I am sometimes shocked by the blasphemies of those who think themselves pious.
Interpretation
The quote critiques those who believe they are morally superior while displaying hypocrisy.
Bertrand Russell expresses a sense of astonishment at the profound hypocrisy found in individuals who consider themselves devout or morally righteous. He points out that such individuals often commit acts or hold beliefs that are fundamentally contrary to the very principles they profess to uphold, highlighting a disconnect between their self-image and their actual behavior.
In practice
In a debate about morality in politics, this quote can emphasize the hypocrisy of leaders.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
If I lose at play, I blaspheme; if my fellow loses, he blasphemes. So, God is always the loser.
It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings β much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth.
When our founding fathers drafted the Constitution and Bill of Rights, black people weren't even considered human.
Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.
The United Nations stands for the freedom and equality of all peoples, irrespective of race, religion, or ideology.
If you have a group of people come together around a vision for real discipleship, people who are committed to grow, committed to change, committed to learn, then a spiritual assessment tool can work.
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