Our age, with all its faults, is surely as capable of a sane ideal as any that went before; and […]
Those who never saw or heard Dr. Adler are nevertheless his heirs, though they cannot realise how creative and inspiring […]
Founded in 1263, Balliol College is one of the oldest colleges at the University of Oxford. Established by the English […]
No poet since Shelley sings more loftily or with more fiery passion or with finer thought than Swinburne when he […]
You must abolish your oppression yourselves. Do not depend for its abolition upon God or superman. Your salvation lies in […]
The Athenæum is a London club founded in 1824, around the pursuit of science and literature. Its reputation as ‘the […]
Ethics really ought to have something to do with life. Ethics ought to tell you how to be good or […]
The death of Shaw is to progressive people of the twentieth century what the death of Voltaire must have been […]
The courage and steadfastness which lead thoughtful people to declare themselves openly Rationalists in face of conventional social pressure is […]
Rationalism is… primarily a mental attitude, not a creed or a definite body of negative conclusions. No uniformity of opinions […]
Atheism, unadulterated and undisguised, was diffused into every corner of the land, and the bold voice of the conscientious unbeliever […]
Good will, that curious product of consciousness, of leisure and energy to spare and share. That thing we put out […]
Mary Edith Durham was a writer, artist, and anthropologist, who became well known for her work on Albania. She was […]
She was greatly gifted, and through her genial nature made friends everywhere. To the last she was an enthusiastic Rationalist, […]
Those of us who can look back over the last thirty years will not fail to recall Mrs. Lidstone’s friendliness […]
To accept life fully seems to me the hallmark of the fine spirit. I think that it is possible for […]
The educative work and the profound enlightenment resulting from the publication of the cheap RPA reprints and the Thinker’s Library […]
We have the faculties for gaining knowledge; and Rationalism will always maintain that we are at liberty to use them […]
More science is needed, more interchange and more co-ordination. Act to that end. This is my philosophy of action; this […]
For many years a member of the Rationalist Press Association, and no longer associated with any church, she had devoted […]
Charles Albert Watts was a lifelong promoter of rationalism, and the founder in 1885 of Watts’s Literary Guide, still published […]
Avoiding alike mysticism and shallow denial, he was a true Agnostic, anxious not merely to beat down error, but to […]
It is with a feeling of considerable deprecating delicacy that I venture to write of this woman, whom I so […]
June suns, you cannot store them To warm the winter’s cold, The lad that hopes for heaven Shall fill his […]
On 11 November 1849, at the Literary and Scientific Institution, 23 John Street (now Whitfield Street), London, George Jacob Holyoake […]
A distinctively Edwardian rationalist radical, he himself agreed that he was a crank – ‘a small instrument that makes revolutions’. […]
The big problem of today is how shall we adjust these tremendous new forces so that they can be harnessed […]
I remain an agnostic, and the practical outcome of agnosticism is that you act as though God did not exist. […]
Mr. Fysher was in many respects a remarkable man. His interests were wide, and whatever he took up he carried […]
The reward of a useful and virtuous life is the conviction that our memory will be cherished by those who […]
The woman artist appears quickly to have grasped the fact that she cannot maintain an isolated and merely selfish point […]
I believe in the absolute equality of the sexes, and I think they [women] should be in the enjoyment of […]
With all the pretensions of spiritualists… No great truth containing a benefit to humanity has ever reached us; no addition […]
If any delegate present thinks that the Fabian Society was wise from the hour of its birth, let him forthwith […]
We hold that only by making happiness for those around us, and by endeavoring, individually, to make the world a […]
Conscience is older than any existing Church or creed. George Peabody Gooch, Under Six Reigns (1958) George Peabody Gooch was […]
Belief in the power of man to choose his direction of change: this is the creed of the future, and […]
Only victory will put an end to it all. But meantime let no one say: ‘We are not responsible.’ We […]
We hold that only by making happiness for those around us, and by endeavoring, individually, to make the world a […]
All moral and political wisdom should tend mainly to this, the just distribution of the physical means of happiness. William […]
…for a long time, like the philosophers of old, I was trying to find indisputable foundations. How long it took […]
Throughout his life, Professor of Philosophy, John Muirhead, sought to put his ethical principles into practice. Indeed, whilst philosophers are […]
…the only efficient, the only decent prayer, is Action. John Galsworthy, ‘Philosophy of Life’ in Glimpses and Reflections (1937) Best […]
Lift the heart to high endeavour! Fire the thought and nerve the will! Though the bonds be hard to sever, […]
[Ouida’s] exaggerated enthusiasms made readers smile, but they also made them think. It would be difficult to overstate the effect […]
Wales has long been a nation of nonconformists, with a history of challenging the power and influence of the established […]
Our interest, it seems to me, lies with so much of the past as may serve to guide our actions […]
There is nothing in this world to compare with the joy of finding something to do that one believes to […]
Mary Sheepshanks was a humanist who saw her feminist, pacifist, and cosmopolitan beliefs as being natural expressions of her humanist […]
It is not to the point to say that the views of Lucretius and Bruno, of Darwin and Spencer, may […]
All religious theories, schemes and systems, which embrace notions of cosmogony, or which otherwise reach into the domain of science, […]
Emancipation from every kind of bondage is my principle. I go for the recognition of human rights, without distinction of […]
Against the militarist totalitarian state, I have striven. For the freedom of the human spirit to develop under the kindly […]
Humanists UK began as the Union of Ethical Societies in 1896, becoming the Ethical Union in 1920, the British Humanist […]
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in […]
Millicent Mackenzie was a pioneering educationist and suffragist, who – alongside her husband, John Stuart Mackenzie – gave significant support […]
Life would be far more truly envisaged if we dropped the silly phrases “men’s and women’s questions”; for indeed there […]
People have always looked for ways to mark significant events in their lives, and though many ceremonies have often been […]
Our goal must be the good of the whole human society. Henry Noel Brailsford, Olives of Endless Age: being a […]
I for one don’t believe in looking regretfully back into the past or forward with illusive hopes into the future, […]
…no child should be made ashamed or uncomfortable on account of his father’s opinions, or lack of opinions, on subjects […]
A cheerful and reverent Agnostic, whose whole life was one of unselfishness and devotion to lofty aims, who was tolerant […]
…the smallest experience is sufficient to convince that it is more pleasing, to be at peace than at enmity with […]
No law can be effective which has not behind it the sanction of the people. Dorothy Thurtle, quoted by David […]
I believe in the supreme virtue of exploring. I believe in finding out. Even if I don’t succeed, I still […]
For earth is not as though thou ne’er hadst been. Constance Naden, ‘The Pantheist’s Song of Immortality’ (1881) Birmingham’s Key […]
…the only universal truths which exist are the fundamental laws of the mind. Philosophy, then, which is the science of […]
…having now exceeded the age of three score years and ten, I would say that up to the present I […]
Purity of life, sincerity of action, obedience to law, love of our fellow creatures, all those qualities which ennoble life […]
No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; […]
When we are asked to believe that nothing but a supernatural ideal can inspire and sustain a life-time of complete […]
The Universities Tests Act, which ended religious discrimination in admissions and employment at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham […]
This Society has for its object the promotion of right conduct on a purely natural and human basis and the […]
I have never believed in any formal religion, but I have experienced an emotion that seemed to me religious. In […]
Man for man in larger sense does what heaven fails to do. Sara A. Underwood, quoted by Rufus K. Noyes […]
This article appeared in The Secular Chronicle (Vol. V, No. 1), 2 January 1876. It marked the first issue edited […]
The object of Secularism is the promotion of human happiness in this world… [The Secularist] believes the surest way of […]
Order is our Basis; Improvement our Aim; and Friendship our Principle. Annual Report of the Neighbourhood Guild, 1895 Leighton Hall […]
Emily Josephine Troup was a composer, poet, and editor, who played a leading role in the musical life of South […]
… purely human and natural ethics, and not theology, was the source of this pioneer woman’s enthusiasm for justice, even […]
Glasnevin Cemetery is a nondenominational cemetery in Ireland, first opened in 1832. The brainchild of Catholic rights leader Daniel O’Connell, […]
Max Gate is the former home of Thomas Hardy in Dorchester, Dorset. Hardy designed and lived in Max Gate from 1885 until […]
Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet, renowned for his apparently bleak outlook, but finely tuned to life and […]
Josiah Gimson was the most prosperous of the 19th century secularists in Leicester, and the main force behind the building […]
Atheist Charles Southwell was imprisoned in Bristol Gaol for blasphemous libel in 1842. Southwell had written an article in his […]
Not to be confused with Kelmscott Manor, Kelmscott House was the London home of designer and socialist William Morris from […]
Kelmscott Manor was the country home of the writer, designer, and socialist William Morris from 1871 until his death in […]
A brief history of humanism and secularism in Northern Ireland Organised humanism began in Northern Ireland in the 19th century, […]
On Woburn Walk is a plaque to George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906), a writer, lecturer, and promoter of the Cooperative movement, […]
As well as being home to Conway Hall and its humanist library, Red Lion Square contains statues of two prominent […]
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections include objects of humanist heritage […]
What an emancipation it is, — to have escaped from the little enclosure of dogma, and to stand, — far […]
The international significance and reputation of Mohandas Gandhi is well-known, but his involvement with the burgeoning humanist movement during the […]
If living does not give value, wisdom and meaning to life, then there is no sense in living at all. […]
What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? George Eliot, Middlemarch […]
The moral value of a belief in eternal life is a doubtful matter. But this is certain, that where rest […]
A mass working class movement for universal male suffrage Read more Chartist Ancestors and Women Chartists Chartism by David Avery […]
The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery primarily located in London but with various satellite outstations located elsewhere in […]
…for the Promotion and Advancement of Science, Literature and Art Trust deed of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute […]
Kensal Green, opened in 1833, was London’s first commercial cemetery, and the originator of the city’s ‘Magnificent Seven’. These suburban […]
I was not, and was conceived. I loved and did a little work. I am not and grieve not. Epitaph […]
On 17 September 1842 Darwin closed the door of Macaw Cottage, 12 Upper Gower Street, in London, and boarded his […]
Its aim will be to secularise education and make moral training the chief aim of the school life. A great […]
I cling to my tiny philosophy: to hug the present moment. Virginia Woolf, diary entry, 31 January 1940 Virginia Woolf […]
Hath man no second life? Pitch this one high! Sits there no judge in Heaven our sin to see? More […]
Girton College at the University of Cambridge has educated and employed a host of remarkable humanists and freethinkers, many of […]
Rochdale Pioneers Museum occupies the building at 31 Toad Lane where, in 1844, 28 working class people came together to […]
Robert Owen, the son of a Newtown saddler and ironmonger, became one of the most successful mill owners of the […]
Bishopsgate Institute was built ‘for the benefit of the public’ in 1894, intended to provide opportunities for education and recreation […]
University College London was founded in 1826 as the University of London; the city’s first university, and a consciously secular […]
I might fill columns with tales of the debaters, co-operators, socialists, individualists, critics, artists, scientists, clergy and cranks, who, as […]
No creative thinker has so governed… my mind as the French genius who framed the maxim – “Love for principle, […]
The National Secular Society is a campaigning organisation, founded in 1866 to champion the principles of secularism and the separation […]
Living in a house beautifully situated on the outskirts of Coventry, they used to spend their lives in philosophical speculations, […]
Why are these minds left without the means of obtaining that knowledge which they so ardently desire and why are […]
The International Journal of Ethics was founded in 1890 by leaders of the worldwide Ethical movement, ‘for the advancement of […]
Positivism is a philosophical system based on the writings of French thinker Auguste Comte, which flourished from the 1830s onwards. […]
Socialism emerged, in the early decades of the nineteenth century, as a humanist ideal of universal emancipation – the ideal […]
The House of Commons refused to allow his affirmation, so Bradlaugh applied to take the oath but was again refused. […]
We desire to attract men and women holding all shades of opinion, but having in common a conviction that morality […]
The good life… rests for its justification on no external authority, and on no system of supernatural rewards or punishments, […]
Without denying or affirming a life after death, or reality beyond experience… we can (without injury to our moral life) […]
The object of this Society is: To increase the knowledge, the love, and the practice of the right. Its bond […]
Not Religion as a Duty, but Duty as a Religion. Felix Adler(A motto of the East London Ethical Society) The […]
The Cambridge Ethical Society was established in 1888, inspired by the London Ethical Society (formed two years earlier). It aimed […]
The London Ethical Society was the UK’s first, founded in 1886 to pursue ‘a rational conception of human good’: establishing […]
William Johnson Fox was an orator, writer, politician, and first minister of South Place Chapel (now Conway Hall) from 1824 […]
Robert Owen was a utopian socialist, philanthropist, and reformer, whose own religious scepticism fostered his desire for a secular society, […]
But this much is certain, that, taking the world as we find it, sympathy, plus a modicum of common sense […]
… in broad terms, with our lecturers we attempt to define our intellectual standpoint; with our music we try to […]
…life itself offers enough explanation for living; and believing our existence to finish with death, we naturally make the most […]
The tremendous influence of Moore and his book on us came from the fact that they suddenly removed from our […]
Bessie Mabbs was a teacher, school principal, and active member of the Union of Ethical Societies (now Humanists UK), chairing […]
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Neither love without knowledge, nor knowledge without love […]
Ernestine Mills, an enamelist, and her husband Dr. Herbert Henry Mills were both active members of the Ethical movement, and […]
Lillie Boileau was a devoted figure within the Ethical movement, and an active part of the fight for women’s suffrage. […]
Chapman Cohen was a tireless champion of freethought, and a prolific writer and lecturer for the secularist cause. President of […]
But in the more civilised communities, as in ancient Greece, there has always been a minority who, through some speculative […]
But however little it conforms or tenders allegiance, no life worth having can be isolated from the lives of others. […]
The Conscience has eclipsed the Scriptures; Science has destroyed the belief in Divine Interposition; Democracy and Civism have shown men […]
If the basic cause of an unsuccessful marriage is removable, conciliation is the proper procedure. If it is not removable, […]
Julia Huxley was a feminist and freethinker, who profoundly influenced a generation of girls who attended the school she founded […]
Conscious morality cannot exist in any being except so far as it can look behind, before, and around; and can […]
Hilda Caroline Miall-Smith was a teacher and activist, a graduate of University College London, and a member of the London […]
Stanton Coit was a pioneer of the Ethical movement in England and the founder of the West London Ethical Society, […]
If after this survey of the nature of illusions and delusions, we turn again to religious doctrines, we may reiterate […]
Elizabeth Swann was an active and devoted champion of liberal and progressive causes alongside her husband, Liberal MP Charles Swann. […]
F.J. Gould was an influential educationist, writer, and humanist, whose tireless work towards secularising education helped to lay the groundwork […]
Those who, like myself, are in communication with the advanced thought and thinkers throughout the world know that hundreds —nay, […]
Josephine Gowa was an active member of the Hampstead Ethical Institute (later Hampstead Humanist Society) for over three decades, many […]
The attainment of the greatest possible amount of social happiness I take to be the noblest of human aims; the […]
No one who came in contact with her failed to recognize in her fearlessness, honesty for the sake of honesty […]
I felt flattered by the remark of a hostile journalist that I was “a compendium of the cranks,” by which […]
In order to find meaning to one’s life, one must find a meaning in the life of the [human] race. […]
Ethel Leach was a Liberal councillor, social reformer, justice of the peace, and the first female mayor of Great Yarmouth. […]
Ruth Homan was an educationist, women’s welfare campaigner, and one of the founding members of the West London Ethical Society […]
About the moral problem there is nothing mysterious; it is simply the old, old question of how best to live […]
Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. It means caution, independence, honesty and veracity. G. W. Foote George William Foote was […]
Sophie Bryant was an Anglo-Irish mathematician, feminist, suffragist, teacher, and promoter of moral education. She played a key role in […]
Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to […]
Dr Alice Vickery was a humanist, physician, and devoted champion of women’s reproductive rights. Her tombstone inscription remembers her as […]
I have come to feel that the best proof of the subjection and degradation of my sex lies in the […]
Fellowship is heaven, and lack of fellowship is hell. William Morris, A Dream of John Ball (1888) Painter, textile designer, artist, […]
Her beautiful life, her truth, her unwearied charities, proceeded from her own heart. They were not inspired by any thought […]
Charles Bradlaugh was a leading freethinker, secularist, and founder of the National Secular Society. His efforts to take his seat […]
It is not because the believer in rational religion has not clear convictions that he will not shape them into […]
Why not agree to differ about the questions which no one denies to be all but insoluble, and become allies […]
Harriet Law was a secularist and speaker, who also promoted women’s rights and socialist ideals. During the 1870s, Law’s house […]
Thomas Henry Huxley was a man of science, a biologist, and educator. He helped to transform scientific study into a […]
Richard Congreve was a devoted follower of Auguste Comte, whose positivist philosophies and ‘Religion of Humanity’ inspired Congreve to open […]
Free thought means fearless thought. It is not deterred by legal penalties, nor by spiritual consequences. Dissent from the Bible […]
I will never voluntarily obey any law which is an outrage on human reason. Matilda Roalfe Matilda Roalfe was an […]
Oh what a tissue of inconsistencies are the dogmas in which we have been reared! Emma Martin, God’s Gifts and […]
I cannot pretend to throw the least light on such abstruse problems. The mystery of the beginning of all things […]
That an institution or a practice is customary is no presumption of its goodness. Harriet Taylor Mill Harriet Taylor Mill […]
I will call no being good, who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow-creatures; […]
Margaret Chappellsmith was a devotee of the socialist and secularist ideas of Robert Owen, becoming one of the Owenite movement’s […]
Sarah Flower Adams was a writer, radical, and major influence on the religious thinking of William Johnson Fox at South […]
Eliza Flower was a composer, a radical, and a significant influence on William Johnson Fox and the progressive values of […]
Auguste Comte was a French writer, philosopher, and social scientist, whose theory of positivism was a significant influence on the […]
I have devoted my time and fortune to laying the foundation of a society where affection shall form the only […]
I have no desire… to bring the religion or the laws of this country into contempt, although I am a […]
I have ever considered that the only religion useful to man consists exclusively of the practice of morality, and in […]
I have no view but public good; certainly no desire to injure any one, but a passionate desire to do […]
Is it not the duty of every person to promote the happiness of others as much as lies in their […]
There is no one who will deny the value and importance of truth, but how is it to be ascertained, […]
It is impossible that Theology can throw any light upon either morality or jurisprudence. Jeremy Bentham Philosopher and jurist Jeremy […]
The Union of Ethical Societies (now Humanists UK) was formed in 1896, joining together existing ethical societies for fellowship and […]
Emilie Holyoake-Marsh, daughter of George Jacob Holyoake, was an activist for worker’s rights and women’s suffrage; an advocate of co-operation, […]
Thomas Hill Green was a philosopher, educator, and a Liberal, whose idealist philosophy (with its practical implications) was a significant […]
Harry Snell was a socialist politician and campaigner, a devoted advocate of the Ethical Movement and a key figure in […]
Nellie Freeman was an indefatigable organiser within the Ethical Union (today’s Humanists UK) for decades of her life. Beginning in […]
Fanny Adela Coit was a suffragist and campaigner of international significance, as well as a central figure in the Ethical […]
The radical publisher Edward Truelove found himself in court more than once defending freedom of belief and expression. He believed, […]
The Humanitarian League is a Society of thinkers and workers, irrespective of class or creed, who have united for the […]
Alice Woods was an educationist and headteacher; a member of the Hampstead Ethical Institute, and a proponent of moral education. […]
Not by the Creed but by the Deed. Motto of the Society for Ethical Culture of New York, founded in […]
Under its successive names, adopted or given… is traceable a constant endeavour to study carefully, and keep abreast of, the […]
The Rationalist Press Association (later known as simply the Rationalist Association) had its origins in the London print works of […]