"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world ..."
From the Preamble to
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 317
online
here
"That man (or woman), I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself."
Thomas Huxley
Aphorisms and Reflections, Reflection #89
selected by Henrietta A. Huxley
pub. 1907
Here, here, here
"To love justice, to long for the right, to love mercy, to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs and remember benefits -- to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words, to love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery in all its forms, to love wife and child and friend, to make a happy home, to love the beautiful; in art, in nature, to cultivate the mind, to be familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has expressed, the noble deeds of all the world, to cultivate courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy, to fill life with the splendor of generous acts, the warmth of loving words, to discard error, to destroy prejudice, to receive new truths with gladness, to cultivate hope, to see the calm beyond the storm, the dawn beyond the night, to do the best that can be done and then to be resigned -- this is the religion of reason, the creed of science. This satisfies the brain and heart."
--Robert G. Ingersoll, The Foundations of Faith
Quoted at Over 200 Short Infectious Memes
Secular Humanism and Politics: When Should We Speak Out?
by Paul Kurtz
"I submit that neohumanists need to defend the ethical principle that we have a responsibility to care about each and every person in the planetary community, and that this obligation should extend beyond our own societies to humanity as a whole."
India's Population Time Bomb :
A Neohumanist Response
by Paul Kurtz
(emphasis in original)
/ Thomas Paine /
The Rights of Man
, pt. 2, page 414
"Jane Addams, founder of Hull House, was on our Board of Lecturers for many years....
Since our members come from Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, "mixed" and other backgrounds,
we focus on the values people share in common, not the things that divide or keep us apart."
"In modern Western society, humanistic social action, in its bewildering variety of forms, is seen both as the characteristic way of relieving suffering and enhancing human well-being and, at the same time, as a noble ideal of service, of self-sacrifice, by humanists of all faiths....
The secular humanistic activist sets himself the endless task of satisfying that desire, and perhaps hopes to end social suffering by constructing utopias. The Buddhist, on the other hand, is concerned ultimately with the transformation of desire."
"Have the Secularists an official statement of their principles?
Yes, those recognized and adopted by the National Secular Society, which are as follows:
-- Secularism teaches that conduct should be based on reason and knowledge. It knows nothing of divine guidance or interference; it excludes supernatural hopes and fears; it regards happiness as mans proper aim, and utility as his proper moral guide. Secularism affirms that progress is which is only possible through liberty (sic -- though I believe the general sense of this clause is clear, there is apparently a typo or OCR error here) , which is at once a right and a duty, and, therefore, seeks to remove every barrier to thought, action, and speech. Secularism declares that theology is condemned by reason as superstitious, and by experience as mischievous, and assails it as the historic enemy of progress. Secularism accordingly seeks to dispel superstition, to spread education, to disestablish religion, to rationalize morality, to promote peace, to dignify labor, to extend material well-being, and to realize the self-government of the people."
A reminder -- from the FAQ for this site
Do you agree with everything you reference on the site?
No. Neither should you.
I don't agree with everything Hayes-san has to say, and I'm sure a lot of other humanists, agnostics, and freethinkers wouldn't either. (as Hayes herself says, "We often have so little in common it's a wonder we ever agree on anything.")
In particular, her humor can be a little heavy for my taste.
"...two leading twentieth century thinkers, Bertrand Russell and John Dewey, ... disagreed on a great many things, but shared a vision that Russell called 'the humanistic conception' -- to quote Dewey, the belief that the 'ultimate aim' of production is not production of goods, but 'of free human beings associated with one another on terms of equality'. The goal of education, as Russell put it, is 'to give a sense of the value of things other than domination', to help create 'wise citizens of a free community' in which both liberty and 'individual creativeness' will flourish, and working people will be the masters of their fate, not tools of production. "
Powers and Prospects :
Reflections on Human Nature and the Social
Order
by Noam Chomsky
page 75
"We are not denying that a great many good men and women are religious; that a great many good men and women go to church and prayer-meeting. ... (But) There is no particular necessity for Christians to be good. Their faith saves them, not their conduct. ...
There is a big opportunity to lie in religion. You cannot tell when a person says he believes in God whether he is telling the truth or not. It is mighty easy to be religious. But the moral man (sic) has no such chance. He is not judged by his professions, but by his actions."
Stephen Gaskin, founder of The Farm