Quotes

The ONLY Spiritual advice you'll ever need?

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, accept it and live up to it." Siddhartha Gautama [Buddha] I've been quoting that for years but at some point I've lost the link to where on the internet I found it. (If you know, let me know). However, it's bullet points of the Criterion for Acceptance from the Kalama Sutta. The best explanation of the Kalama Sutta I've found is here.

Delusion: An erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary.

"Why should I fear death? If I am then death is not. If death is then I am not. Why should I fear that which can not exist when I do?" Epicurus

"Science has nothing to do with Christ, except insofar as the habit of scientific research makes a man cautious in admitting evidence. For myself, I do not believe that there ever has been any revelation. As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities." Charles Darwin

"A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree of certainty which the evidence warrants, would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world is suffering." Bertrand Russell

"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." Thomas Jefferson

"Orthodoxy means not thinking - not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." George Orwell, '1984'

"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." Diderot

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." Oscar Wilde

"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding." Albert Einstein

"Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is god able but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is god both willing and able? Then whence cometh evil? Is god neither able or willing? Then why call him god?" Epicurus

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." Winston Churchill

"Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and spiritual; and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity." Albert Einstein As Jacob S(below) pointed out, this quote seems incongruous to other Einstein quotes, so I've done a bit more research and it seems it's an opinion by an author and cannot be directly attributed to Einstein. So, as I'm always saying, there's more than enough Bull-doings floating on the surface of the real knowledge, without me accidentally adding to it, I've ruled it out. More details, including mentions by Einstein, not so much of Buddhism's value but rather of Buddha's in Philip Ryans article "Einstein's Quotes on Buddhism"