Able Quote by Madalyn Murray O'Hair
“One of the things I did during my 17 years as a psychiatric social worker was go around and find people with mental crutches, and every time I found one, I kicked those goddamn crutches until they flew. You know what happened? Every single one of those people has been able to walk without the crutches better, in fact. Were they giving up anything intrinsically valuable? Just their irrational reliance upon superstitions and supernatural nonsense. Perhaps this sort of claptrap was good for the Stone Age, when people actually believed that if they prayed for rain they would get it.”
About This Quote
Source Interview: Public speaking on secularism, 1990s
Encourages dismantling irrational dependencies, arguing that removing superstitious crutches frees people to progress.
In simple terms: Drop baseless beliefs to achieve real growth.
Key Takeaway
Question superstition, embrace rationality.
Themes
critical thinking
freedom
secularism
Mood
challenging
empowering
Type
philosophical
activist
When to use this quote
- personal development
- education
- policy reform
Key Concepts
irrationality
psychology
social change
Questions to Reflect On
- What “crutches” do you rely on?
- How can you replace them with evidence‑based practices?
A Different Perspective
Some may feel loss of comfort when abandoning beliefs.
![“The very term ['mental disease'] is nonsensical, a semantic mistake. The two words cannot go together except metaphorically; you can no more have a mental 'disease' than you can have a purple idea or a wise space". Similarly, there can no more be a "mental illness" than there can be a "moral…” quote by E. Fuller Torrey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e4e/e-fuller-torrey-63046_approval_the-very-term-mental-disease-is-nonsensi_297011.jpg)
![“[it is] a high class kind of subversion, very high class. We're not second story burglars. We go right in the front door.” quote by Mike Gorman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/51e/mike-gorman-263386_burglars_it-is-a-high-class-kind-of-subversion-ve_216253.jpg)
