The pioneers and missionaries of religion have been the real cause of more trouble and war than all other classes of mankind.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that religious pioneers and missionaries have caused more conflict than any other group in history.
Edgar Allan Poe's statement reflects a critical viewpoint on the role of religion and its advocates in human history, suggesting that their fervor and zeal in spreading religious beliefs have often led to division, strife, and warfare. Rather than being solely a force for peace and unity, he argues that the actions and motivations of these religious figures have contributed significantly to societal discord and conflict across cultures and time.
In practice
In a discussion about the impact of religion on society, this quote can be used to illustrate the possible negative consequences of religious fervor.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
Isaac Asimov's remark about the infantilism of pseudoscience is just as applicable to religion: 'Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold.' It is astonishing, moreover, how many people are unable to understand that 'X is comforting' does not imply 'X is true'.
It is intolerable that in our country citizens should feel so upset and under assault because of their religious choice that they would conclude that they have to hide.
The difference between equity and equality is that equality is everyone get the same thing and equity is everyone get the things they deserve.
The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?
What if a dawn of a doom of a dream bites this universe in two, peels forever out of his grave, and sprinkles nowhere with me and you?
Sir, what can be said of these things? Is it the arm of the flesh that hath done these things? Is it the wisdom and counsel, or strength of man? It is the Lord only. God will curse that man and his house that dares to think otherwise. Sir, you see the work is done by a Divine leading. God gets into the hearts of men, and persuades them to come under you.
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