It is the nature of men having escaped one extreme, which by force they were constrained long to endure, to run headlong into the other extreme, forgetting that virtue doth always consist in the mean.
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The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
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A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
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A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.
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What will happen once the authentic mass man takes over, we do not know yet, although it may be a fair guess that he will have more in common with the meticulous, calculated correctness of Himmler than with the hysterical fanaticism of Hitler, will more resemble the stubborn dullness of Molotov than the sensual vindictive cruelty of Stalin.
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Is enough to look at the Middle Ages, at the Inquisition and on the ultra religious societies that, through their fanaticism, make an enemy of and have to eliminate everything that goes against them. This leads to the exacerbation of dictatorial Evil, to the most monstrous images that can be reflected in the mirror of Knowledge by this world with Destiny. Since this world has a Destiny, it means that everything occurred only once before our world was under the Print of our Creating Factor and everything we see already existed before we did, except for the fact that they occurred in the same Accidental Occurrence, while in our world with destiny they happen in successions of Intended Occurrences. There is a big difference through, because they determine a frontier between Illusion and the Image of this Illusion, on one side and the Print that was reflected in the Mirror of Knowledge, on the other side. This difference, that accepts the succession of events of the Intended Occurrences which determine destiny, since they are predestined by the Unique Accidental Occurrence which is our Creating Factor and Unique Accidental one, it makes have a Free Will vision on the world, because we illusory believe all the Intended occurrences can be influenced by the past Occurrences, which is completely wrong, because all of them are Intended Occurrences. If the Free Will does not exist, can we indirectly influence from another point of view a certain succession of events that occurs in a illusory man in our world?
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The recognition that no knowledge can be complete, no metaphor entire, is itself humanizing. It counteracts fanaticism. It grants even to adversaries the possibility of partial truth, and to oneself the possibility of error.
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A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
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Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell, and kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change.
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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.
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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.
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Fanaticism is just one step away from barbarism.
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The revolutionary spirit is mighty convenient in this, that it frees one from all scruples as regards ideas. Its hard absolute optimism is repulsive to my mind by the menace of fanaticism and intolerance it contains. No doubt one should smile at these things; but, imperfect Esthete, I am no better Philosopher. All claim to special righteousness awakens in me that scorn and anger from which a philosophical mind should be free.
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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.
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Reactionary: A man walking backwards with his face to the future.
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'Knowledge, without common sense,' says Lee, is 'folly; without method, it is waste; without kindness, it is fanaticism; without religion, it is death.' But with common sense, it is wisdom with method, it is power; with clarity, it is beneficence; with religion, it is virtue, and life, and peace.
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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.
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Our age knows nothing but reaction, and leaps from one extreme to another.
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Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.
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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.
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Fanaticism is the child of false zeal and of superstition, the father of intolerance and of persecution.
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Criticism alone can sever the root of materialism, fatalism, atheism, free-thinking, fanaticism, and superstition, which can be injurious universally; as well as of idealism and skepticism, which are dangerous chiefly to the Schools, and hardly allow of being handed on to the public.
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The Fanaticism which discards the Scripture, under the pretense of resorting to immediate revelations is subversive of every principle of Christianity. For when they boast extravagantly of the Spirit, the tendency is always to bury the Word of God so they may make room for their own falsehoods.
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I have no doubt that faith is only pure when it does not negate the faith of another. I have no doubt that evil can be fought and that indifference is no option. I have no doubt that fanaticism is dangerous. And of all the books in the world on life, I have no doubt that the life of one person weighs more than them all.
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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.
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Radical simply means grasping things at the root.
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If you see one cold and vehement at the same time, set him down for a fanatic.
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Fanaticism soberly defined, is the false fire of an over heated mind.
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The closer a man approaches tragedy the more intense is his concentration of emotion upon the fixed point of his commitment, which is to say the closer he approaches what in life we call fanaticism.
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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.
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