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Presidents of the Rationalist Association
From Graham Wallas in 1926 to Laurie Taylor in 2025: the twelve philosophers, scientists, writers and campaigners who led the Rationalist Press Association.
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Graham Wallas (1858–1932)
Political psychologist, Fabian, teacher, President of the Ethical Union, and first President of the Rationalist Press Association.
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A. E. Heath (1887–1961)
Philosopher, wit, and President of the Rationalist Press Association from 1949 to 1954, who founded the philosophy department at Swansea.
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J. P. Gilmour (1860–1941)
Scottish pharmacist, editor of the Pharmaceutical Journal, and Chairman of the Rationalist Press Association.
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Humanist Society Scotland
Humanist Society Scotland (HSS) is the national humanist charity for Scotland. Founded in 1989 out of local groups whose roots go back to 1904, it secured legal recognition for humanist marriages in 2005 and today conducts more legal weddings than any religious group in Scotland.
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Adam Gowans Whyte (1875–1950)
I have often enough been burdened, disgusted, and outraged with life, but never have I been bored with it. There […]
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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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J. D. Bernal (1901–1971)
Science should be taught not merely as a subject but should come into all subjects. Its importance in history and […]
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Pamela O’Malley (1929–2006)
At that time, she appeared to me the way Gonne appears in Yeats’s poem, ‘No Second Troy’, where he describes […]
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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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Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
Aldous Huxley was never just a cynic or a mystic, or for that matter just a writer. He was a […]
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Olaf Stapledon (1886–1950)
We must face the fact that, though the free intelligence and the spirit of community are at once the goal […]
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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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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 Chalmers Mitchell (1864–1945)
We have lost Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, the maker of the modern Zoo, great humanist as well as great scientist. […]
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Edwin Ray Lankester (1847–1929)
Edwin Ray Lankester was a zoologist and protégé of T. H. Huxley, as well as a longtime member and Honorary […]
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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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Eustace Chesser (1902–1973)
All through his life he fought fearlessly for the causes in which he deeply believed and he fulfilled himself in […]
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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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Alec Reed (1934–2025)
Over the years my faith in any one God has diminished, but my desire to help others has not. I […]
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Alison Neilans (1884–1942)
If we really believe in democracy it is our duty not only to emphasise freedom, but also to continually remind […]
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Mora Burnet (1907–1985)
Mora Burnet was a founder of, and driving force within, the Humanist Housing Association, formed in 1955 to provide affordable homes […]
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Young People’s Group of the Ethical Union
To provide Young People with opportunities for the discussion of religious, political, educational, professional, moral, personal, and social problems… To […]
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Joseph Reeves (1888–1969)
Humanism is on the march. In a world of conflict and frightening menaces we are an integral part of the […]
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Raymond Firth (1901–2002)
Though only some anthropologists are humanists, my own anthropological studies confirmed my review of religion as a human art, not […]
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Periyar (1879–1973)
A life devoted to uncompromising rationalism, rich in achievement. Obituary for E. V. Ramasamy (Periyar) in New Humanist, April 1974 […]
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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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Sheffield Ethical Society
Morality apart from theology Motto of the Sheffield Ethical Society, from a poster of 1905 The founding meeting of the […]
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Renée Short (1916-2003)
Whatever our background, from whatever country we come, we are all united in the constant struggle for freedom and progress […]
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Leonard Ainsbury (1943–2006)
There will never be a point where we can sit back and say we have discovered everything. Our banner will […]
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Enid Lakeman (1903–1995)
Should STV ever be introduced in Westminster elections—as it has been in the Republic of Ireland, for Northern Ireland Assembly […]
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Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906)
One thing I would earnestly maintain; Ibsen comes home to us. His problems are real problems and are ours. If […]
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Govind Deodhekar (1919-1997)
He was dedicated to the cause of secularism, but in his own gentle way he did not neglect to enjoy […]
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Ralph Vaughan Williams 1872-1958
I am myself a musician, and I believe that all the arts, and especially music, are necessary to a full […]
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Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1901–1935)
One sees rise ultimately… in place of Religion—Nothing… one does not seek to replace a fever by an attack of […]
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Douglas Houghton (1898–1996)
Elected to Parliament in 1949… and here I am! Where else could I be? The pages of the New Humanist […]
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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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Iris Murdoch (1919–1999)
I don’t believe in God, but I think morality is fundamental to human life. Iris Murdoch in the Literary Review, […]
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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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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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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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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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John Gilmour (1906–1986)
In the first place, then, why do we botanise?… The enjoyment of the beauty and fascination of flowers in their natural […]
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David Oppenheimer (1914–1991)
In my experience he was the kindest of men, far too modest about his own contributions and always prepared to […]
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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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Justin Keating (1930–2009)
One might say that since retirement I have been reworking my paradigm. In that reworking I have reached conclusions, but […]
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May Keating (1895–1965)
[I] feel extraordinarily proud and extraordinarily lucky to be the child of a woman who from her early twenties was […]
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Mary Holland (1935–2004)
Mary Holland was a doyenne of Irish journalism. She epitomised the highest journalistic standards – she inquired, she informed, she […]
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From the archives: In Memoriam—Dr. Felix Adler
Those who never saw or heard Dr. Adler are nevertheless his heirs, though they cannot realise how creative and inspiring […]
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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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Edward Max Nicholson (1904-2003)
Conservation… draws us towards not only a scientific but a philosophical and historical approach to the problems of the earth […]
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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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B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956)
You must abolish your oppression yourselves. Do not depend for its abolition upon God or superman. Your salvation lies in […]
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Madeleine Simms (1930–2011)
Humanists have principles too, but they are principles which do not refer to the existence of the supernatural. This is […]
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Theodore Besterman (1904–1976)
Theodore Besterman… was one of the most remarkable of the long line of remarkable people who have given their support […]
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Bet Cherrington (1912–1998)
The Humanist virtues, as indicated in Barbara Smoker’s What’s this Humanism (1973), are intellectual integrity, tolerance, breadth of sympathy and […]
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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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Tony Brierley (1936-2024)
Tony Brierley was an active part of the humanist movement for more than 60 years, and a founder of both […]
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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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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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George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
The death of Shaw is to progressive people of the twentieth century what the death of Voltaire must have been […]
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Marriage of Ernest Cotton and Florence Wilson (1914)
Love is a kind of courage, and, in the hearts of the man and woman who will here wed, there […]
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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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Nicholas Winton (1909–2015)
What is needed is something in which [we] can all believe irrespective of religion, which in most cases, dare I […]
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Sharley McLean (1923–2013)
Born Lotte Reyersbach in Oldenburg, Germany in 1923, Sharley McLean arrived in England on the Kindertransport as a teenager. Both […]
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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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Edith Durham (1863–1944)
Mary Edith Durham was a writer, artist, and anthropologist, who became well known for her work on Albania. She was […]
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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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Annie Lidstone (1846–1940)
Those of us who can look back over the last thirty years will not fail to recall Mrs. Lidstone’s friendliness […]
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Marjorie Bowen (1885–1952)
To accept life fully seems to me the hallmark of the fine spirit. I think that it is possible for […]
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Ted Willis (1914-1992)
I have a strong faith and I love mankind. I do not believe in God but I believe in good. […]
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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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Terry Sanderson (1946–2022)
If the religious arguments seem irrelevant or cruel, there is another approach which relies on the power of human good, […]
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H. G. Wells (1866–1946)
More science is needed, more interchange and more co-ordination. Act to that end. This is my philosophy of action; this […]
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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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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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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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Antony Grey (1927-2010)
By Mia Nathan Constantly having to combat irrational and dangerous thinking is strenuous and sometimes tedious, but not necessarily boring. […]
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James Berry (1924-2017)
The difference and variety of our human family more and more seems to me to be a wise provision that […]
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Ritchie Calder (1906–1982)
Humanist ethics, as I understand them, are concerned with mankind. As humanists we believe in reason, but we also believe […]
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Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)
By Steve Ratcliff Steve has been researching humanists from LGBT history, focusing on digitised materials from the archives of LGBT […]
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A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
June suns, you cannot store them To warm the winter’s cold, The lad that hopes for heaven Shall fill his […]
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Edwin Morgan (1920-2010)
Because no one will believe without a splash from a fontTheir baby will howl in eternal cold, or fire,And no […]
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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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Bill Sefton (1915–2001)
To summarise why I have become a rationalist is a difficult task for one not educated in formal writing, but […]
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Lindsay Burnet (1905–1985)
It is essential to get it recognised that good and graceful living is sufficient in itself; further, that this is […]
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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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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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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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W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)
I remain an agnostic, and the practical outcome of agnosticism is that you act as though God did not exist. […]
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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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Edith Hinchley (1870–1940)
The woman artist appears quickly to have grasped the fact that she cannot maintain an isolated and merely selfish point […]
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V. M. Tarkunde (1909–2004)
The basic human value is freedom, which means the right of a human being to live a human life. V.M. […]
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Eslanda Goode Robeson (1895–1965)
I am willing and eager to surrender as much of my personal sovereignty as is necessary, in order to secure […]
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James Baldwin (1924-1987)
If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, […]
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Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964)
Essentially, I am interested in this world, in this life, not in some other world or a future life. Whether […]
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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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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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Marjorie Abbatt (1899–1991)
They weren’t just trying to sell something to parents, they were helping them to understand how to play with and […]
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Michael Manley (1924–1997)
I like life with its mysteries. I don’t need my imponderables filled in for me. Michael Manley quoted by Rachel […]
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Michael Tippett (1905-1998)
A wide-ranging Humanism will always seek to extend to more and more people, through education and opportunity, the enrichment of […]
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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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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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Janet Chance (1886–1953)
If the church was wrong, as of old, to trust to prayer in an epidemic, why shall she be right […]
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George Peabody Gooch (1873–1968)
Conscience is older than any existing Church or creed. George Peabody Gooch, Under Six Reigns (1958) George Peabody Gooch was […]
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H. Montgomery Hyde (1907–89)
Harford Montgomery Hyde was a Belfast-born barrister, politician, author, and humanist, who championed humane legal reforms and progressive social attitudes. […]
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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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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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Nina Spiller (1878–1967)
Nina Spiller was a lifelong worker for women’s rights, who played an active role in the humanist movement for more […]
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Eleanor Rathbone (1872-1946)
Only victory will put an end to it all. But meantime let no one say: ‘We are not responsible.’ We […]
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Sally Greengross (1935–2022)
Universal rights are exactly that, universal, and one should not suddenly acquire different rights after a certain number of birthdays. […]
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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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Kader Asmal (1934–2011)
Can there be a more important human condition than dignity? Without it, we are bitter, downtrodden, unheard, humiliated, embarrassed and […]
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Alexander Faulkner Shand (1858–1936)
…for a long time, like the philosophers of old, I was trying to find indisputable foundations. How long it took […]
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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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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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John Henry Muirhead (1855–1940)
Throughout his life, Professor of Philosophy, John Muirhead, sought to put his ethical principles into practice. Indeed, whilst philosophers are […]
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John Galsworthy (1867–1933)
…the only efficient, the only decent prayer, is Action. John Galsworthy, ‘Philosophy of Life’ in Glimpses and Reflections (1937) Best […]
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Lilian Sauter 1864-1924
Lift the heart to high endeavour! Fire the thought and nerve the will! Though the bonds be hard to sever, […]
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Ouida (1839-1908)
[Ouida’s] exaggerated enthusiasms made readers smile, but they also made them think. It would be difficult to overstate the effect […]
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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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Alice Jenkins (1886-1967)
Every movement requires its handful of pioneers who are prepared to stand up and be counted — to be abused, […]
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From the archives: ‘Why the Humanist Movement Began’
This article was written for Humanist News by Harold Blackham, who is viewed today as the architect of the modern […]
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Bill Bynner (1900-1984)
Bill Bynner was a humanist, socialist, and civil servant. As the editor of South Place Ethical Society‘s Ethical Record wrote […]
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Lady Rhondda (1883-1958)
There is nothing in this world to compare with the joy of finding something to do that one believes to […]
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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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Mary Sheepshanks (1872-1960)
Mary Sheepshanks was a humanist who saw her feminist, pacifist, and cosmopolitan beliefs as being natural expressions of her humanist […]
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John Boyd (1912-2002)
We can’t help the universe, but at least we can do something to help ourselves. Can’t we? John Boyd, Across […]
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Jack McDowell (1923-2006)
Belfast-born Jack McDowell was an activist, educator, politician, and atheist, whose humanism was evident in a lifetime of work for […]
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John Stewart Bell (1928-1990)
In the beginning natural philosophers tried to understand the world around them. Trying to do that they hit upon the […]
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Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960)
Against the militarist totalitarian state, I have striven. For the freedom of the human spirit to develop under the kindly […]
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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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Millicent Mackenzie (1863-1942)
Millicent Mackenzie was a pioneering educationist and suffragist, who – alongside her husband, John Stuart Mackenzie – gave significant support […]
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Stella Browne (1880-1955)
What is this ban on abortion? It is a sexual taboo, it is the terror that women should experiment and […]
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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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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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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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Clementina Anstruther-Thomson (1857-1921)
I for one don’t believe in looking regretfully back into the past or forward with illusive hopes into the future, […]
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Dorothy Thurtle (1890-1973)
No law can be effective which has not behind it the sanction of the people. Dorothy Thurtle, quoted by David […]
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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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Rationalist Peace Society
…a slowly growing public opinion in favour of arbitration as the alternative to war… is not in consequence of any […]
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Clement Attlee (1883-1967)
…having now exceeded the age of three score years and ten, I would say that up to the present I […]
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William Beveridge (1879-1963)
The one thing in which I am interested wholly and completely is the getting to know something about human society […]
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National Health Service
When Nigel Lawson said in 1992 that the National Health Service was the ‘closest thing the English have to a […]
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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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Peace Pledge Union
We are living in critical days. It is not enough to desire peace or to talk peace. We must make […]
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Manchester University Ethical Society
Object: to provide an ‘open forum’ for the fearless consideration of modern problems relating to ethics, sociology, education, political theory, […]
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Ipswich Heretics
We must grow out of the crude and unreal ideas of immortality and content ourselves with the only kind of […]
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Belfast Ethical Society
This Society has for its object the promotion of right conduct on a purely natural and human basis and the […]
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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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Bill Barbour (1920-2009)
William Pirrie Barbour was a classicist, codebreaker, teacher, and activist. A rationalist and humanist, Barbour championed integrated education in his […]
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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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Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington (1877-1946)
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington was an activist, feminist, and humanist, who founded the Irish Women’s Franchise League, and was described by the […]
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Kathleen Nott (1905-1999)
Now art, certainly literary art, is ‘existential’ and has to be so. It is, if nothing else, about the real […]
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Brigid Brophy (1929-1995)
We are (of all the synonyms I most prefer to ‘humanist’) freethinkers. We are deprived of nothing. We have lost […]
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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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Karl Popper (1902-1994)
… the responsibility for our ethical decisions is entirely ours and cannot be shifted to anybody else; neither to God, […]
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Llewelyn Powys (1884-1939)
It has been suggested that matter is capable of destruction, that every atom is destined to be dissolved away in […]
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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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Leighton Hall Neighbourhood Guild
Order is our Basis; Improvement our Aim; and Friendship our Principle. Annual Report of the Neighbourhood Guild, 1895 Leighton Hall […]
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Emily Josephine Troup (1853-1913)
Emily Josephine Troup was a composer, poet, and editor, who played a leading role in the musical life of South […]
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Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy (1833-1918)
… purely human and natural ethics, and not theology, was the source of this pioneer woman’s enthusiasm for justice, even […]
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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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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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The Progressive League
The Progressive League was an organisation dedicated to the advancement of scientific humanism, founded by author H.G. Wells and philosopher […]
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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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Hermann Bondi (1919-2005)
It is in service to others, it is as members of the community, that our existence lies. Hermann Bondi, Humanism […]
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Max Gate
Max Gate is the former home of Thomas Hardy in Dorchester, Dorset. Hardy designed and lived in Max Gate from 1885 until […]
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Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet, renowned for his apparently bleak outlook, but finely tuned to life and […]
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John Hewitt Cairn
My chosen ground Inscription on the John Hewitt Cairn John Harold Hewitt (1907-1987) was the most significant Ulster poet to […]
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Harry Stopes-Roe (1924-2014)
Harry Stopes-Roe was one of the most tireless and dedicated humanist campaigners of the 20th century. Son of the influential […]
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Antony Flew (1923-2010)
Antony Flew was a British philosopher and was, for much of his life, a renowned atheist and eloquent proponent of […]
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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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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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Red Lion Square
As well as being home to Conway Hall and its humanist library, Red Lion Square contains statues of two prominent […]
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The British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections include objects of humanist heritage […]
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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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Bessie Braddock (1899-1970)
We had to have change. The conditions of the workers had to be improved. The bosses had to be forced […]
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UNESCO
Its main concern is with peace and security and with human welfare, in so far as they can be subserved […]
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Dora Russell (1894-1986)
I see this kind of love – the empathy that should be common to all living creatures – rather than […]
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Alan Turing (1912-1954)
We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done. Alan […]
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M.N. Roy (1887-1954)
The realisation of the possibility of a secular rational morality opens up a new perspective before the modern world… It […]
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Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
The international significance and reputation of Mohandas Gandhi is well-known, but his involvement with the burgeoning humanist movement during the […]
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W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
If living does not give value, wisdom and meaning to life, then there is no sense in living at all. […]
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James Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937)
The moral value of a belief in eternal life is a doubtful matter. But this is certain, that where rest […]
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Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose […]
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Aneurin Bevan (1897-1960)
He was a great humanist whose religion lay in loving his fellow men and trying to serve them. These are […]
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National Portrait Gallery, London
The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery primarily located in London but with various satellite outstations located elsewhere in […]
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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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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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James Hemming (1909-2007)
The time has arrived for us humans to stop leaning on ideas for a creator god; we should get down […]
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First International Moral Education Congress
To have thus assuaged the temper of controversy, to have softened much deep-seated prejudice and to have disposed some of […]
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Moral Instruction League
Its aim will be to secularise education and make moral training the chief aim of the school life. A great […]
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Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
I cling to my tiny philosophy: to hug the present moment. Virginia Woolf, diary entry, 31 January 1940 Virginia Woolf […]
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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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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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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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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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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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Liverpool Ethical Church
The Liverpool Ethical Society was founded in 1904, and in 1912 Liverpool became home to one of only a handful […]
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Church of Humanity
No creative thinker has so governed… my mind as the French genius who framed the maxim – “Love for principle, […]
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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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International Journal of Ethics
The International Journal of Ethics was founded in 1890 by leaders of the worldwide Ethical movement, ‘for the advancement of […]
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Women’s Group of the Ethical Movement
Of everything that presents itself unto thee to consider what the true nature of it is, and to unfold it. […]
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Women’s Freedom League
Dare to be free. Slogan of the Women’s Freedom League The Women’s Freedom League (WFL) was a militant suffrage organisation, […]
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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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Abortion Law Reform Association
The… women on the early ALRA committee were similar in background and outlook. Most of them were active members of […]
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Positivism
Positivism is a philosophical system based on the writings of French thinker Auguste Comte, which flourished from the 1830s onwards. […]
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North London Ethical Society
We desire to attract men and women holding all shades of opinion, but having in common a conviction that morality […]
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West London Ethical Society
The good life… rests for its justification on no external authority, and on no system of supernatural rewards or punishments, […]
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South London Ethical Society
Without denying or affirming a life after death, or reality beyond experience… we can (without injury to our moral life) […]
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Hampstead Ethical Institute
The object of this Society is: To increase the knowledge, the love, and the practice of the right. Its bond […]
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The Ethical Church
The old teaching was that we must worship not truth, beauty and goodness, but their source, and that their source […]
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East London Ethical Society
Not Religion as a Duty, but Duty as a Religion. Felix Adler(A motto of the East London Ethical Society) The […]
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Brighton and Hove Ethical Society
Founded in 1905 by the prolific but largely unremembered writer Richard Dimsdale Stocker, the Brighton and Hove Ethical Society – […]
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Mackenzie Hall
Mackenzie Hall is a community space in the village of Brockweir, Gloucestershire, given by Millicent Mackenzie in memory of her […]
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A.J. Ayer (1910-1989)
In common with other humanists, I believe that the only possible basis for a sound morality is mutual tolerance and […]
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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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Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974)
The notion that a man shall judge for himself what he is told, sifting the evidence and weighing the conclusions, […]
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John Hewitt (1907-1987)
I fear their creed as we have always fearedthe lifted hand against unfettered thought. John Hewitt, ‘The Glens’ in Collected […]
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Jennie Lee (1904-1988)
Jennie Lee (also known as Baroness Lee of Asheridge) was a Scottish politician and journalist, known for her upfront orating […]
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Harold John Blackham (1903-2009)
Faith without works is not Christianity, and unbelief without any effort to help shoulder the consequences for mankind is not […]
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Sylvia Scaffardi (1902-2001)
The actress turned campaigner and human rights activist Sylvia Scaffardi was a co-founder of The Council of Civil Liberties, along […]
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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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Barbara Wootton (1897-1988)
It is in fact a strength, not a weakness, of a secular morality that it must stand upon its own […]
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Fenner Brockway (1888-1988)
I had long put on one side the purist pacifist view that one should have nothing to do with a […]
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Julian Huxley (1887-1975)
What the sciences discover about the natural world and about the origins, nature and destiny of man is the truth […]
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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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E. M. Forster (1879-1970)
Humanism could (better) be honoured by reciting a list of the things one has enjoyed or found interesting, of the […]
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Richard Dimsdale Stocker (1877-1935)
But this much is certain, that, taking the world as we find it, sympathy, plus a modicum of common sense […]
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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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Charles Kennedy Scott (1876-1965)
… in broad terms, with our lecturers we attempt to define our intellectual standpoint; with our music we try to […]
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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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G. E. Moore (1873-1958)
The tremendous influence of Moore and his book on us came from the fact that they suddenly removed from our […]
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Bessie Mabbs (1873-1953)
Bessie Mabbs was a teacher, school principal, and active member of the Union of Ethical Societies (now Humanists UK), chairing […]
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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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Ernestine Mills (1871-1959)
Ernestine Mills, an enamelist, and her husband Dr. Herbert Henry Mills were both active members of the Ethical movement, and […]
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Lillie Boileau (1869-1930)
Lillie Boileau was a devoted figure within the Ethical movement, and an active part of the fight for women’s suffrage. […]
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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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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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Laurence Housman (1865-1959)
But however little it conforms or tenders allegiance, no life worth having can be isolated from the lives of others. […]
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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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May Seaton-Tiedeman (1862-1948)
If the basic cause of an unsuccessful marriage is removable, conciliation is the proper procedure. If it is not removable, […]
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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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Zona Vallance (1860-1904)
Conscious morality cannot exist in any being except so far as it can look behind, before, and around; and can […]
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Hilda Caroline Miall-Smith (1860-1943)
Hilda Caroline Miall-Smith was a teacher and activist, a graduate of University College London, and a member of the London […]
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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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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
If after this survey of the nature of illusions and delusions, we turn again to religious doctrines, we may reiterate […]
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Elizabeth Duncan Swann (1855-1914)
Elizabeth Swann was an active and devoted champion of liberal and progressive causes alongside her husband, Liberal MP Charles Swann. […]
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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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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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Josephine Gowa (1854-1941)
Josephine Gowa was an active member of the Hampstead Ethical Institute (later Hampstead Humanist Society) for over three decades, many […]
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Mary Gilliland Husband (1854-1929)
The attainment of the greatest possible amount of social happiness I take to be the noblest of human aims; the […]
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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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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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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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Ethel Leach (1850-1936)
Ethel Leach was a Liberal councillor, social reformer, justice of the peace, and the first female mayor of Great Yarmouth. […]
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Ruth Homan (1850-1938)
Ruth Homan was an educationist, women’s welfare campaigner, and one of the founding members of the West London Ethical Society […]
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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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Sophie Bryant (1850-1922)
Sophie Bryant was an Anglo-Irish mathematician, feminist, suffragist, teacher, and promoter of moral education. She played a key role in […]
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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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Laura Morgan-Browne (1843-1942)
I have come to feel that the best proof of the subjection and degradation of my sex lies in the […]
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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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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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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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British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology
The British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology was officially formed in April 1914, ‘for the consideration of problems […]
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The Union of Ethical Societies
The Union of Ethical Societies (now Humanists UK) was formed in 1896, joining together existing ethical societies for fellowship and […]
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Emilie Holyoake-Marsh (1861-1953)
Emilie Holyoake-Marsh, daughter of George Jacob Holyoake, was an activist for worker’s rights and women’s suffrage; an advocate of co-operation, […]
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Ruskin School Home (1900-1926)
The Ruskin School Home was founded by socialist writer and teacher [Harry] Bellerby Lowerison (1863–1935) in Norfolk in 1900, following […]
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Harry Snell (1865-1944)
Harry Snell was a socialist politician and campaigner, a devoted advocate of the Ethical Movement and a key figure in […]
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Nellie Freeman (1863-1943)
Nellie Freeman was an indefatigable organiser within the Ethical Union (today’s Humanists UK) for decades of her life. Beginning in […]
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Adela Coit (1863-1932)
Fanny Adela Coit was a suffragist and campaigner of international significance, as well as a central figure in the Ethical […]
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The Humanitarian League (1891-1919)
The Humanitarian League is a Society of thinkers and workers, irrespective of class or creed, who have united for the […]
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First Universal Races Congress
To those who regard the furtherance of International Good Will and Peace as the highest of all human interests, the […]
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Alice Woods (1849-1941)
In some way or another time for quiet concentrated thought must be found for our youth… Perhaps we are a […]
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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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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 […]
