atheist quotes
These quotes have been collected from various sources - newsgroups, books and your submissions, which are very welcome. To add a quote, fill the form at the bottom of this page.
top quotes (total: 3896)
| author | quote | quality? |
|---|---|---|
| Stephen Roberts | I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours |
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| Seneca the Younger 4 b.c.- 65 a.d. | Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. |
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| Blaise Pascal | Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions |
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| Richard Jeni | You're basically killing each other to see who's got the better imaginary friend |
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| Emo Philips | When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me. |
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| Epicurus | Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? |
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| Bertrand Russell | And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence |
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| George Bernard Shaw | The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one |
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| unknown | Don't pray in my school, and I won't think in your church |
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| Doug McLeod | I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence |
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| Unknown | Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. |
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| Gene Roddenberry | We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes |
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| Unknown | Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer |
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| Steven Weinberg | With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. |
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| Richard Lederer (Anguished English) | There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages. |
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| Carl Sagan | You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe. |
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| George Carlin | Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man -- living in the sky -- who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do.. And if you do any... [more] |
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| Unknown | George Bush says he speaks to god every day, and christians love him for it. If George Bush said he spoke to god through his hair dryer, they would think he was mad. I fail to see how the addition of a hair dryer makes it any more absurd. |
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| Ferdinand Magellan | The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church |
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| Delos B. McKown | The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike |
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| Albert Einstein | A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death |
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| Aldous Huxley | "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." |
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| unknown | Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish |
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| Napoleon Bonaparte | Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet |
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| Galileo Galilei | I do not think it is necessary to believe that the same God who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence wished us to abandon their use, giving us by some other means the information that we could gain through them |
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| Marie | Man created God in his image : intolerant, sexist, homophobic and violent. |
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| Unknown | Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence. |
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| Carl Sagan | Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence |
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| Voltaire | Those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities |
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| Robert A. Heinlein | Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a God superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. |
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| Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney | Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. |
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| John Adams, 2nd President of the United States | The Government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion. |
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| Bumper sticker | You keep believing, I'll keep evolving |
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| Thomas Jefferson | I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. |
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| William Drummond | He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave |
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| Friedrich Nietzsche | Which is it, is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's? |
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| Robert G. Ingersoll | As people become more intelligent they care less for preachers and more for teachers |
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| H. L. Mencken | We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart |
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| Giulian Buzila | History teaches us that no other cause has brought more death than the word of god. |
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| unknown | People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs |
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| Coral Yoshi | So you really think that God would plant a bunch of bones in the earth to test your faith? Either you're in denial or God has some serious self-esteem issues. |
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| Benjamin Franklin | The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason |
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| Gustaf Lindborg | The sailor does not pray for wind, he learns to sail |
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| Justin Brown | An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist believes that deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanishe |
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| Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, 1988 | We must conduct research and then accept the results. If they don't stand up to experimentation, Buddha's own words must be rejected. |
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| Justin Brown | If the Bible is mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust it to tell us where we're going? |
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| Russian Proverb | Pray to God, fine; but keep rowing to shore. |
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| Arthur C. Clarke | I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent. |
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| Mark Twain | The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also |
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| Terry Pratchett | The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it. |
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recently added quotes
| author | quote | quality? |
|---|---|---|
| Anthony W. Allsop (Genesis) | Some theist's predict that society would break down completely without faith in God, but they would say that, wouldn't they? |
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| Stephen Fry (The Blasphemy Debate) | You know, God once had Bach and Michelangelo on his side, he had Mozart, and now who does he have? People with ginger whiskers and tinted spectacles who reduce the glories of theology to a kind of sharing. That's what religion has become, a feeble and ... [more] |
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| Colin Bridge |
If I were to learn that God is real I would make a deal with him. I would ask him to understand and forgive me for not believing and, in turn, would forgive him for giving us Adolph Hitler, Saddam Hussein, the 9/11 terrorists et al. Colin Bridge  |
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| Unknown |
Always ask a dedicated Christian this hypothetical question, "If you were raised in the Middle East by a bunch of strict Muslims, would you still believe that Jesus is the one true Lord and Savior, and those who don't follow him will go to Hell?" You w... [more] |
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| CodeX - iFortner |
I'll tell you who the real demon in this world is... human ignorance |
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| Michael Talbot |
Bible (noun) - a collection of myths wrapped in a coccoon of fairy tales |
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| Neil D. Tyson |
The more I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there's any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all. |
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| Phiwe Nkonki |
Relgion requires no skill what so ever; just credulity, a soft head and the unconcious yearn to know absolutely nothing. |
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| Jon A |
When the white settlers came to South Africa we had the land and they had the Bible. And the white man said "let us pray" and so we closed our eyes, and when we opened them agian they had the land and we had the Bible. - Archbishop Desmond Tutu |
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| Jon A |
Isn't a day defined by the rotation of the Earth? To say that God created the Earth in seven days is like saying he created water whilst in taking a shower |
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