Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.
Tags: revolution, religion, human-freedom

Other Quotes by "Philip Pullman"

Maybe sometimes we don't do the right thing because the wrong thing looks more dangerous, and we don't want to look scared, so we go and do the wrong thing just because it's dangerous. We're more concerned with not looking scared than with judging right.
Tags: philosophy, fear
The only instrument I play myself is the ukulele.
Tags: instrument, play, only, myself
True education flowers at the point when delight falls in love with responsibility.
Tags: flowers, responsibility, education, love
We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever.
Tags: forever, need, time, silence
Trying to understand superstition rationally is like trying to pick up something made of wood by using a magnet.
Tags: wood, like, trying, understand
View More by "Philip Pullman"