It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924).
essayist
Francis Bacon: Root of all superstition
The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses. –Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626).

William Hazlitt: Fear of death

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Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when you were not: that gives us no concern. Why then should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be? To die is only to be as we were before we were born. –William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830)
William Hazlitt: Pain
“The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings.”
—William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830).
Michel de Montaigne: Firm belief
Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)
Anatole France: Average men and lives
The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr: Superstition
We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were implanted in his imagination, no matter how utterly his reason may reject them. -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr, poet, novelist, essayist, and physician (1809-1894)