ideological fervor Quotes

Policies are judged by their consequences but crusades are judged by how good they make the crusaders feel.

Faith is harder to shake than knowledge, love succumbs less to change than respect, hate is more enduring than aversion, and the impetus to the mightiest upheavals on this earth has at all times consisted less in a scientific knowledge dominating the masses than in a fanaticism which inspired them and sometimes in a hysteria which drove them forward.

Fanaticism, to which men are so much inclined, has always served not only to render them more brutalized but more wicked.

Ideology - that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the neccessary steadfastness and determination... Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions.

It seemed there was always a close correlation between true believers and high body counts.

Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor.

A fanatic, either, religious or political, is the subject of strong delusions.

Which is ideology? Which not? You shall know them by their assertion of truth, their contempt for considered reflection, and their fear of debate.

No human beings are more dangerous than those who have suffered for a belief

They are fuelled by an ideology that itself is non-negotiable and forms a continuum that links peaceful, law-abiding but nevertheless intensely ideological Muslims at one end and murderous jihadists at the other.

I had been a Maoist, and then when the Gang of Four was overthrown, I was completely distraught. I was bedridden for three weeks; it was a very painful experience for me. Not only because I had been wrong, but because I felt really embarrassed that I had been lecturing and pontificating with such self-confidence.

The incidence of violent brand-loyalty to one's own current dogma has risen.

But to some extent, the whole aspect of Fascism was a real hot potato. Because so many of the aristocracy were enamored of the tenets of not only fascism but also of Adolf Hitler himself. And you know, that was treading on a lot of toes.

Only fanatics — in religion as well as in politics — can find a meaning in someone else’s death.

The more fantastic an ideology or theology, the more fanatic its adherents.

The talk of pale, burning-eyed students, anarchists and utopians all, over tea and cigarettes in a locked room long past midnight, is next morning translated, with the literalness of utter innocence, into the throwing of the bomb, the shouting of the proud slogan, the dragging away of the young dreamer-doer, still smiling, to the dungeon and the firing squad.

Fanaticism is the greatest threat today. Literally, the 21st century threatened by fanatics, and we have fanatics in every religion, unfortunately, and what can we do against them? Words nothing else, I'm against violence but only words.

Fanaticism in many lands has surfaced as the greatest threat to the world. Indifference to its consequences would be a serious mistake.

Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves. The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it.

A sense of humor always withers in the presence of the messianic delusion, like justice and the truth in front of patriotic passion.

Che is not just a potent figure of protest, but the idealistic, questioning kid who exists in every society and every time.

They [zealots] would have everybody be as blind as themselves: to them, to be clear-sighted is libertinism.

A fanatic's willingness to kill or be killed in the service of a cause cannot prove the rightness of that cause.

Fanaticism is not a state of religion but a state of mind.

Fanatics have their dreams, wherewith they weave a paradise for a sect.