Atheism Quotes

• I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.

  Voltaire

  Funny, Life, God

  Letter to M. Damilaville, 16 May 1767

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• The Christian god is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Christian, Character, Religion

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• Christianity accepted as given a metaphysical system derived from several already existing and mutually incompatible systems.

  Aldous Huxley

  Christianity, Accepted, Metaphysical

  Aldous Huxley (1956). “The collected works of Aldous Huxley”

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• Honest investigation is utterly impossible within the pale of any church, for the reason, that if you think the church is right you will not investigate, and if you think it wrong, the church will investigate you.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Thinking, Church, Impossible

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1874). “The Gods, and Other Lectures”, p.183

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• And Jesus was a Jew too. Your god. He was a Jew like me. And so was his father.

  James Joyce

  Jesus, Father, Jew

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• Theologians are all alike, of whatever religion or country they may be; their aim is always to wield despotic authority over men's consciences; they therefore persecute all of us who have the temerity to tell the truth.

  Frederick The Great

  Country, Men, May

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• Obey; this may be right; but beware of reverence.... Government is nothing but regulated force; force is its appropriate claim upon your attention. It is the business of individuals to persuade; the tendency of concentrated strength, is only to give consistency and permanence to an influence more compendious than persuasion.

  William Godwin

  Government, Giving, Consistency

  William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness”, p.230

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• The real or supposed rights of man are of two kinds, active and passive; the right in certain cases to do as we list; and the right we possess to the forbearance or assistance of other men. The first of these a just philosophy will probably induce us universally to explode.

  William Godwin

  Philosophy, Real, Men

  William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness”, p.158

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• Christ and his teachings are the embodiment of submission, of inertia, of the denial of life; hence responsible for the things done in their name.

  Emma Goldman

  Teaching, Names, Done

  Emma Goldman (1913). “Victims of Morality, and The Failure of Christianity: Two Lectures”

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• I like to summarize what I regard as the pedestal-smashing messages of Darwin's revolution in the following statement, which might be chanted several times a day, like a Hare Krishna mantra, to encourage penetration into the soul: Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary progress, but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Cosmic, Fortuitous, Afterthought

  "Dinosaur in a Haystack". Book by Stephen Jay Gould, "Can We Complete Darwin's Revolution?" (p. 327), 1995.

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• Religion cannot sink lower than when somehow it is raised to a state religion ... It becomes then an avowed mistress.

  Heinrich Heine

  Mistress, States, Raised

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• Choices always were a problem for you. What you need is someone strong to guide you. Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow, what you need is someone strong to use you - like me.

  Maynard James Keenan

  Strong, Choices, Dumb

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• To trust the God of the Bible is to trust an irascible, vindictive, fierce and ever fickle and changeful master.

  Mark Twain

  Religion, Fickle, Fierce

  Mark Twain, Howard G. Baetzhold, Joseph B. Mccullough (1996). “The Bible According to Mark Twain”, p.317, Simon and Schuster

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• My deep religiosity [...] found an abrupt ending at the age of twelve, through the reading of popular scientific books.

  Albert Einstein

  Book, Reading, Thinking

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• Reason should be destroyed in all Christians.

  Martin Luther

  Christian, Religion, Reason

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• If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself.

  Alexandre Dumas

  Atheist, Live Life, Men

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• I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.

  Carl Sagan

  Atheist, Believe, Thinking

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium”, p.245, Ballantine Books

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• I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.

  Douglas Adams

  Atheist, Intelligent, People

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.

  Stephen Hawking

  Light, Blue, Law

  "The Grand Design". Book by Stephen Hawking, 2010.

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• When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?'

  Quentin Crisp

  Peace, Atheist, Believe

  "The Wit and Wisdom of Quentin Crisp". Book by Quentin Crisp, 1984.

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• It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Citizens, Tests, Insult

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, Volume 7: 28 November 1813 to 30 September 1814”, p.304, Princeton University Press

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• All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.

  Voltaire

  God, Reality, Men

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• I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one.

  Albert Einstein

  Religious, Ideas, Religion

  Letter to Guy H. Raner Jr. (28 September 1949), from article by Michael R. Gilmore in Skeptic magazine, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1997.

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• I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, God, Spiritual

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.330, Princeton University Press

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• The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Faith, Spiritual, Religious

  Benjamin Franklin (1987). “Poor Richard's Almanack: Being the Choicest Morsels of Wisdom, Written During the Years of the Almanack's Publication”, p.16, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

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