#fanatic

The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable government, Jews, homosexuals, women's rights, pluralism, secularism, short skits, dancing, beardlessness, evolution theory, sex. There are tyrants, not Muslims. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that we should now define ourselves not only by what we are for but by what we are against. I would reverse that proposition, because in the present instance what we are against is a no brainer. Suicidist assassins ram wide-bodied aircraft into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and kill thousands of people: um, I'm against that. But what are we for? What will we risk our lives to defend? Can we unanimously concur that all the items in the preceding list -- yes, even the short skirts and the dancing -- are worth dying for? The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In his world-view, he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic indulgences. To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong. We must agree on what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought, beauty, love. These will be our weapons. Not by making war but by the unafraid way we choose to live shall we defeat them. How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorized. Don't let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#fanaticism #freedom #fundamentalism #human-rights #terrorism

But even gold is not everything: and only a fanatic, and a rather foolish fanatic, would say that this style of fiction summed up and exhausted all the good that fiction could give and do. ↗

— George Saintsbury

#even #everything #exhausted #fanatic #fiction

I give no shit to what extent they believe in superstitions and fanaticism. But I will fight till death, if their fallacious belief hurts any individual. ↗

— M.F. Moonzajer

#believe #fanaticism #superstitions #death

But it is the mark of all movements, however well-intentioned, that their pioneers tend, by much lashing of themselves into excitement, to lose sight of the obvious. ↗

— Dorothy L. Sayers

#ideology #movements #obvious #ideology

I'm not such a big star. I am just a little planet. In Spain, people don't put so much attention on the star system. But here in America, I can feel it. Mostly, people are very, very nice. But there are also a bunch of fanatics behind the stars. ↗

— Antonio Banderas

#am #america #attention #behind #big

Rock and rollers can get you the youth buzz, and younger people are fanatical readers. ↗

— James Ellroy

#fanatical #get #people #readers #rock

In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. ↗

— Alan Watts

#becomes #certain #clings #faith #fanatic

There are many different rivers that lead into despair: there's poverty; there's political repression; there's gender apartheid - there's a sense of culture loss; there's religious fanaticism. ↗

— Lawrence Wright

#culture #despair #different #fanaticism #gender

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people are full of doubts. ↗

— James P. Hogan

#certain #doubts #fanatics #fools #full

Defined in psychological terms, a fanatic is a man who consciously over-compensates a secret doubt. ↗

— Aldous Huxley

#defined #doubt #fanatic #man #psychological