I’ve been collecting emails since the success of the last Fun Quotes post. Without further ado:

A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.

-James Kern Feibleman, philosopher and psychiatrist (1904-1987)

This is definitely something I’ve believed in for awhile. It’s just nice to hear someone with authority say it (in this case, the authority of having been learned and being dead).

When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.

-Thomas Carlyle, historian and essayist (1795-1881)

I know that I can feel acorn-like about my affect on the world. Me driving or biking to work: does it really make a difference? I suppose I just have to have better faith that I am one of a thousand acorns.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.

-Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the U.S. (1809-1865)

Now there’s something to shut up the “Founding Fathers wanted it to be a Christian Nation” people…even if Lincoln isn’t a founding father per se, he is still on our money.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

-Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

Amen.

Nothing is more humbling than to look with a strong magnifying glass at an insect so tiny that the naked eye sees only the barest speck and to discover that nevertheless it is sculpted and articulated and striped with the same care and imagination as a zebra. Apparently it does not occur to nature whether or not a creature is within our range of vision, and the suspicion arises that even the zebra was not designed for our benefit.

-Rudolf Arnheim, psychologist and author (1904-2007)

And finally, a note to creationists. Have you all any quotes to share?