01c. 1838 ADTo theology, ... only what it holds sacred is true, whereas to philosophy, only what holds true is sacred.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
02c. 1838 ADI would rather be a devil in alliance with truth, than an angel in alliance with falsehood.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
03c. 1838 ADIf therefore my work is negative, irreligious, atheistic, let it be remembered that atheism — at least in the sense of this work — is the secret of religion itself; that religion itself, not indeed on the surface, but fundamentally, not in intention or according to its own supposition, but in its heart, in its essence, believes in nothing else than the truth and divinity of human nature.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
04c. 1838 ADChristianity set itself the goal of fulfilling man’s unattainable desires, but for that very reason ignored his attainable desires. By promising man eternal life, it deprived him of temporal life, by teaching him to trust in God’s help it took away his trust in his own powers; by giving him faith in a better life in heaven, it destroyed his faith in a better life on earth and his striving to attain such a life. Christianity gave man what his imagination desires, but for that very reason failed to give him what he really and truly desires.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
05c. 1838 ADFaith does not limit itself by the idea of a world, a universe, a necessity.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
06c. 1838 ADFaith in the power of prayer … is … faith in miraculous power; and faith in miracles is … the essence of faith in general. … [F]aith is nothing else than confidence in the reality of the subjective in opposition to the limitations or laws of Nature and reason, … The specific object of faith, therefore, is miracle; … To faith nothing is impossible, and miracle only gives actuality to this omnipotence of faith[.]Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
07c. 1838 ADThe power of thought is the light of knowledge, the power of will is the energy of character, the power of heart is love. Reason, love and power of will are perfections of man.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
08c. 1838 ADThe task of the modern era was the realization and humanization of God – the transformation and dissolution of theology into anthropology.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
09c. 1838 ADAs we expand our knowledge of good books, we shrink the circle of men whose company we appreciate.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
10c. 1838 AD[T]he present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original[.]Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
11c. 1838 ADIn reality, where everything passes on naturally, the copy follows the original, the image the thing which it represents, the thought its object, but on the supernatural, miraculous ground of theology, the original follows the copy, the thing its own likeness."it is strange" says St. Augustine, "But nevertheless true, that this world could not exist if it was not known to God." That means the world is known and thought before it exists; nay it exists only because it was thought of. The existence is a consequence of the knowledge or of the act of thinking, the original a consequence of the copy, the object a consequence of its likeness.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
12c. 1838 AD[L]et it be remembered that atheism … is the secret of religion … ; religion … in its heart, in its essence, believes in nothing else than the truth and divinity of human nature.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
13c. 1838 ADI do not regard the limits of the past and present as the limits of humanity of the futureLudwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
14c. 1838 AD[This philosophy] … is antagonistic to minds perverted and crippled by a superhumanLudwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
15c. 1838 ADHow can the feeling man resist feeling, the loving one love? Who has not experienced the overwhelming power of melody? And what else is melody but the power of feeling? Music is the language of feeling; … feeling communicates itself. … Is it man that possesses love, or is it not … love that possesses man? When love impels a man to suffer death even joyfully for the beloved one, is this death-conquering power his own individual power, or is it not rather the power of love?Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
16c. 1838 ADThe notion that the fulfilment of prayer has been determined from eternity, that it was originally included in the plan of creation, is the empty, absurd fiction of a mechanical mode of thought, which is in absolute contradiction with the nature of religion. Whether God decides on the fulfilment of my prayer now, on the immediate occasion of my offering it, or whether he did decide on it long ago, is the same thing.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
17c. 1838 ADFaith in Providence is faith in one's own worth, … [H]ence also false humility, religious arrogance, which, it is true, does not rely on itself, but only because it commits the care of itself to the blessed God. God … wills that I shall be blest; but that is my will also: … God's love for me [is] nothing else than my own self-love deified.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
18c. 1838 AD[T]he understanding or the reason is the necessary being. … [I]f there were no reason, no consciousness, all would be nothing; existence would be equivalent to non-existence. Consciousness first founds the distinction between existence and non-existence. In consciousness is first revealed the value of existence, the value of nature.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
19c. 1838 ADConsciousness consists in a being becoming objective to itself; … it is nothing apart, nothing distinct from the being which is conscious of itself.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
20c. 1838 ADWherever morality is based on theology, wherever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
21c. 1838 ADThe Jewish people trusted themself to do nothing except that what was commanded by God; they were without will even in external things; the authority of religion extended itself even to their food. The Christian religion, on the other hand, in all external things made humankind dependent on itself, i.e. placed in it what Judaism placed out of itself. … Thus do things change. What yesterday was still religion is no longer such to-day; and what to-day is atheism, to-morrow will be religion.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
22c. 1838 ADThe Jewish people trusted thmself to do nothing except that what was commanded by God; they were without will even in external things; the authority of religion extended itself even to their food. The Christian religion, on the other hand, in all external things made humankind dependent on itself, i.e. placed in it what Judaism placed out of it. … Thus do things change. What yesterday was still religion is no longer such to-day; and what to-day is atheism, to-morrow will be religion.Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
23c. 1838 ADCertainly my work is negative, destructive; but … only in relation to the unhuman, not to the human[.]Ludwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
24c. 1838 AD[This philosophy] does not … regard the pen as the only fit organ for the revelation of truth, but the eye and ear, the hand and footLudwig Feuerbach / quote ↗
