# Quote — Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

> All religions are ultimately cargo cults.
>
> Adherents perform required rituals, follow
>
> specific rules, and expect to be supernaturally
>
> gifted with desired rewards—long life,
>
> honor, wisdom, children, good health, wealth,
>
> victory over opponents, immortality after
>
> death, any desired rewards.

- Author: [Octavia E. Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler.md)
- Book: [Parable of the Talents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents.md)
- Page: 357
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Talents_(1998)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/all-religions-are

## More from this book

> Consider—
>
> We are born
>
> Not with purpose,
>
> But with potential.

p. 1 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/consider-we-are.md)

> Beware:
>
> Ignorance
>
> Protects itself
>
> Ignorance
>
> Promotes suspicion.
>
> Suspicion
>
> Engenders fear.
>
> Fear quails,
>
> Irrational and blind,
>
> Or fear looms,
>
> Defiant and closed.
>
> Blind, closed,
>
> Suspicious, afraid,
>
> Ignorance
>
> Protects itself,
>
> And protected,
>
> Ignorance grows.

p. 225 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/beware-ignorance-protects.md)

> “I’m not a demagogue.”
>
> “That’s too bad. That leaves the field to people who are demagogues—to the Jarrets of the world. And there have always been Jarrets. Probably there always will be.”

p. 395 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/im-not-a-demagogue.md)