Atheism Quotes - Page 34

• I regret my disbelief in God.

  Peter Medawar

  Regret, Disbelief, Belief In God

  Peter Brian Medawar (1996). “The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science”, p.209, Oxford University Press, USA

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• The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain like a watch. (You perceive I employ a capital initial in the pronoun referring to the Deity; don't you think there is a slight dash of flunkeyism in that usage?).

  Herman Melville

  Heart, Men, Thinking

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.4894, Delphi Classics

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• We incline to think that God cannot explain His own secrets and that He would like a little information upon certain points Himself. We mortals astonish Him as much as He us. But it is this Being of the matter; there lies the knot with which we choke ourselves. As soon as you say Me, a God, a Nature, so soon you jump off from your stool and hang from the beam. Yes, that word is the hangman. Take God out of the dictionary, and you would have Him in the street.

  Herman Melville

  Lying, Thinking, Secret

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.4889, Delphi Classics

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• The idea of Jehovah was born here... Out of the rude elements of the insignificant thoughts thoughts that are in all men, they reared the transcendent conception of a God.

  Herman Melville

  Men, Ideas, Rude

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• When my eye rested on an arid height, spirit partook of the barrenness. - Heartily wish Niebuhr & Strauss to the dogs. The deuce take their penetration & acumen. They have robbed us of the bloom.

  Herman Melville

  Dog, Eye, Wish

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• I baptize you not in the name of the father, but in the name of the devil. (Ego baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli.)

  Herman Melville

  Father, Names, Ego

  Herman Melville, Peter Fish (1984). “Herman Melville's Moby-Dick”, Barrons Educational Series Incorporated

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• The so-called religious organizations which now lead the war against the teaching of evolution are nothing more, at bottom, than conspiracies of the inferior man against his betters.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, War, Teaching

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• When I was quite a boy I had a spasm of religion which lasted six weeks... But I never since have swallowed the Christian fable.

  George Meredith

  Christian, Boys, Fables

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• The man who has no mind of his own lends it to the priests.

  George Meredith

  Men, Mind, He Man

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• In my own experience, I have been amazed to see how unrealistic are the bases for political opinion in general. Only rarely have I found a person who has chosen any particular political party - democratic or totalitarian - through study and comparison of principles.

  Joost Meerloo

  Party, Political Opinions, Principles

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• The tension of a mysterious danger is even more unbearable than danger itself. People hate the vacuum of an unknown situation. They want security. They even prefer war to the insecure expectation of a war with its threat of enemy surprise. This vague fearful expectation acts on their fantasies. They anticipate all kinds of mysterious dangers; they begin to provoke them. It is the evocation of fear and danger in order to escape the tension of insecurity.

  Joost Meerloo

  Hate, War, Insecure

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• The bulk of the totalitarian-minded in the democratic societies are men and women who are attracted to this destructive way of life for inner emotional reasons unknown to themselves.

  Joost Meerloo

  Men, Emotional, Way

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• The danger of education, I have found, is that it so easily confuses means with ends. Worse than that, it quite easily forgets both and devotes itself merely to the mass production of uneducated gradtuates - people literaly unfit for anything except to take part in an elaborate and completely artificial charade which they and their contemporaries have conspired to call "life".

  Thomas Merton

  Mean, People, Forget

  Thomas Merton (1979). “Love and Living”, p.14, Macmillan

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• ... inventions and purely human institutions.

  Jean Meslier

  Invention, Institutions, Humans

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• To discover the true principles of morality, men have no need of theology, of revelation, or of gods. They need but common sense. They have only to look within themselves, to reflect upon their own nature, to consult their obvious interests, to consider the object of society and of each of the members who compose it, and they will easily understand that virtue is an advantage, and that vice is an injury to beings of the species.

  Jean Meslier

  Men, Common Sense, Vices

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• I am terrified of restrictive religious doctrine, having learned from history that when men who adhere to any form of it are in control, common men like me are in peril.

  James A. Michener

  Religious, Men, Doctrine

  James A. Michener (2014). “The World Is My Home: A Memoir”, p.283, Dial Press

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• I kept careful record of the impact of religion on the election in my county. The religious issue permeated every meeting I conducted. It influenced Republicans and Democrats alike. Ministers preached politics publicly and churches distributed the most vicious electioneering materials. Practically no one I met escaped the pressure of this overriding problem and both parties were ultimately forced to make their major calculations with the religious question a foremost consideration.

  James A. Michener

  Religious, Party, Impact

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• Religious hatreds ought not to be propagated at all, but certainly not on a tax-exempt basis.

  James A. Michener

  Religious, Hatred, Taxes

  James A. Michener (2014). “Report of the County Chairman”, p.64, Dial Press Trade Paperback

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• Whatever may be the immediate gains and losses, the dangers to our safety arising from political suppression are always greater than the dangers to that safety arising from political freedom. Suppression is always foolish. Freedom is always wise. That is the faith, the experimental faith, by which we Americans have undertaken to live.

  Alexander Meiklejohn

  Wise, Loss, Safety

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• Meiklejohn's position is that free speech in a democracy is not an absolute flowing from the boundless source of some presumed 'natural right.' It is a practical necessity of 'self-government by universal suffrage,' for if the citizens are not permitted to argue out the issues of government, how can they be what they must be in a democracy - the rulers as well as the ruled?

  Max Lerner

  Issues, Government, Self

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• So natural to mankind is intolerance ... that religious freedom has hardly anywhere been practically realized.

  John Stuart Mill

  Religious, Natural, Intolerance

  John Stuart Mill, Charles W. Elliott, Patrick Hayden (2004). “On Liberty”, p.8, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• Every established fact which is too bad to admit of any other defence is always presented to us as an injunction of religion.

  John Stuart Mill

  Religion, Facts, Defence

  John Stuart Mill (2015). “On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays”, p.452, OUP Oxford

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• It is conceivable that religion may be morally useful without being intellectually sustainable.

  John Stuart Mill

  May, Positive Atheism

  John Stuart Mill (1874). “Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism”, p.73

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• Jerusalem is ... the fabled city which for the Western mind is as much dream as stone ... a compressed symbol of our most sublime aspirations along with our most disgusting, hatefully brainless excursions into religious bigotry and fratricide.

  Arthur Miller

  Dream, Religious, Cities

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• There are many who stay away from church these days because you hardly ever mention God any more.

  Arthur Miller

  Crucible, Church, These Days

  Arthur Miller (1992). “The Crucible”, p.23, Heinemann

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