Quote#Science & Reason
The essence of religion is inertia; the essence of science is change.…
Quote byWilliam Winwood Reade · 1838–1875
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Martyrdom of Man (1872), Chapter I, "War", p. 27..
English (original)
The essence of religion is inertia; the essence of science is change. It is the function of the one to preserve, it is the function of the other to improve. If, as in Egypt, they are firmly chained together, either science will advance, in which case the religion will be altered, or the religion will preserve its purity, and science will congeal.
— William Winwood Reade
More from William Winwood Reade
As a single atom man is an enigma: as a whole he is a mathematical problem. As an individual he is a free agent, as a species the offspring of necessity.
Doubt is the offspring of knowledge: the savage never doubts at all.
Open the book of universal history at what period we may, it is always the India trade which is the cause of internal industry and foreign negotiation.
It may safely be asserted that the art of war will soon be reduced to a simple question of expenditure and credit, and that the largest purse will be the strongest arm.
It is a sure criterion of the civilisation of ancient Egypt that the soldiers did not carry arms except on duty, and that the private citizens did not carry them at all.
If we look into ourselves we discover propensities which declare that our intellects have arisen from a lower form; could our minds be made visible we should find them tailed.