“The difference between faith and superstition is that the first uses reason to go as far as it can, and then makes the jump; the second shuns reason entirely — which is why superstition is not the ally, but the enemy, of true religion.”
"Purely Personal Prejudices"
Strictly Personal (1953)
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Sydney J. Harris 44
American journalist 1917–1986Related quotes
Ten Years' Exile (Dix années d'exil, written 1810–1813, posthumously published 1821), ch. 16
Context: I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge; this, I take it, is the reason why Christians are distinguished from the rest of the world, not by faith, nor by charity, nor by the other fruits of the Holy Spirit, but solely by their opinions, inasmuch as they defend their cause, like everyone else, by miracles, that is by ignorance, which is the source of all malice; thus they turn a faith, which may be true, into superstition.
Letter 21 (73) to Henry Oldenburg , November (1675)
“Reason shapes the future, but superstition infects the present.”
“Piece” (p. 75)
Short fiction, The State of the Art (1991)
Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836)
"Nationality" (1862)
Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.79 [ellipsis added]
Source: The Thirst for Annihilation: Georges Bataille and Virulent Nihilism (1992), Chapter 7: "Fanged noumenon (passion of the cyclone)", p. 79