“Religion is too important a matter to its devotees to be a subject of ridicule. If they indulge in absurdities, they are to be pitied rather than ridiculed.”

A lecture at Königsberg (1775), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1946) by H. L. Mencken, p. 1017

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Religion is too important a matter to its devotees to be a subject of ridicule. If they indulge in absurdities, they ar…" by Immanuel Kant?
Immanuel Kant photo
Immanuel Kant 200
German philosopher 1724–1804

Related quotes

Plutarch photo

“He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Cato the Elder
Roman Apophthegms

Marquis de Sade photo
Laisenia Qarase photo

“It has, understandably, aggrieved our Muslim community. Their religion and its founder have been insulted, and ridiculed.”

Laisenia Qarase (1941) Prime Minister of Fiji

( Fiji Live http://www.Fijilive.com).
Reaction to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, 7 February 2006

David Hume photo

“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”

Part 4, Section 7
Source: A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), Book 1: Of the understanding

Lucretius photo

“All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher.”

Lucretius (-94–-55 BC) Roman poet and philosopher

As quoted in What Great Men Think of Religion (1972 [1945]) by Ira D. Cardiff, p. 245. Actually said by Edward Gibbonː "The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful." (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776, Vol. I, Ch. II).
Misattributed

Paul Krugman photo

“This is a serious analysis of a ridiculous subject, which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics.”

Of his paper "The Theory of Interstellar Trade"; quoted in The Economist, 26 October 2013, p. 86

Derek Landy photo

“I try not to underestimate my opponents, no matter how ridiculous their beards.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

Johannes Kepler photo

“I was almost driven to madness in considering and calculating this matter. I could not find out why the planet would rather go on an elliptical orbit. Oh, ridiculous me!”

Source: Astronomia nova (1609), Ch.58, as quoted in John Freely, Before Galileo: The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe (2012)
Context: I was almost driven to madness in considering and calculating this matter. I could not find out why the planet would rather go on an elliptical orbit. Oh, ridiculous me! As the liberation in the diameter could not also be the way to the ellipse. So this notion brought me up short, that the ellipse exists because of the liberation. With reasoning derived from physical principles, agreeing with experience, there is no figure left for the orbit of the planet but a perfect ellipse.

Warren Farrell photo

“The ridicule is pressure to consider ourselves less important than someone even more precious: A baby is more precious than a mother; a woman is more precious than a man.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say (2000)

Related topics