Extremism Quotes

“From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.”
― Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses

“Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower

“There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

“The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.”
― Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays

“The take-home message is that we should blame religion itself, not religious extremism - as though that were some kind of terrible perversion of real, decent religion. Voltaire got it right long ago: 'Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.' So did Bertrand Russell: 'Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

“Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, 'Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that,' or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything -- God and our friends and ourselves included -- as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Extremism is so easy. You've got your position, and that's it. It doesn't take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right you meet the same idiots coming around from the left.

(Interview,Time Magazine,February 20, 2005)”
― Clint Eastwood

“Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“Fundamentalism isn't about religion, it's about power.”
― Salman Rushdie

“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”
― Barry Goldwater

“Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched."

[My Uncle Sosthenes]”
― Guy de Maupassant, The Complete Short Stories Vol. 2 of 3

“In the days when hyenas of hate suckle the babes of men, and jackals of hypocrisy pimp their mothers’ broken hearts, may children not look to demons of ignorance for hope.”
― Aberjhani, The River of Winged Dreams

“We are living in modern times throughout the world and yet are dominated by medieval minds.”
― Eqbal Ahmad, Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire

“A true martyr is not an opportunist who dies to get a reward of eternal life.
A true martyr is a humanist who dies to save a life.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“Now is as good a time as ever to revisit the history of the Crusades, or the sorry history of partition in Kashmir, or the woes of the Chechens and Kosovars. But the bombers of Manhattan represent fascism with an Islamic face, and there's no point in any euphemism about it. What they abominate about 'the West,' to put it in a phrase, is not what Western liberals don't like and can't defend about their own system, but what theydolike about it and must defend: its emancipated women, its scientific inquiry, its separation of religion from the state. Loose talk about chickens coming home to roost is the moral equivalent of the hateful garbage emitted by Falwell and Robertson, and exhibits about the same intellectual content.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“The two enemies of
HUMANITY
are
IMPERIALISM
and
EXTREMISM.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“Throughout our common HISTORY, the belief that there is only one way to Heaven has only led us to division, war and MISERY.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“Extremism manifests itself in different shapes and colors. 'The Absolute Truth' and 'the Only Way' beliefs are among them.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“If humans believe in love the way they believe in rival faiths, there will be peace on earth.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“A traitor to both sides, the ultimate asshole…”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“During the Bosnian war in the late 1990s, I spent several days traveling around the country with Susan Sontag and her son, my dear friend David Rieff. On one occasion, we made a special detour to the town of Zenica, where there was reported to be a serious infiltration of outside Muslim extremists: a charge that was often used to slander the Bosnian government of the time. We found very little evidence of that, but the community itself was much riven as between Muslim, Croat, and Serb. No faction was strong enough to predominate, each was strong enough to veto the other's candidate for the chairmanship of the city council. Eventually, and in a way that was characteristically Bosnian, all three parties called on one of the town's few Jews and asked him to assume the job. We called on him, and found that he was also the resident intellectual, with a natural gift for synthesizing matters. After we left him, Susan began to chortle in the car. 'What do you think?' she asked. 'Do you think that the only dentist and the only shrink in Zenica are Jewish also?' It would be dense to have pretended not to see her joke.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“Your friends dress like your enemies, and your enemies dress like your friends.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“Look at that asshole! Not a care in the world! Today, I fish; tomorrow, I blow up a mosque. Smart, hiding in plain sight.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“...being on the wrong side of a pissing contest is never a good thing.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“A prominent israeli writer, Sami Michael, once told of a long car journey with a driver. At some point, the driver explained to Michael how important, indeed how urgent, it is for us Jews “to kill all the Arabs.” Sami Michael listened politely, and instead of reacting with horror, denunciation, or disgust, he asked the driver an innocent question: “And who, in your opinion, should kill all the Arabs?”

“Us! The Jews! We have to! It’s either us or them! Can’t you see what they’re doing to us?”

“But who, exactly, should actually kill all the Arabs? The army? The police? Firemen, perhaps? Or doctors in white coats, with syringes?”

The driver scratched his head, pondered the question, and finally said, “We’ll have to divvy it up among us. Every Jewish man will have to kill a few Arabs.”

Michael did not let up: “All right. Let’s say you, as a Haifa man, are in charge of one apartment building in Haifa. You go from door to door, ring the bells, and ask the residents politely, ‘Excuse me, would you happen to be Arabs?’ If the answer is yes, you shoot and kill them. When you’re done killing all the Arabs in the building, you go downstairs and head home, but before you get very far you hear a baby crying on the top floor. What do you do? Turn around? Go back? Go upstairs and shoot the baby? Yes or no?”

A long silence. The driver considers. Finally he says, “Sir, you are a very cruel man!”

This story exposes the confusion sometimes found in the fanatic’s mind: a mixture of intransigence with sentimentality and a lack of imagination.”
― Amos Oz, שלום לקנאים

“Sarin in Dearborn? Are you shitting me? Jack pounded his desk; his morning coffee spilled all over the burglary file he had been studying.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“If Jack Dylan was Captain Ahab, Bart Breitner was Moby Dick. Jack felt exhilarated, as Ahab must have felt when he finally encountered the great white. He would approach with caution and test the waters. He was alone, and he sensed extreme danger, but this was a tremendous opportunity that he could not pass up.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“As the questions grow harder and more complicated, people yearn for simpler answers, one-sentence answers, answers that point unhesitatingly to a culprit who can be blamed for all our suffering, answers that promise that if we only eradicate the villains, all our troubles will vanish.”
― Amos Oz, שלום לקנאים

“Then let’s get to work. Sarin…shit! We must stop these guys…again.”
The men nodded, stone-faced. Was it really déjà vu all over again?”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“Twenty-five elite law enforcement officers against six racist assholes. Four to one; pretty good odds.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue