ENLIGHTENMENT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Enlightenment

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/ɛnlˈaɪtənmənt/ Listen

Enlightenment

noun

Education that results in understanding and the spread of knowledge.

(Hinduism and Buddhism) the beatitude that transcends the cycle of reincarnation; characterized by the extinction of desire and suffering and individual consciousness. Synonym: nirvana.

A movement in Europe from about 1650 until 1800 that advocated the use of reason and individualism instead of tradition and established doctrine. Synonym: Age of Reason.

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"Enlightenment" Quotes from Famous Books

... age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day's demonstration. ...

— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Volume IX. • Benjamin Harrison

... something which could give up its secret if it would, but only to meet my own features in every guise of fury and despair—features I no longer knew—features which insensibly increased my horror till I tore myself wildly from the spot, and cast about for further clues to enlightenment, before yielding to the conviction which was making a turmoil in mind, heart, and conscience. Alas! there was but little more to see. A pair of curling-irons lay on the hearth, but I had no sooner lifted them than I dropped them with a shudder ...

— The House of the Whispering Pines • Anna Katharine Green

... the pulpit and press, clerical robes and the pro- [1] hibiting of free speech, that cradles and covers the sins of the world,—all unmitigated systems of crime; and it requires the enlightenment of these worthies, through civil and religious reform, to blot out all inhuman codes. [5] It was the Southern pulpit and press that influenced the people to wrench from man both human and divine rights, in order to subserve the interests of wealth, religious caste, ...

— Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 • Mary Baker Eddy

... merits are far beyond its technical excellencies, and I rejoice peculiarly on its appearance at a moment when public attention is concentrated on the affairs of the Italian peninsula, and when the public, too, has so much need of enlightenment. A man who writes as the author of that article has done confers an incalculable benefit on his countrymen; and, as one not altogether incompetent to form a judgement on the subject, I beg to offer ...

— Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. - In Two Volumes. VOL. II. • John Knox Laughton

... efforts of the merchant were pretty fairly understood and a perfect flood of congratulations followed the enlightenment. ...

— For Gold or Soul? - The Story of a Great Department Store • Lurana W. Sheldon

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