William Winwood Reade
William Winwood Reade
William Winwood Reade was a British historian, explorer, and philosopher. His two best-known books, The Martyrdom of Manand The Outcast, were included in the Thinker's Library...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionHistorian
future men land
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.
men miracle patterns
Reade was an emancipating writer because he seemed to speak as man to man to resolve history into an intelligible pattern in which there was no need for miracles. Even if he was wrong, he was grown-up.
book men process
One book that has influenced the writer very strongly is Winwood Reade's Martyrdom of Man...It is still an extraordinarily inspiring presentation of human history as one consistent process.
religious fall men
To cultivate the intellect is therefore a religious duty; and when this truth is fairly recognized by men, the religion which teaches that the intellect should be distrusted and that it should be subservient to faith, will inevitably fall.
men atoms agents
As a single atom man is an enigma: as a whole he is a mathematical problem. As an individual he is a free agent, as a species the offspring of necessity.
religious men atheism
One fact must be familiar to all those who have any experience of human nature - a sincerely religious man is often an exceedingly bad man.
fall sleep men
As for the system of the Commune, which makes it impossible for a man to rise or fall, it is merely the old caste system revived; if it could be put into force, all industry would be disheartened, emulation would cease, and mankind would go to sleep.
running religious men
If Christianity were true religious persecution would become a pious and charitable duty: if God designs to punish men for their opinions it would be an act of mercy to mankind to extinguish such opinions. By burning the bodies of those who diffuse them many souls would be saved that would otherwise be lost, and so there would be an economy of torment in the long run. It is therefore not surprising that enthusiasts should be intolerant.
believe angel men
Men prefer to believe that they are degenerated angels, rather than elevated apes.
mind looks made
If we look into ourselves we discover propensities which declare that our intellects have arisen from a lower form; could our minds be made visible we should find them tailed.
abuse doubt society
What a state of society is this in which freethinker is a term of abuse, and in which doubt is regarded as sin?
god olympus nineteenth-century
A day will come when the European god of the nineteenth century will be classed with the gods of Olympus and the Nile.
genius monkeys expansion
Artistic genius is an expansion of monkey imitativeness.
drama animal two
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.