William Winwood Reade: Quotes about the world

William Winwood Reade was British historian. Explore interesting quotes on world.
William Winwood Reade: 64 quotes3 likes

“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

Source: The Martyrdom of Man (1872), Chapter II, "Religion", p. 138.

“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

Source: The Martyrdom of Man (1872), Chapter III, "Liberty", p. 316.

“And then, the Earth being small, mankind will migrate into space, and will cross the airless Saharas which separate planet from planet and sun from sun. The Earth will become a Holy Land which will be visited by pilgrims from all the quarters of the Universe. Finally, men will master the forces of Nature; they will become themselves architects of systems, manufacturers of worlds.”

William Winwood Reade

Source: The Martyrdom of Man (1872), Chapter IV, "Intellect"

“There is a certain class of people who prefer to say that their fathers came down in the world through their own follies rather 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

Source: The Martyrdom of Man (1872), Chapter III, "Liberty", p. 315.

“There is a certain class of people who prefer to say that their fathers came down in the world through their own follies rather than to boast that they rose in the world through their own industry and talents.”

William Winwood Reade

The Martyrdom of Man (1872)