Benjamin Wiker Quotes & Sayings

There once was a man called Rousseau who wrote a book containing nothing but ideas. The second edition was bound in the skins of those who laughed at the first. — Benjamin Wiker

And so we might find on his shelf some vitriol of Cyprus (copper sulfate), white vitriol (zinc sulfate), aqua regia (nitro-hydrochloric acid), arsenic, saltpeter (potassium nitrate), alum of Yemen (aluminium sulphate), burning water (alcohol), brimstone (sulfur) or sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride). We — Benjamin Wiker

In August, 1900, [Friedrich] Nietzsche was laid to rest Nietzsche, as the apostle of atheism, heralded the darkest century the world has ever known. — Benjamin Wiker

Since it all appeared so scientific, and we wanted to hear it, Kinsey's pseudo-science became foundational for the sexual revolution, used both in courts and classrooms to push a limitless sexual revolution that began in the 1960s and through which we are still living. This revolution will not be over until it has overthrown all sexual boundaries, which means that it will not be complete until it extinguishes all opposition, the greatest of which is Christianity. Once again, we see atheism at the root of rebellion. — Benjamin Wiker

Now one day - and we know the day, August 1, 1774 - Priestley put calx of mercury underneath a glass. He focused the sun's hot rays on the calx with his new 12" diameter magnifying glass. It began to give off a gas. The calx of mercury changed back into mercury, and Priestley trapped the gas with his pneumatic trough. And then he sat and looked, and thought, and looked some more. He happened to have a lighted candle nearby. Without really thinking about it Priestley exposed the candle to the gas. The flame suddenly flared into brilliance! What was this wondrous gas? If — Benjamin Wiker

The relationship between the planets and the days Sun-day and Moon-day is obvious. As for the rest, the Saxon god Tiw is the same as the Roman war god Mars, hence we call it Tiw's-day, instead of Mars-day. The Saxon god Woden is the same as Mercury, and so we call it Woden's-day instead of Mercury-day. Thursday was named for the god Thor, rather than for Jupiter. And finally Friff (the wife of Woden) took the place of Venus for the Saxons, and so we have Friff-day, or Friday. — Benjamin Wiker

Once we allow ourselves to do evil so that some perceived good may follow, we allow ever greater evils for the sake of ever more questionable goods, until we consent to the greatest evils for the sake of mere trifles. — Benjamin Wiker

Alchemy, however, began in the first century BC, most probably in Egypt. Indeed, scholars believe that the "chem" in alchemy (and hence in chemistry) is from a Coptic word "khem" which means the Black Land, that is, Egypt, for after the Nile River rises and floods the land each year, it looks black. That alchemy probably began in Egypt makes sense. The Egyptians were some of the best metal workers of the ancient world. From — Benjamin Wiker

As with Hobbes, we see again, the power of fiction. Rousseau's acount of natural man was no more real than Hobbes's, but following the same pattern, once it became the accepted story of human origins, it thereby exercised the power of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In imagining Rousseau to be right, we have become what Rousseau imagined. — Benjamin Wiker

But Mr. Davy would not become a doctor, for a copy of Lavoisier's Elements of Chemistry fell into his hands. Soon enough, Davy was discharged from Dr. Borlase's service because of his habit of performing explosive experiments. — Benjamin Wiker

Aristotle had thought that atomism was wrong, and he rejected the views of the ancient Greek atomist Democritus. (The other atomists, Epicurus and Lucretius, lived after Aristotle.) But Boyle thought that Aristotle was wrong, and so he rejected the alchemists' belief (based on Aristotle) that fire, earth, air, and water were the fundamental elements, and Aristotle's belief that each thing had a definite form. Instead, Boyle believed that everything was made of atoms - including fire, earth, air, and water - and that a thing's "form" was merely the result of how the atoms were put together. What — Benjamin Wiker