Top 53 Fanaticism Quotes

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Fanaticism is the extreme belief in something. With that in mind, check out the top 53 fanaticism quotes.

#53 – 50. Fanaticism Quotes

53. The force of what was called Panther rhetoric or word mongering resided not in elegant discourse but in strength of affirmation (or denial), in anger of tone and timbre. When the anger led to action there was no turgidity or over-emphasis. Anyone who has witnessed political rows among the Whites will have to admit that the Whites aren’t overburdened with poetic imagination. – Jean Genet

52. Fanaticism is overcompensation for doubt. – Robertson Davies

51. No violent extreme endures. – Thomas Carlyle

50. The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

#49 – 40. Fanaticism Quotes

49. This woman did not fly to extremes; she lived there. – Quentin Crisp

48. I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old. – Robert Frost

47. Railing and praising were his usual themes; and both showed his judgment in extremes. Either over violent or over civil, so everyone to him was either god or devil. – John Dryden

46. Fervor is the weapon of choice of the impotent. – Frantz Fanon

45. There is no place in a fanatic’s head where reason can enter. – Napoleon Bonaparte

44. The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion. – Denis Diderot

43. All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective of the doctrine they preach and the program they project, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance; all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of activity in certain departments of life; all of them demand blind faith and singlehearted allegiance. – Eric Hoffer

42. Nothing fools people as much as extreme passion. – Bishop Hall

41. Like other revolutionaries I can thank God for the reactionaries. They clarify the issue. – Robin G. Collingwood

40. The fundamentalist violence is, so is it, an attempt to increase the stakes, i.e. to discourage the potential desertions by showing that defection will cost them dear, that those who adopt other values will be persecuted or even killed. – Pascal Boyer

#39 – 30. Fanaticism Quotes

39. Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim. – George Santayana

38. From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step. – Denis Diderot

37. The fanatic is incorruptible: if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster. – E. M. Cioran

36. A fanatic is a man who consciously over compensates a secret doubt. – Aldous Huxley

35. All fanaticism is repressed doubt. – Carl Jung

34. The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. – Bertrand Russell

33. A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism. – Carl Sagan

32. Mere human beings can’t afford to be fanatical about anything. Not even about justice or loyalty. The fanatic for justice ends by murdering a million helpless people to clear a space for his law-courts. If we are to survive on this planet, there must be compromises. – Storm Jameson

31. The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism. – John C. Calhoun

30. Theological religion is the source of all imaginable follies and disturbances; it is the parent of fanaticism and civil discord; it is the enemy of mankind. – Voltaire

#29 – 20. Fanaticism Quotes

29. The fanatic has the courage of his conviction and the intolerance of his courage. He is opposed to the death penalty for murder, but he would willingly have anyone electrocuted who disagreed with him on the subject. – Thomas Bailey Aldrich

28. Tolerance and freedom of thought are the veritable antidotes to religious fanaticism. – Baron d’Holbach

27. In the history of mankind, fanaticism has caused more harm than vice. – Louis Kronenberger

26. I carry from my mother’s womb a fanatic’s heart. – William Butler Yeats

25. A fanatic is a man that does what he thinks the Lord would do if He knew the facts of the case. – Finley Peter Dunne

24. Defined in psychological terms, a fanatic is a man who consciously over-compensates a secret doubt. – Aldous Huxley

23. Fanaticism, or, to call it by its milder name, enthusiasm, is only powerful and active so long as it is aggressive. Establish it firmly in power, and it becomes conservatism, whether it will or no. – James Russell Lowell

22. In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

21. Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind. – William Cowper

20. Just as every conviction begins as a whim so does every emancipator serve his apprenticeship as a crank. A fanatic is a great leader who is just entering the room. – Heywood Broun

#19 – 10. Fanaticism Quotes

19. Radical simply means grasping things at the root. – Angela Y. Davis

18. The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not. – Eric Hoffer

17. Throughout human history, the apostles of purity, those who have claimed to possess a total explanation, have wrought havoc among mere mixed-up human beings. – Salman Rushdie

16. To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character. – Emma Goldman

15. Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons. – Friedrich Nietzsche

14. Fanaticism soberly defined, is the false fire of an over heated mind. – William Cowper

13. Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim. – George Santayana

12. If you see one cold and vehement at the same time, set him down for a fanatic. – Johann Kaspar Lavater

11. A MAN WITH A CONVICTION is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point. – Leon Festinger

10. E.P. Whipple calls fanaticism “religion caricatured,” which is a full definition in a word. – James Parton

#9 – 1. Fanaticism Quotes

9. Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity. – Edward Gibbon

8. So over violent, or over civil that every man with him was God or Devil. – John Dryden

7. The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. – Bertrand Russell

6. I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortur. – Daniel J. Boorstin

5. Kill them all, God will recognize his own. – Arnald Amalric, Papal Legate

4. The worst of madmen is a saint run mad. – Alexander Pope

3. A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. – Sir Winston Churchill

2. Reactionary: A man walking backwards with his face to the future. – Aneurin Bevan

1. In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal. – Thomas Jefferson

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