Scott

“All the grand sources of human suffering are in a great degree conquerable by human care and effort; and though their conquest is grievously slow, and though a long succession of generations will perish in the breach before the conquest is completed - when this world becomes all that, if will and knowledge were not wanting, it might easily be made - yet every mind to bear a part however small and inconspicuous, in the endeavor, will draw a noble enjoyment from the contest itself, and would not for any brine consent to be without.”
― John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

“...the Churches, everywhere, opposed as long as they could practically every innovation that made for an increase of happiness or knowledge here on Earth”
― Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy

“Never can an authority admit that the intellectually courageous - those who dare to defy his authority - may be the most valuable type.”
― Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies

“Most of us, it seems, have a strong inclination to accept the peculiarities of our social environment as if they were "natural".... that we live in a charmed circle of unchanging taboos, of laws and customs which are felt to be as inevitable as the rising of the sun.”
― Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies