They [zealots] would have everybody be as blind as themselves: to them, to be clear-sighted is libertinism. — Moliere
People are zealous for a cause when they are not quite positive that it is true. — Bertrand Russell
Zeal is a volcano, the peak of which the grass of indecisiveness does not grow. — Kahlil Gibran
To disarm a zealot, teach him truth by precept, and mildness by example. — Al-Kindi
Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons. — Friedrich Nietzsche
There can be no fanatics in the cause of genuine liberty. Fanaticism is excessive zeal. There may be, and have been fanatics in false religion; in the bloody religions of the heathen. — Thaddeus Stevens
There's an element of fervor and passion that you can't describe when it comes to people who, their faith literally might cost them their life. — Joel Houston
In religion, it is not the sycophants or those who cling most faithfully to the status quo who are ultimately praised. It is the insurgents. — Rollo May
A fanatic is a man that does what he thinks the Lord would do if He knew the facts of the case. — Finley Peter Dunne
Fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. — Bertrand Russell
People who think God is on their side are capable of the most inhumane acts. (Petrov) — Vince Flynn
The movers and shakers have always been obsessive nuts. — Theodore Sturgeon
Blessed are the destroyers of false hope, for they are the true Messiahs - Cursed are the god-adorers, for they shall be shorn sheep! — Anton Szandor LaVey
Short Zealots Quotes
You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission. — Flannery O'Connor
Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world. — Joseph Campbell
Cynicism has its own zealots. — Mason Cooley
It is a zealot's faith that blasts the shrines of the false god, but builds no temple to the true. — Sydney Thompson Dobell
A single zealot may commence prosecutor, and better men be his victims. — Thomas Jefferson
I have done no wrong but the zealots are trying to attack me because I am so critical of them. — Sunil Gangopadhyaya
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. — Alexander Pope
In search of Truth the hopeful zealot goes,But all the sadder tums, the more he knows! — H. P. Lovecraft
Like all fads, corporate governance has its zealots. — Conrad Black
I'm not good with bullies and zealots. — Charles Cumming
Zealots Image Quotes
Zen Quotes
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. — Dogen
If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it? — Dogen
Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. — Confucius
If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing. — Dogen
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself. — Matsuo Basho
However many holy words you read, However many you speak, What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them? — Buddha
If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path. — Buddha
The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one's humdrum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity. — D.T. Suzuki
Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others. — Buddha
Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Let all things take their course. — Zhuangzi
I'd grown up fearing the lynch mobs of the Ku Klux Klan; as an adult I was starting to wonder if I'd been afraid of the wrong white people all along - where I was being pursued not by bigots in white robes, but by left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony. — Clarence Thomas
We humans are naturally disposed to worship gods and heroes, to build our pantheons and valhallas. I would rather see that impulse directed into the adoration of daft singers, thicko footballers and air-headed screen actors than into the veneration of dogmatic zealots, fanatical preachers, militant politicians and rabid cultural commentators. — Stephen Fry
I have long said there are three distinct groups under the GOP's tent: theological warriors, who want to impose their social views on the rest of society; Tea Party zealots, who say with a straight face that they want the government to get out of their Medicare; and remnants of the pro-business moderates. — Eliot Spitzer
In our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds - that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous. — Robert H. Jackson
The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it. — Carl Sagan
There are some upon this earth of yours,' returned the Spirit, 'who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name; who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us. — Charles Dickens
Misuse of reason might yet return the world to pre-technological night; plenty of religious zealots hunger for just such a result, and are happy to use the latest technology to effect it. — A.C. Grayling
Some 'separation' zealots would expunge any vestige of religious observance in public schools. Many of the same anti-religious fanatics would like to wipe out of existence all church-related schools, by regulation or taxation, so that universal ignorance of the life of spirit should prevail. — Russell Kirk
These individuals are tyrants, and so they hate democracy. They are bigots, zealots, and persecutors, and so they hate Americas freedom tolerance, and respect for all people. The terrorists of Sept. 11 live and flourish in darkness. They cannot survive in the liberating and inspirational sunlight of American freedom and democracy. — Ted Olson
To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster! — Denis Diderot
Left-wing zealots have often been prepared to ride roughshod over due process and basic considerations of fairness when they think they can get away with it. For them the ends always seems to justify the means. That is precisely how their predecessors came to create the gulag. — Margaret Thatcher
True zeal is connected with a holy life. It is remarkable how often the greatest zealots for God, the Church, and sound doctrine (as they regard it), have been unholy and even immoral in their lives. — Charles Hodge
If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. For the dissenter, the skeptical mentality is at least as important as any armor of principle. — Christopher Hitchens
Whether you are buying a car or casting a ballot, choosing a job or planning a family, follow your moral compass. Don't let others define you. Don't let advertisers mold you; don't let zealots ensnare you; don't let conventional wisdom trap you....you are part of a much larger whole. — Denis Hayes
Falling in love is very real, but I used to shake my head when people talked about soul mates, poor deluded individuals grasping at some supernatural ideal not intended for mortals but sounded pretty in a poetry book. Then, we met, and everything changed, the cynic has become the converted, the sceptic, an ardent zealot. — E. A. Bucchianeri
To a zealot every one of his own sect is a saint, while the most upright of a different sect are to him children of perdition. — Henry Home, Lord Kames
The intellectual ... may live for ideas, as I have said, but something must prevent him from living for one idea, from becoming obsessive or grotesque. Although there have been zealots whom we may still regard as intellectuals, zealotry is a defect of the breed and not of the essence. — Richard Hofstadter
That man is thought a dangerous knave, Or zealot plotting crime, Who for advancement of his kind Is wiser than his time. — Douglas William Jerrold
A State infinitely worse than that which the most inflamed Zealot, the most violent Republican or Enthusiast even pretended to dread before the Rebellion commenced. — Charles Inglis
Most guys will fight to know you. Some guys will deny you're a real person, and some will just ignore you." The zealot. The atheist. The agnostic. — Chuck Palahniuk
The people I see on bicycles look like organic-gardening zealots who advocate federal regulation of bedtime and want American foreign policy to be dictated by UNICEF. These people should be confined. — P. J. O'Rourke
To the zealot overcome by his piety and to the journeyman of ideas concerned only with his marketable mental skills, the beginning and end of ideas lies in their efficacy with respect to some goal external to intellectual processes. — Richard Hofstadter
If your friend's friend's friend (whom you may not have even met) is obese, a smoker or a zealot of some kind then it is a lot more likely that you will be too. — James H. Fowler
In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal. — Thomas Jefferson
If I go all the way politicized, I become a zealot who's not allowed to have fun with the people and the community that raised me. But if I go the other way, I become an ignoramus who isn't properly qualified to speak on my community's behalf. — Killer Mike
I was probably toward 8 1/2 when I actually joined the church and was baptized - and, my God, did I take it seriously! I was a zealot who irritated every one of my third-grade friends. They didn't beat me up, but I got labeled "the preacher girl." — Oprah Winfrey
Had today's technophobic zealots [environmental activists] been in charge in previous centuries, we would have to roll human progress back to the Middle Ages - and beyond, since even fire, the wheel and organic farming pose risks, and none would have passed the "absolute safety" test the zealots demand. Putting them in charge now would mean an end to progress, and perpetual deprivation for inhabitants of developing nations. — Paul Driessen
We always think we are right, and - search as I have - there is no evil under the sun that somebody somewhere won't argue is actually a good, no idiocy that hasn't got its perfectly serious defenders, and no tyrant, past or present - no matter how bloody - without some bunch of zealot schmucks to defend him or his reputation till the last breath in their bodies - or preferably somebody else's. — Clive Barker
A child who had been introduced to misery in Saudi Arabia, a teenager who went to wage jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan, a deeply devout Muslim who had graduated with honors in medicine, a man who had fed a stranger to wild dogs in Damascus, a zealot who had dosed three foreigners with smallpox and watched them die in agony, gave thanks to Allah for the blessings that had been bestowed upon him. — Terry Hayes
Islam doesn't have to mean blind faith. It can mean what it always meant in your family, a culture, a civilization, as open-minded as your grandfather was, as delightedly disputatious as your father was.... Don't let the zealots make Muslim a terrifying word, I urged myself; remember when it meant family. — Salman Rushdie
Slavery is now nowhere more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty. — Samuel Johnson
Having lost faith in all else, zealots have nothing left but a holy cause to please a warrior God. They win if we become holy warriors, too; if we kill the innocent as they do; strike first at those who had not struck us; allow our leaders to use the fear of terrorism to make us afraid of the truth; cease to think and reason together, allowing others to tell what's in God's mind. — Bill Moyers
I wouldn't consider myself a Buddhist or a card-carrying zealot at all. My first commitment is as a scientist to uncover the truth about all this. — Richard Davidson
[Rousseau] has not had the precaution to throw any veil over his sentiments; and as he scorns to dissemble his contempt of established opinions, he could not wonder that all the zealots were in arms against him. — David Hume
There are always forces at work in a society, which are really forces of censorship - either religious bodies or zealots who are always putting pressure on things, whether it's books or art or film. — John Boorman
In Conclusion
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