyed a few boxes full of letters, diaries, bank statements and photographs, that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life.”

“I was a common man, and I will always remain a common man. No amount of stardom will ever consume my soul. Money comes, money goes. Fame comes, fame goes. I believe every human being is a celebrity in their own right.”

“Supply and demand regulate architectural form.”

“If we depart form tradition, it is out of knowledge , not innocence.”

Source : "Abstract Expressionism". Book by David Anfam, p. 51, 1990.

“There's lots about politics I don't feel comfortable with. To talk about the politics of future ideas is impossible in soundbite form.”

“When more Americans prefer freebies to freedom, these great United States will become a fertile ground for tyranny.”

“Beware the tyranny of the weak. They just suck you dry.”

“I don't trust sentimentality in men; it goes with tyranny; you can't have one without the other.”

“The Postmodernists' tyranny wears people down by boredom and semi-literate prose.”