Fanaticism, soberly defined,
Is the false fire of an o'erheated mind. [ William Cowper ]
Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity. [ Gibbon ]
Fanaticism is to religion what hypocrisy is to virtue. [ Palissot ]
Fanaticism is the daughter of Ignorance, and the mother of Infidelity. [ J. Bellenden ]
Fanaticism is to superstition what delirium is to fever and rage to anger. [ Voltaire ]
Philosophy is as far separated from impiety as religion is from fanaticism. [ Diderot ]
Fanaticism is a fire which heats the mind indeed, but heats without purifying. [ Warburton ]
Superstition changes a man to a beast, fanaticism makes him a wild beast, and despotism a beast of burden. [ La Harpe ]
Devotion, when it does not lie under the check of reason, is apt to degenerate into enthusiasm (fanaticism). [ Addison ]
In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. [ Mrs. Jameson ]
Fanaticism is such an overwhelming impression of the ideas relating to the future world as disqualifies for the duties of this. [ R. Hall ]
With us all is inconsistency. France, seriously speaking, is the country of wit and folly, of industry and idleness, of philosophy and fanaticism, of gaiety and pedantry, laws and their abuses, good taste and impertinence. [ Voltaire ]