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Abraham Kovoor (1898–1978)
As the Indian freethought papers have said, by his personal example he left a thousand Kovoors, and this is his […]
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Adam Duff O’Toole (d. 1328)
Adam Duff O’Toole (Adam Dubh Ó Tuathail) was a reputed heretic, who was burned at the stake for his denials […]
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Agnostics Adoption Society
From the outset IAS aimed to have an open approach to prospective adopters irrespective of their race, religion and creed, […]
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Annie Besant (1847-1933)
Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to […]
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Anthony Collins (1676-1729)
Is being rewarded for maintaining certain articles as matters of faith, and being punished, or suffering for opposing them, proper […]
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Balliol College, Oxford
Founded in 1263, Balliol College is one of the oldest colleges at the University of Oxford. Established by the English […]
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Beacon Hill School
Telegraph House stood on the West Sussex Downs, very near to the highest point called Beacon Hill… It stood out […]
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Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Neither love without knowledge, nor knowledge without love […]
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Blackfriars Rotunda
In the absence of a better—the palladium of what liberty we have… the birthplace of mind, and the focus of […]
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Blasphemy Trials
Atheism, unadulterated and undisguised, was diffused into every corner of the land, and the bold voice of the conscientious unbeliever […]
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Books Which Made Me a Rationalist
Under the above heading we shall, during the forthcoming months, publish a series of articles from well-known Rationalist authors which […]
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Bristol Gaol
Atheist Charles Southwell was imprisoned in Bristol Gaol for blasphemous libel in 1842. Southwell had written an article in his […]
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C. E. M. Joad (1891–1953)
Ethics really ought to have something to do with life. Ethics ought to tell you how to be good or […]
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C.K. Ogden (1889-1957)
If he had ever worshipped at any shrine, it would have been one illumined with the flame of pure intellect. […]
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Cambridge Heretics
The gist of heresy is free personal choice in act, and specially in thought – the rejection of traditional faiths […]
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Charles Albert Watts (1858–1946)
Charles Albert Watts was a lifelong promoter of rationalism, and the founder in 1885 of Watts’s Literary Guide, still published […]
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Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891)
Charles Bradlaugh was a leading freethinker, secularist, and founder of the National Secular Society. His efforts to take his seat […]
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Charles Bradlaugh’s Struggle to Enter Parliament
The House of Commons refused to allow his affirmation, so Bradlaugh applied to take the oath but was again refused. […]
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Charles E. Hooper
Rational Humanism is an ethical outlook, which seeks to be in accord with a scientific survey of man’s world. It […]
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Charles Turner Gorham (1856–1933)
We have the faculties for gaining knowledge; and Rationalism will always maintain that we are at liberty to use them […]
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Charles Watts (1836–1906)
Avoiding alike mysticism and shallow denial, he was a true Agnostic, anxious not merely to beat down error, but to […]
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Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
I count religion but a childish toy,And hold there is no sin but ignorance. Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, […]
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Conscientious Objectors’ Commemorative Stone
To all those who have established and who are maintaining the right to refuse to kill. Their foresight and courage […]
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Conway Hall
Conway Hall has effected a transformation. From the day of its opening the life of the Society has been full […]
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David Pollock (1942-2023)
David Pollock was a towering figure in the humanist movement. A longtime member, activist, trustee, and former Chair, he was […]
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David Williams (1738-1816)
I was educated among the Saints; and I now live, thank God, among Sinners. David Williams, Essays on Public Worship […]
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Deism
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in […]
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Edward Clodd (1840–1930)
He was one of the few of whom it can be said that he had a gift for friendship… There […]
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Edward Gibbon (1737–1794)
“Yet, upon the whole, the History of the Decline and Fall seems to have struck root, both at home and […]
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Eleanor Marx (1855–1898)
The striking difference of this century and the last is, that free-thought was the privilege of the upper classes then, […]
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Elhanan Winchester (1751-1797)
Elhanan Winchester was the first minister of the dissenting congregation that eventually became the humanist South Place Ethical Society in […]
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Eliza Flower (1803-1846)
Eliza Flower was a composer, a radical, and a significant influence on William Johnson Fox and the progressive values of […]
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Ellen Dana Conway (1833-1897)
Her beautiful life, her truth, her unwearied charities, proceeded from her own heart. They were not inspired by any thought […]
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Ephraim Chambers (1680-1740)
… a man who thinks himself bound to all offices of Humanity. Ephraim Chambers, self-composed epitaph Ephraim Chambers was an […]
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Ernest Thurtle (1884–1954)
It was early in the war, and we were stationed at a pleasant village in Sussex. One evening a sergeant […]
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Ernestine Rose (1810-1892)
Emancipation from every kind of bondage is my principle. I go for the recognition of human rights, without distinction of […]
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Felix Adler (1851-1933)
In order to find meaning to one’s life, one must find a meaning in the life of the [human] race. […]
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First Conference of Humanists in Ireland
This conference is resolved to strive for the achievement of peace, justice and tolerance in Ireland, and holds that outmoded […]
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Florence Winterbottom (1851-1926)
No one who came in contact with her failed to recognize in her fearlessness, honesty for the sake of honesty […]
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Frances Wright (1795-1852)
I have devoted my time and fortune to laying the foundation of a society where affection shall form the only […]
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Frederick C. C. Watts (1896-1953)
The educative work and the profound enlightenment resulting from the publication of the cheap RPA reprints and the Thinker’s Library […]
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Frederick James Gould (1855-1938)
F.J. Gould was an influential educationist, writer, and humanist, whose tireless work towards secularising education helped to lay the groundwork […]
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From the archives: ‘Humanism and the Open Society’
Much needs changing in the world of today, and humanists will be found in large numbers in the ranks of […]
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From the archives: ‘Humanity’s Debt to Thomas Paine’ (1892)
Those clouds called creeds are destined all to fade away, but the sky will remain—humanity; and in the sky will […]
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From the archives: ‘What’s This Humanism?’
The principles of humanism are positive and exacting commitments. People do not become Humanists merely on rejecting supernatural beliefs. But […]
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From the archives: A Defence of Atheism (1861)
Whatever good you would do out of fear of punishment, or hope of reward hereafter, the Atheist would do simply […]
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From the archives: George Eliot in Heroines of Freethought
It is with a feeling of considerable deprecating delicacy that I venture to write of this woman, whom I so […]
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From the archives: God’s Gifts and Man’s Duties (1843)
I have, perhaps, shocked some of you to-night: I cannot help it, I value the affection of my fellow-beings, but […]
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From the archives: Humanism in Scotland (1983)
In 1983 Nigel Bruce, chairman of the Scottish Humanist Council, explained to readers of the BHA’s Humanist News why Scotland needed a humanist body of its own. His article, reproduced here, is the clearest statement of the case made six years before the Humanist Society of Scotland was founded.
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From the archives: Marjorie Bowen’s toast to the Rationalist Press Association (1939)
Toast by Marjorie Bowen at the Fortieth Annual Dinner and Reunion of the Rationalist Press Association, at the Trocadero Restaurant, […]
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From the archives: Naming of Mazzini Truelove
On 11 November 1849, at the Literary and Scientific Institution, 23 John Street (now Whitfield Street), London, George Jacob Holyoake […]
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From the archives: Of Free Enquiry (1829)
Oh! that we could learn… that what is ruinous to some is injurious to all; and that whenever we establish […]
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From the archives: Separate Development?
We’re part of society, part of the world whether we or society like it or not, and we have to […]
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From the archives: The Ethical Attitude to Fascism and Nazism (1939)
From The Ethical Societies’ Chronicle, Vol. XVII. No. 125. May 1939 The Ethical Attitude to Fascism and Nazism (The substance […]
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From the archives: The Humanist Alternative
What primarily unites Humanists is not a set of propositions to be believed but moral values to be freely chosen… […]
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From the archives: The Humanist Ideal (1972)
When the Vatican and the Kremlin were both claiming the word, Paul Kurtz asked who really had the right to call themselves a humanist. His answer put free thought at the heart of it.
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From the archives: The Rationalist Press Association (1900)
From the Agnostic Annual, 1900, edited by Charles A. Watts (founder of the Rationalist Press Association). THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, […]
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From the archives: Towards Freedom
Truth needs the friendly grip of earnest men and women of every class. There is no distinction where it dwells. […]
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From the archives: Vera Brittain’s toast to the Rationalist Press Association (1935)
I think that one of the most hopeful signs at the present day, and one for which this Movement can […]
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From the archives: Why Women Should be Secularists
We hold that only by making happiness for those around us, and by endeavoring, individually, to make the world a […]
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George Orwell (1903–1950)
You can always appeal to common decency, which the vast majority of people believe in without the need to tie […]
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George William Foote (1850-1915)
Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. It means caution, independence, honesty and veracity. G. W. Foote George William Foote was […]
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Gilbert Murray (1866-1957)
But in the more civilised communities, as in ancient Greece, there has always been a minority who, through some speculative […]
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Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery is a nondenominational cemetery in Ireland, first opened in 1832. The brainchild of Catholic rights leader Daniel O’Connell, […]
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Gora (1902-1975)
Godlessness is negative. It merely denies the existence of god. Atheism is positive. It asserts the condition that results from […]
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Gustav Spiller (1864-1940)
The Conscience has eclipsed the Scriptures; Science has destroyed the belief in Divine Interposition; Democracy and Civism have shown men […]
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Harriet Law (1831-1897)
Harriet Law was a secularist and speaker, who also promoted women’s rights and socialist ideals. During the 1870s, Law’s house […]
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Helen Mary Dexter (1880–1948)
For many years a member of the Rationalist Press Association, and no longer associated with any church, she had devoted […]
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Henry Hetherington (1792-1849)
I have ever considered that the only religion useful to man consists exclusively of the practice of morality, and in […]
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Henry S. Salt (1851-1939)
I felt flattered by the remark of a hostile journalist that I was “a compendium of the cranks,” by which […]
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Highgate Cemetery
I was not, and was conceived. I loved and did a little work. I am not and grieve not. Epitaph […]
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Humanist Broadcasting Council
The Humanist Broadcasting Council was established in 1959, in consultation with the BBC, to advocate for the inclusion of humanist […]
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Humanist Ceremonies
People have always looked for ways to mark significant events in their lives, and though many ceremonies have often been […]
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Humanists International
Humanists International was formed in 1952 as the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU): a federation of the American Ethical […]
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Humanists UK Campaigns
While much of the Humanist Heritage website looks back to the earlier years of the organised humanist movement, recent decades […]
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Industry and Genius
The standing stones represent the letter punches which he cut to make his type, and the word virgil was Baskerville’s […]
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James Watson (1799–1874)
I have had but one object in view – to show my fellow-workmen that the humblest amongst them may render […]
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John Boyd Orr (1880–1971)
The big problem of today is how shall we adjust these tremendous new forces so that they can be harnessed […]
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John D. Stewart (1917-1988)
I think I was born a humanist. John D. Stewart, The Honest Ulsterman, May 1968 John D. Stewart was a […]
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John Rawls (1921–2002)
It may be expedient but it is not just that some should have less in order that others may prosper. […]
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John Toland (1670-1722)
Virtue alone is enough to live happily and brings its own reward. John Toland, Pantheisticon (1720) John Toland was an […]
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John Tyndall (1820-1893)
All religious theories, schemes and systems, which embrace notions of cosmogony, or which otherwise reach into the domain of science, […]
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John Tyndall’s Belfast Address (1874)
It is not to the point to say that the views of Lucretius and Bruno, of Darwin and Spencer, may […]
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Joseph McCabe (1867–1955)
Rationalism is… primarily a mental attitude, not a creed or a definite body of negative conclusions. No uniformity of opinions […]
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Julia Huxley (1862-1908)
Julia Huxley was a feminist and freethinker, who profoundly influenced a generation of girls who attended the school she founded […]
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Julia Stephen (1846-1895)
Purity of life, sincerity of action, obedience to law, love of our fellow creatures, all those qualities which ennoble life […]
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Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green, opened in 1833, was London’s first commercial cemetery, and the originator of the city’s ‘Magnificent Seven’. These suburban […]
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Kingsley Martin (1897-1969)
I believe in the supreme virtue of exploring. I believe in finding out. Even if I don’t succeed, I still […]
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L. Susan Stebbing (1885-1943)
It lies within our power, if we so desire it, to make the familiar world we inhabit more worthy of […]
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Lady Florence Dixie (1855-1905)
Those who, like myself, are in communication with the advanced thought and thinkers throughout the world know that hundreds —nay, […]
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Leicester Secular Hall
I might fill columns with tales of the debaters, co-operators, socialists, individualists, critics, artists, scientists, clergy and cranks, who, as […]
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Leslie Stephen (1832-1904)
Why not agree to differ about the questions which no one denies to be all but insoluble, and become allies […]
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Margaret Chappellsmith (1806-1883)
Margaret Chappellsmith was a devotee of the socialist and secularist ideas of Robert Owen, becoming one of the Owenite movement’s […]
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Margaret Knight (1903-1983)
With these basic [humanist] beliefs there go commonly two corollaries. First, that virtue is a matter of promoting human well-being, […]
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Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)
And how can woman be expected to co-operate unless she knows why she ought to be virtuous? Unless freedom strengthens […]
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Matilda Roalfe (1813-1880)
I will never voluntarily obey any law which is an outrage on human reason. Matilda Roalfe Matilda Roalfe was an […]
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Moncure Conway (1832-1907)
It is not because the believer in rational religion has not clear convictions that he will not shape them into […]
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National Secular Society
The National Secular Society is a campaigning organisation, founded in 1866 to champion the principles of secularism and the separation […]
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Nicolas Walter (1934-2000)
Humanism involves not just the deletion of God from moral thought, but the development of humanity on a rational and […]
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Northern Ireland
A brief history of humanism and secularism in Northern Ireland Organised humanism began in Northern Ireland in the 19th century, […]
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Olga Jacoby (1874-1913)
…life itself offers enough explanation for living; and believing our existence to finish with death, we naturally make the most […]
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Owen Sheehy-Skeffington (1909-1970)
I am a humanist, a rationalist. My mother said to me, some weeks before she died, that she would die ‘an unrepentant […]
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Owenism
Socialism emerged, in the early decades of the nineteenth century, as a humanist ideal of universal emancipation – the ideal […]
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Pelagius (c. 354-418)
Pelagius lived between the fourth and fifth centuries, and advocated a heretical Christianity that emphasised free will and humanity’s capacity […]
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Percy Vaughan (1879–1917)
To know him added a zest to existence, and was rich compensation for much that depresses the idealist. Percy Vaughan […]
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Peter Annet (1693-1769)
I have been the more bold in exposing my opinion because I believe it to be the dictates of truth […]
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Plaque for George Jacob Holyoake
On Woburn Walk is a plaque to George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906), a writer, lecturer, and promoter of the Cooperative movement, […]
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Prior’s Field School
Prior’s Field School was founded in 1902 by Julia Arnold Huxley. Born in 1862, Julia grew up in an intellectual […]
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Rationalism
Rationalism is not a dogma but a method. It does not tell us what to believe but how to find […]
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Richard Carlile (1790-1843)
I have no view but public good; certainly no desire to injure any one, but a passionate desire to do […]
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Richard Congreve (1818-1899)
Richard Congreve was a devoted follower of Auguste Comte, whose positivist philosophies and ‘Religion of Humanity’ inspired Congreve to open […]
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Robert Wedderburn (1762-1835/6)
There is no one who will deny the value and importance of truth, but how is it to be ascertained, […]
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Rose Bush (1898-1978)
Rose Bush was a member of the South Place Ethical Society for over 50 years, and a driving force in […]
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Sara A. Underwood (1838-1911)
Man for man in larger sense does what heaven fails to do. Sara A. Underwood, quoted by Rufus K. Noyes […]
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Sarah Fuller Flower Adams (1805-1848)
Sarah Flower Adams was a writer, radical, and major influence on the religious thinking of William Johnson Fox at South […]
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Secularism
The adoption of the term Secularism is justified by its including a large number of persons who are not Atheists, […]
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South Place Ethical Society
Under its successive names, adopted or given… is traceable a constant endeavour to study carefully, and keep abreast of, the […]
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Stanton Coit (1857-1944)
Stanton Coit was a pioneer of the Ethical movement in England and the founder of the West London Ethical Society, […]
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Storm Jameson (1891-1986)
I hold that a writer should not in any circumstances or for any cause surrender his duty to criticise and […]
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Susannah Wright (1792 – ?)
I have no desire… to bring the religion or the laws of this country into contempt, although I am a […]
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Teresa Billington-Greig (1876-1964)
I am a feminist, a rebel, and a suffragist – a believer, therefore, in sex-equality and militant action. I desire […]
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The Athenæum
The Athenæum is a London club founded in 1824, around the pursuit of science and literature. Its reputation as ‘the […]
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The Baines Note (1593)
These thinges, with many other shall by good & honest men be proved to be his opinions and common speeches, […]
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The Ethical Movement
Not by the Creed but by the Deed. Motto of the Society for Ethical Culture of New York, founded in […]
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The Secular Chronicle
The object of Secularism is the promotion of human happiness in this world… [The Secularist] believes the surest way of […]
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Thomas Aikenhead (1676-1697)
It is a principle innate and co-natural to every man to have an insatiable inclination to the truth and to […]
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Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)
Thomas Henry Huxley was a man of science, a biologist, and educator. He helped to transform scientific study into a […]
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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
And in these four things, opinion of ghosts, ignorance of second causes, devotion towards what men fear, and taking of […]
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Thomas Kyd (1558–1594)
Thus must we toil in other men’s extremes,That know not how to remedy our own. Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, […]
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Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy and […]
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Towards an Open Society
I think that believing in the brotherhood of man is not just a matter of signing these letters, it is […]
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Universities Tests Act
The Universities Tests Act, which ended religious discrimination in admissions and employment at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham […]
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University College London
University College London was founded in 1826 as the University of London; the city’s first university, and a consciously secular […]
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Voltaire (1694–1778)
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon […]
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Wales
Wales has long been a nation of nonconformists, with a history of challenging the power and influence of the established […]
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Walworth Freethought Institute
This society, formed in the midst of a piously orthodox neighourhood, virgin soil to the seed-sowing of Freethought, would be […]
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William Godwin (1756–1836)
We are members of a community. We are indissolubly connected with the society of our fellowmen. We have duties. William […]
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William Johnson Fox (1786-1864)
William Johnson Fox was an orator, writer, politician, and first minister of South Place Chapel (now Conway Hall) from 1824 […]
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William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879)
Our interest, it seems to me, lies with so much of the past as may serve to guide our actions […]
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William of Ockham (c.1287-1347)
William of Ockham was the fourteenth century’s most influential philosopher: a key thinker of the Middle Ages and an early […]
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Zona Vallance (1860-1904)
Conscious morality cannot exist in any being except so far as it can look behind, before, and around; and can […]