William Winwood Reade Quotes

• Men prefer to believe that they are degenerated angels, rather than elevated apes.

  William Winwood Reade

  Creer, Angel, Hombres

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.395

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• As a single atom man is an enigma: as a whole he is a mathematical problem. As an individual he is a free agent, as a species the offspring of necessity.

  William Winwood Reade

  Men, Atoms, Agents

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.186

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• Y entonces, siendo la Tierra pequeña, la humanidad emigrará al espacio, y cruzará los Saharas sin aire que separan planeta de planeta y sol de sol. La Tierra se convertirá en una Tierra Santa que será visitada por peregrinos de todos los rincones del Universo. Finalmente, los hombres dominarán las fuerzas de la Naturaleza; ellos mismos se convertirán en arquitectos de sistemas, fabricantes de mundos.

  William Winwood Reade

  Future, Men, Land

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.514

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• One fact must be familiar to all those who have any experience of human nature - a sincerely religious man is often an exceedingly bad man.

  William Winwood Reade

  Religiosos, Hombres, Ateísmo

  William Winwood Reade (1892). “The Martyrdom of Man”

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• Our enlightened posterity will look back upon us who eat oxen and sheep, just as we look upon cannibals.

  William Winwood Reade

  Compassion, Sheep, Oxen

  William Winwood Reade (1892). “The Martyrdom of Man”

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• What a state of society is this in which freethinker is a term of abuse, and in which doubt is regarded as sin?

  William Winwood Reade

  Abuse, Doubt, Society

  William Winwood Reade (1892). “The Martyrdom of Man”

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• We live between two worlds; we soar in the atmosphere; we creep upon the soil; we have the aspirations of creators and the propensities of quadrupeds. There can be but one explanation of this fact. We are passing from the animal into a higher form, and the drama of this planet is in its second act.

  William Winwood Reade

  Drama, Animal, Two

  William Winwood Reade (1892). “The Martyrdom of Man”

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• Llegará un día en que el dios europeo del siglo XIX será clasificado con los dioses del Olimpo y del Nilo.

  William Winwood Reade

  God, Olympus, Century

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.537

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• All doctrines relating to the creation of the world, the government of man by superior beings, and his destiny after death, are conjectures which have been given out as facts, handed down with many adornments by tradition, and accepted by posterity as "revealed religion". They are theories more or less rational which uncivilised men have devised in order to explain the facts of life, and which civilised men believe that they believe.

  William Winwood Reade

  Believe, Destiny, Men

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.179

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• If Christianity were true religious persecution would become a pious and charitable duty: if God designs to punish men for their opinions it would be an act of mercy to mankind to extinguish such opinions. By burning the bodies of those who diffuse them many souls would be saved that would otherwise be lost, and so there would be an economy of torment in the long run. It is therefore not surprising that enthusiasts should be intolerant.

  William Winwood Reade

  Running, Religious, Men

  William Winwood Reade (1876). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.228

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• Doubt is the offspring of knowledge: the savage never doubts at all.

  William Winwood Reade

  Doubt, Savages, Offspring

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.242

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• Christians believe themselves to be the aristocracy of heaven upon earth, they are admitted to the spiritual court, while millions of men in foreign lands have never been presented. They bow their knees and say they are 'miserable sinners,' and their hearts rankle with abominable pride. Poor infatuated fools! Their servility is real and their insolence is real but their king is a phantom and their palace is a dream.

  William Winwood Reade

  Christian, Dream, Spiritual

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.533

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• To cultivate the intellect is therefore a religious duty; and when this truth is fairly recognized by men, the religion which teaches that the intellect should be distrusted and that it should be subservient to faith, will inevitably fall.

  William Winwood Reade

  Religious, Fall, Men

  William Winwood Reade (1892). “The Martyrdom of Man”

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• En cuanto al sistema de la Comuna, que hace imposible que un hombre ascienda o descienda, no es más que el viejo sistema de castas revivido; si pudiera ponerse en vigor, toda la industria se desanimaría, cesaría la emulación y la humanidad se dormiría.

  William Winwood Reade

  Fall, Sleep, Men

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.507

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• It is a sure criterion of the civilisation of ancient Egypt that the soldiers did not carry arms except on duty, and that the private citizens did not carry them at all.

  William Winwood Reade

  Egypt, Soldier, Citizens

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.24

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• If we look into ourselves we discover propensities which declare that our intellects have arisen from a lower form; could our minds be made visible we should find them tailed.

  William Winwood Reade

  Mind, Atheism, Looks

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.394

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• Open the book of universal history at what period we may, it is always the India trade which is the cause of internal industry and foreign negotiation.

  William Winwood Reade

  Book, India, May

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.57

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• En la propia Europa no es probable que la guerra cese absolutamente hasta que la ciencia descubra alguna fuerza destructora tan simple en su administración, tan horrible en sus efectos, que todo el arte, toda la galantería, habrá llegado a su fin, y las batallas serán masacres que los sentimientos de la humanidad serán incapaces de soportar.

  William Winwood Reade

  Art, War, Simple

  William Winwood Reade (1892). “The Martyrdom of Man”

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• The essence of religion is inertia; the essence of science is change. It is the function of the one to preserve, it is the function of the other to improve. If, as in Egypt, they are firmly chained together, either science will advance, in which case the religion will be altered, or the religion will preserve its purity, and science will congeal.

  William Winwood Reade

  Egypt, Essence, Together

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.41

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• Artistic genius is an expansion of monkey imitativeness.

  William Winwood Reade

  Expansion, Genius, Monkeys

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.394

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• There is a certain class of people who prefer to say that their fathers came down in the world through their own follies than to boast that they rose in the world through their own industry and talents. It is the same shabby-genteel sentiment, the same vanity of birth which makes men prefer to believe that they are degenerated angels rather than elevated apes.

  William Winwood Reade

  Father, Believe, Angel

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.395

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• It may safely be asserted that the art of war will soon be reduced to a simple question of expenditure and credit, and that the largest purse will be the strongest arm.

  William Winwood Reade

  Art, War, Simple

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.38

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• El espíritu filosófico de investigación puede remontarse a la curiosidad bruta, y ésta al hábito de examinar todas las cosas en busca de alimento. El genio artístico es una expansión de la imitación del mono.

  William Winwood Reade

  Curiosity, Expansion, Inquiry

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.394

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• One book that has influenced the writer very strongly is Winwood Reade's Martyrdom of Man...It is still an extraordinarily inspiring presentation of human history as one consistent process.

  William Winwood Reade

  Book, Men, Process

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• Una religión tan poco alegre, una filosofía tan triste, nunca podría haber tenido éxito entre las masas de la humanidad si se presentara sólo como un sistema de metafísica. El budismo debió su éxito a su espíritu católico y a su hermosa moralidad.

  William Winwood Reade

  Beautiful, Philosophy, Buddhism

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.480

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