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Philip Sargant Florence (1890–1982)
Though hearing and discussing many philosophies and keeping open minds, many, if not most of us had a slightly utilitarian […]
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Ronald Fletcher (1921–1992)
Humanism is… a tradition of thought and feeling combined with social action which stems from classical times and which has […]
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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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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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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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J.M. Robertson (1856–1933)
Our age, with all its faults, is surely as capable of a sane ideal as any that went before; and […]
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Angus Wilson (1913–1991)
I don’t think it’s the novelist’s job to give answers. He’s only concerned with exposing the human situation… and I […]
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Edward Blishen (1920–1996)
At this nervous moment… when we have uncertainties about almost everything, it’s particularly necessary that we pool our determination, so […]
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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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Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909)
No poet since Shelley sings more loftily or with more fiery passion or with finer thought than Swinburne when he […]
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Amber Blanco White (1887–1981)
Many human beings are sensible and friendly and kind; able to combine together to carry out wise policies. It is […]
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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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Beatrice McCabe (1880–1960)
The courage and steadfastness which lead thoughtful people to declare themselves openly Rationalists in face of conventional social pressure is […]
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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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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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Naomi Mitchison (1897–1999)
Good will, that curious product of consciousness, of leisure and energy to spare and share. That thing we put out […]
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Kate Watts (1849–1924)
She was greatly gifted, and through her genial nature made friends everywhere. To the last she was an enthusiastic Rationalist, […]
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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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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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Constance Dowman (1915–1982)
In all her work for the humanist movement, Constance Dowman said little and did much… She was one of the […]
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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 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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Jim Herrick (1944–2023)
Humanism is a way to live, to give meaning to life and to find an understanding of our place in […]
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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: 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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Francis Sheehy-Skeffington (1878–1916)
A distinctively Edwardian rationalist radical, he himself agreed that he was a crank – ‘a small instrument that makes revolutions’. […]
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John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts upon the unthinking. J.M. Keynes in […]
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Kit Mouat (1920–1986)
Harriet Martineau described her escape to atheism like this: “I lingered long on the stages of speculation and taste, but […]
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Doris Lessing (1919–2013)
I lost religion in a breath; Heaven fled from me on the wings of Reason… Doris Lessing, Under My Skin: […]
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Greevz Fisher (1845-1931)
Mr. Fysher was in many respects a remarkable man. His interests were wide, and whatever he took up he carried […]
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Derek Lennard (1952–2023)
Derek Lennard was a longtime member and former chair of LGBT Humanists—then known as the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Group […]
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John Ballance (1839–1893)
I believe in the absolute equality of the sexes, and I think they [women] should be in the enjoyment of […]
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Mother Clap (died c.1726)
As for Mother Clap, she was present all the Time, except when she went out to fetch Liquors… The Company […]
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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: Man’s Alleged Spiritual Nature
With all the pretensions of spiritualists… No great truth containing a benefit to humanity has ever reached us; no addition […]
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Fabian Society
If any delegate present thinks that the Fabian Society was wise from the hour of its birth, let him forthwith […]
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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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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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Louisa Thomson-Price (1864-1926)
We hold that only by making happiness for those around us, and by endeavoring, individually, to make the world a […]
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Mona Caird (1854–1932)
Belief in the power of man to choose his direction of change: this is the creed of the future, and […]
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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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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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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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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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William Thompson (1775-1833)
All moral and political wisdom should tend mainly to this, the just distribution of the physical means of happiness. William […]
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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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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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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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Winifred Holtby (1898-1935)
The attempt to create communities where men and women alike share the full stature of humanity is an attempt to […]
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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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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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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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Presidents of Humanists UK
Humanists UK began as the Union of Ethical Societies in 1896, becoming the Ethical Union in 1920, the British Humanist […]
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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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Helena Swanwick (1864-1939)
Life would be far more truly envisaged if we dropped the silly phrases “men’s and women’s questions”; for indeed there […]
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Henry Noel Brailsford (1873–1958)
Our goal must be the good of the whole human society. Henry Noel Brailsford, Olives of Endless Age: being a […]
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Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893)
A cheerful and reverent Agnostic, whose whole life was one of unselfishness and devotion to lofty aims, who was tolerant […]
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Vere Foster (1819-1900)
…the smallest experience is sufficient to convince that it is more pleasing, to be at peace than at enmity with […]
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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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Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; […]
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Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner (1858-1935)
When we are asked to believe that nothing but a supernatural ideal can inspire and sustain a life-time of complete […]
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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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Forrest Reid (1875-1947)
I have never believed in any formal religion, but I have experienced an emotion that seemed to me religious. 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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Barbara Smoker (1923-2020)
To say that “God moves in mysterious ways” is to put up a smokescreen of mystery behind which fantasy may […]
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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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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: ‘A Few Words to Freethinkers’
This article appeared in The Secular Chronicle (Vol. V, No. 1), 2 January 1876. It marked the first issue edited […]
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Hector Hawton (1901-1975)
Humanism is less concerned with what to believe than with how to live. The meaning it gives to life lies […]
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Josiah Gimson (1818-1883)
Josiah Gimson was the most prosperous of the 19th century secularists in Leicester, and the main force behind the building […]
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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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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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Claude McKay (1889-1948)
I have adhered to such of the older traditions as I find adequate for my most lawless and revolutionary passions […]
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Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
What an emancipation it is, — to have escaped from the little enclosure of dogma, and to stand, — far […]
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George Eliot (1819-1880)
What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? George Eliot, Middlemarch […]
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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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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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Har Dayal (1884-1939)
Life is a wonderful privilege. It imposes great duties. It demands the fulfilment of great tasks and the realisation of […]
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Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
Hath man no second life? Pitch this one high! Sits there no judge in Heaven our sin to see? More […]
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Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College at the University of Cambridge has educated and employed a host of remarkable humanists and freethinkers, many of […]
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Bishopsgate Institute
Bishopsgate Institute was built ‘for the benefit of the public’ in 1894, intended to provide opportunities for education and recreation […]
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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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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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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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The Rosehill Circle
Living in a house beautifully situated on the outskirts of Coventry, they used to spend their lives in philosophical speculations, […]
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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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Robert Owen (1771-1858)
Robert Owen was a utopian socialist, philanthropist, and reformer, whose own religious scepticism fostered his desire for a secular society, […]
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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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David Hume (1711-1776)
Without any great effort of thought, I believe that I could, in an instant, propose other systems of cosmogony, which […]
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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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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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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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Chapman Cohen (1868-1954)
Chapman Cohen was a tireless champion of freethought, and a prolific writer and lecturer for the secularist cause. President of […]
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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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Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928)
About the moral problem there is nothing mysterious; it is simply the old, old question of how best to live […]
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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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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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Alice Vickery (1844-1929)
Dr Alice Vickery was a humanist, physician, and devoted champion of women’s reproductive rights. Her tombstone inscription remembers her as […]
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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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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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George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906)
Free thought means fearless thought. It is not deterred by legal penalties, nor by spiritual consequences. Dissent from the Bible […]
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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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Harriet Taylor Mill (1807-1858)
That an institution or a practice is customary is no presumption of its goodness. Harriet Taylor Mill Harriet Taylor Mill […]
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Edward Truelove (1809-1899)
The radical publisher Edward Truelove found himself in court more than once defending freedom of belief and expression. He believed, […]
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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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Rationalist Press Association
The Rationalist Press Association (later known as simply the Rationalist Association) had its origins in the London print works of […]