A Quote by Alfred North Whitehead

Religion is the last refuge of human savagery.

Alfred North Whitehead

Quote Topics

Religion Human Last Refuge Savagery

Quote Author

Alfred North Whitehead
English - Mathematician
February 15, 1861 - December 30, 1947

Today one might be tempted to say that patriotism is the last refuge of the tribal religion dedicated to the worship of German, French, English and Russian Gods of Battles. Surely such a religion has nothing in common with the religion which counsels for the disciple non-resistance, unstinted forgiveness, and the elimination of all rancor?

Joseph Alexander Leighton

Voting is the next-to-last refuge of the politically impotent. The last refuge, of course, is giving your opinion to a pollster.

Neil Postman

Whether or not patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, national security can be the last refuge of the tyrant.

Robert Walker, Baron Walker of Gestingthorpe

the leading error of the human mind, - the bane of human happiness - the perverter of human virtue ... is Religion - that dark coinage of trembling ignorance! It is Religion - that poisoner of human felicity! It is Religion - that blind guide of human reason! It is Religion - that dethroner of human virtue! which lies at the root of all the evil and all the misery that pervade the world!

Frances Wright

Spirituality: the last refuge of a failed human. Just another way of distracting yourself from who you really are.

George Carlin

There are various kinds of savagery: emotional, spiritual, economic, and cultural savagery.

Don Winslow

Therefore, be islands unto yourselves. Be your own refuge. Have recourse to none else for refuge. Hold fast to the Dharma as a refuge. Resort to no other refuge. Whosoever, either now or after I am gone, shall be islands unto themselves, shall seek no eternal refuge, it is they, among my disciples who shall reach the very topmost height! But they must be keen to progress.

Gautama Buddha

I have always felt that violence was the last refuge of the incompetent, and empty threats the last sanctuary of the terminally inept.

Neil Gaiman

Seek refuge in Mary because she is the city of refuge. We know that Moses set up three cities of refuge for anyone who inadvertently killed his neighbor. Now the Lord has established a refuge of mercy, Mary, even for those who deliberately commit evil. Mary provides shelter and strength for the sinner.

Anthony of Padua

'Zone One' has one kind of an apocalypse, and 'The Underground Railroad' another. In both cases, the narrators are animated by a hope in a better place of refuge - in the last surviving human outpost, Up North. Does it exist? They can only believe.

Colson Whitehead

Does history warrant the conclusion that religion is necessary to morality - that a natural ethic is too weak to withstand the savagery that lurks under civilization and emerges in our dreams, crimes and wars? ... There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.

Will Durant

Transcendental Meditation is not a religion, it's not against any religion, it's for human beings, no matter what color, what religion, what walk of life. If you're a human being, it will work for you. And you will be very glad you found this technique and took advantage of it.

David Lynch

Religion is all-too-often a refuge for scoundrels.

Neal Boortz

I am slowly, painfully discovering that my refuge is not found in my mother, my grandmother, of even the birds of Bear River. My refuge exists in my capacity to love. If I can learn to love death then I can begin to find refuge in change.

Terry Tempest Williams

Voting, we might even say, is the next to last refuge of the politically impotent. The last refuge is, of course, giving your opinion to a pollster, who will get a version of it through a desiccated question, and then will submerge it in a Niagara of similar opinions, and convert them into--what else?--another piece of news. Thus we have here a great loop of impotence: The news elicits from you a variety of opinions about which you can do nothing except to offer them as more news, about which you can do nothing.

Neil Postman

No system of religion should go in partnership with barbarism. Neither should any Christian feel it his duty to defend the savagery of the past.