Arrowsmith Religion Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"And a fellow from down there was telling me Arrowsmith is great on books and study, but he's a freethinker—never goes to church. (17.1.35)

Nowadays, it might be a compliment to call someone a freethinker. But back in Sinclair Lewis' day, this wasn't necessarily the case. Being a freethinker was seen as a negative quality, and a sign that you were living an improper life.

Quote #5

One of its smallest but oldest industries is Mugford Christian College […] It has never been disgraced by squabbles over teaching evolutionary biology—it never has thought of teaching biology at all. (19.1.7)

Martin knows what kind of town he's moving to when he realizes that their main college would never allow a professor to teach evolution in the classroom. In fact, they don't bother teaching biology at all. According to them, you don't need to know how the human body works. God made it perfectly from scratch, and that's all you need to worry about.

Quote #6

"I make many mistakes. But one thing I keep always pure: the religion of a scientist." (26.1.25)

Max Gottlieb knows he's not perfect. But he's confident that he has always remained true to his true religion, which is science. He's not even interested in using science to cure diseases. He only cares about truth for its own sake, and will study anything that interests him, regardless of whether other people will ever benefit from it.