31 Quotes & Sayings By Luther Burbank

The integrity of one's own mind is of infinitely more value than adherence to any creed or system. We must choose between a dead faith belonging to the past and a living, growing ever-advancing science belonging to the future. Luther Burbank

I am an infidel today. I do not believe what has been served to me to believe. I am a doubter, a questioner, a skeptic. When it can be proved to me that there is immortality, that there is resurrection beyond the gates of death, then will I believe. Until then, no. Luther Burbank

Most people’s religion is what they want to believe, not what they do believe. Luther Burbank

Science .. . has opened our eyes to the vastness of the universe and given us light, truth and freedom from fear where once was darkness, ignorance and superstition. There is no personal salvation, except through science. Luther Burbank

The clear light of science teaches us that we must be our own saviors, if we are to be found worth saving. Luther Burbank

And to think of this great country in danger of being dominated by people ignorant enough to take a few ancient Babylonian legends as the canons of modern culture. Our scientific men are paying for their failure to speak out earlier. There is no use now talking evolution to these people. Their ears are stuffed with Genesis. Luther Burbank

As a scientist, I can not help feeling that all religions are on a tottering foundation. None is perfect or inspired. The idea that a good God would send people to a burning hell is utterly damnable to me. I don't want to have anything to do with such a God. Luther Burbank

The word 'religion' has acquired a very bad name among those who really love truth, justice, charity. It also exhales the musty odor of sanctimony and falsehood. Luther Burbank

A theory of personal resurrection or reincarnation of the individual is untenable when we but pause to consider the magnitude of the idea. On the contrary, I must believe that rather than the survival of all, we must look for survival only in the spirit of the good we have done in passing through. Once obsolete, an automobile is thrown to the scrap heap. Once here and gone, the human life has likewise served its purpose. If it has been a good life, it has been sufficient. There is no need for another. Luther Burbank

Those who would legislate against the teaching of evolution should also legislate against gravity, electricity and the unreasonable velocity of light, and also should introduce a clause to prevent the use of the telescope, the microscope and the spectroscope or any other instrument of precision which may in the future be invented, constructed or used for the discovery of truth. Luther Burbank

The chief trouble with religion has been too much dependence upon names or words. People fail to discriminate. They do not think. Generally people who think for themselves, instead of thinking according to the rules laid down by others, are considered unfaithful to the established order. In that respect I, too, differ with the established order and established designations. Luther Burbank

Scientists gladly accept any new truth demonstrated by evidence, that is, proved by the very law of the cosmos. Not so with any new conceptions of religion; these are fought by the use of persecution and venom. Many of the current religious beliefs literally carried into practice would stampede humanity into the old jungle ideas and habits. Luther Burbank

Science, unlike theology, never leads to insanity. Luther Burbank

I love humanity, which has been a constant delight to me during all my seventy-seven years of life; and I love flowers, trees, animals, and all the works of Nature as they pass before us in time and space. What a joy life is when you have made a close working partnership with Nature, helping her to produce for the benefit of mankind new forms, colors, and perfumes in flowers which were never known before; fruits in form, size, and flavor never before seen on this globe; and grains of enormously increased productiveness, whose fat kernels are filled with more and better nourishment, a veritable storehouse of perfect food–new food for all the world's untold millions for all time to come. Luther Burbank

Science, which is only another name for truth, now holds religious charlatans, self-deceivers and God agents in a certain degree of check--agents and employees, I mean, of a mythical, medieval, man-made God, anthropomorphic in constitution. Luther Burbank

The scientist is a lover of truth for the very love of truth itself, wherever it may lead. Luther Burbank

It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean. For those who do not think it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while. Luther Burbank

The greatest happiness in the world is to make others happy. Luther Burbank

Heredity is nothing but stored environment. Luther Burbank

Flowers always make people better happier and more helpful they are sunshine food and medicine to the soul. Luther Burbank

If we cannot meet our everyday surroundings with equanimity and pleasure and grow each day in some useful direction then ... life is on the road toward misfortune misery and destruction. Luther Burbank

If we had paid no more attention to our plants than we have to our children, we would now be living in a jungle of weed. Luther Burbank

If you violate Nature's laws you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman. Luther Burbank

Science is knowledge arranged and classified according to truth, facts, and the general laws of nature. Luther Burbank

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul. Luther Burbank

The secret of improved plant breeding, apart from scientific knowledge, is love. Luther Burbank

I see humanity now as one vast plant, needing for its highest fulfillment only love, the natural blessings of the great outdoors, and intelligent crossing and selection. Luther Burbank

We must return to nature and nature's god. Luther Burbank