Positive Atheism Quotes - Page 39

• I believe that this Republic will endure for many centuries. If so there will doubtless be among its Presidents Protestants and Catholics, and very probably at some time, Jews. I have consistently tried while President to act in relation to my fellow Americans of Catholic faith as I hope that any future President who happens to be Catholic will act towards his fellow Americans of Protestant faith. Had I followed any other course I should have felt that I was unfit to represent the American people.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Believe, Should Have, People

  Theodore Roosevelt (1952). “Letters of Theodore Roosevelt: The big stick, 1905-1909”

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• Ignorance is the evil - knowledge will be the remedy. Knowledge not of what sort of beings we shall be hereafter, or what is beyond the skies, but a knowledge pertaining to terra firma, and we may have all the power, goodness and love that we have been taught belongs to God himself.

  Ernestine Rose

  Ignorance, Sky, Evil

  Ernestine Louise Rose (2008). “Mistress of herself: speeches and letters of Ernestine L. Rose, early women's rights leader”, The Feminist Press at CUNY

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• And when your minister asks you for money for missionary purposes, tell him there are higher, and holier, and nobler missions to be performed at home. When he asks for colleges to educate ministers, tell him you must educate woman, that she may do away with the necessity of ministers, so that they may be able to go to some useful employment.

  Ernestine Rose

  Home, College, Atheism

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• The establishment of religious freedom was no less momentous an achievement than the clearing of the great forest or the winning of independence, for the twin doctrines of separation of church and state and liberty of individual conscience are the marrow of our democracy, if not indeed America's most magnificent contribution to the freeing of Western man.

  Clinton Rossiter

  Religious, Winning, Men

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• What makes our opponents useful is that they allow us to believe that without them we would be able to realize our goals.

  Jean Rostand

  Believe, Goal, Atheism

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• All kinds of frankness and honesty are terrible crimes in the eyes of society.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Honesty, Eye, Atheism

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• In all countries, and in all ages, from the Druids down to brother Beecher, priests have aimed at universal power.

  Anne Royall

  Country, Brother, Atheism

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• Fanaticism and bigotry require any food but common sense and reason, which would break the charm of those spellbound fanatics.

  Anne Royall

  Common Sense, Atheism, Reason

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• These bible people remind me of another calamity similar to this missionary scheme, when our people, or any christian power would go to Africa for the pious purpose of kidnapping negroes, the mother would cry out to her children "run, run, the christians are coming," so when ever you hear "bibles," run for your life, if you do not want your pockets picked, or to be insulted and slandered as I was... and if you hear "hopeful conversions" or the "gospel," don't stop to look behind you.

  Anne Royall

  Christian, Mother, Running

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• I find that the whole weight of relieving human misery and distress falls on the shoulders of those Heretics and Infidels; and though great part of this distress has been occasioned by those ravening wolves' hopeful converts.

  Anne Royall

  Fall, Hopeful, Atheism

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• The late proceedings of those daring invaders to establish a national religion have opened the eyes of all lovers of liberty and religion... I have been told they have thrown off the mask and are preaching to the people to elect none but godly men to represent them in the General and State Legislatures; ... what they mean by godly people, is people of their own stamp.

  Anne Royall

  Mean, Eye, Godly

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• We who have grown up on a diet of honour and shame can still grasp what must seem unthinkable to people living in the aftermath of the death of God and of tragedy: that men will sacrifice their dearest love on the implacable altars of their pride.

  Salman Rushdie

  Pride, Sacrifice, Men

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• If Islam is to be reconciled with modernity, these voices must be encouraged until they swell into a roar.

  Salman Rushdie

  Order, Voice, Islam

  "Moderate Muslims must roar, says Rushdie". www.cnn.com. November 3, 2001.

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• I know few Christians so convinced of the splendor of the rooms in their Father's house, as to be happier when their friends are called to those mansions... Nor has the Church's ardent "desire to depart, and be with Christ," ever cured it of the singular habit of putting on mourning for every person summoned to such departure.

  John Ruskin

  Christian, Father, House

  John Ruskin (1900). “The crown of wild olive: Munera pulveris. Pre-Raphaelitism. Aratra Pentelici, etc”

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• Surely our clergy need not be surprised at the daily increasing distrust in the public mind of the efficacy of prayer.

  John Ruskin

  Prayer, Mind, Atheism

  John Ruskin (1879). “Letters to the Clergy on the Lord's Prayer and the Church”, p.29, Library of Alexandria

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• Morality does not depend on religion.

  John Ruskin

  Atheism, Doe, Morality

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• My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.

  Bertrand Russell

  Atheist, Race, Views

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.50, Lulu Press, Inc

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• It is not the opinions or the vices of private individuals that are harmful to the State, but rather the behavior of public figures.

  Marquis de Sade

  Atheism, Vices, Opinion

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• In the middle 1970s an astronomer I admire put together a modest manifesto called "Objections to Astrology" and asked me to endorse it. I struggled with his wording, and in the end found myself unable to sign, not because I thought astrology has any validity whatever, but because I felt (and still feel) that the tone of the statement was authoritarian.

  Carl Sagan

  Astrology, Atheism, Together

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.388, Ballantine Books

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• Demagoguery enters at the moment when, for want of a common denominator, the principle of equality degenerates into the principle of identity.

  Antoine de Saint-Exupery

  Atheism, Identity, Principles

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• I wanted each woman to be a rebellious Vashti, not an Esther.

  Margaret Sanger

  Atheism, Esther, Rebellious

  Margaret Sanger (2012). “The Autobiography of Margaret Sanger”, p.106, Courier Corporation

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• Towards orthodox religion, father's own attitude remained one of tolerance. He looked upon the New Testament as the noble story of a human being which, because of ignorance and the lack of printing presses, had become exaggerated. He maintained that religions served their purpose; some people depended on them all their lives to make them honest. Others did not need to be so held in line. But subjection to any church was a reflection on strength and character. You should be able to get from yourself what you had to go go church for.

  Margaret Sanger

  Attitude, Father, Ignorance

  Margaret Sanger (2012). “The Autobiography of Margaret Sanger”, p.21, Courier Corporation

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• Alexander the Great changed a few boundaries and killed a few men. Both he and Napoleon were forced into fame by circumstances outside of themselves and by currents of the time, but Margaret Sanger made currents and circumstances. When the history of our civilization is written, it will be a biological history and Margaret Sanger will be its heroine.

  H. G. Wells

  Men, Civilization, Atheism

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• For Shakespeare, in the matter of religion, the choice lay between Christianity and nothing. He chose nothing.

  George Santayana

  Choices, Atheism, Matter

  George Santayana (1936). “The Works of George Santayana: Interpretations of the poetry and religion. Hamlet. Shelley. Dickens. Tragic philosophy”

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• The most malicious kind of hatred is that which is built upon a theological foundation.

  George Sarton

  Hatred, Atheism, Foundation

  George Sarton “History of Science and New”, Transaction Publishers

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