Religion Quotes - Page 18

• We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn't been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake.

  Catherine Fahringer

  Atheist, Science, Years

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• It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

  Mark Twain

  Death, Religious, Atheist

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.31, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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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, Atheism

  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]t is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.

  Sam Harris

  Faith, Religious, Lying

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.72, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Religion is for people who fear hell, spirituality is for people who have been there.

  David Bowie

  Clever, Fear, Recovery

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• The word 'Christianity' is already a misunderstanding - in reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on the Cross.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Christian, Friday, Atheist

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• Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.

  Paul Tillich

  Religious, Hurt, Mean

  Paul Tillich, F. Forrester Church (1999). “The Essential Tillich”, p.1, University of Chicago Press

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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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• The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful.

  Edward Gibbon

  Rome, People, History

  The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ch. 2 (1776 - 1788)

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• Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Fear

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.90, Rowman & Littlefield

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• I count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but ignorance.

  Christopher Marlowe

  Atheist, Ignorance, Thinking

  The Jew of Malta prologue (ca. 1592)

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• Each religion, by the help of more or less myth, which it takes more or less seriously, proposes some method of fortifying the human soul and enabling it to make its peace with its destiny.

  George Santayana

  Inspirational, Life, Peace

  George Santayana (1953). “Persons and Places: My host the world”

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• Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Law, Presidential

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia: From 1730, to 1740; and from 1768, to 1772”, p.140

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• One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Atheism, Virtuous

  "Why I Am Not a Christian" (1927)

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• Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Wall

  Reply to Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, and Stephen S. Nelson (committee of the Danbury, Conn., Baptist Association), 1 Jan. 1802

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• It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are not one.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Believe, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Late President of the United States”, p.209

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• If I were personally to define religion, I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circustance.

  Theodore Dreiser

  Atheist, Men, Soul

  Theodore Dreiser (2015). “The Genius”, p.859, Booklassic

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• The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Christian, Thinking, Atheism

  'Die fröhliche Wissenschaft' (1882) bk. 3, sect. 130

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• The great religious ages were notable for their indifference to human rights... not only for acquiescence in poverty, inequality, exploitation and oppression, but also for enthusiastic justifications for slavery, persecution, abandonment of small children, torture, and genocide... Moreover, religion enshrined hierarchy, authority, and inequality... It was the age of equality that brought about the disappearance of such religious appurtenances as the auto-da-fe and burning at the stake.

  Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

  Religious, Children, Rights

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• When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, 'Why god? Why me?' and the thundering voice of God answered, 'There's just something about you that pisses me off.'

  Stephen King

  Family, Jobs, Humor

  "Storm of the Century". Drama, Fantasy, Horror, 1999.

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• Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Christian, Wisdom, Religious

  "Points of friction". Book by Agnes Repplier, "Consolations of the Conservative", 1920.

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• Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Atheist, Cat, Dark

  Robert A. Heinlein (1985). “Job, a Comedy of Justice”, Del Rey

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• Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Science

  A Treatise upon Human Nature bk. 1 (1739)

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• It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

  William James

  Believe, Philosophical, Government

  William James (2015). “Essays in Popular Philosophy: Top Essays”, p.9, 谷月社

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• Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

  H. L. Mencken

  God, Being Happy, Cynical

  A Mencken Chrestomathy ch. 30 (1949)

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