Positive Atheism Quotes - Page 3

• Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

  Albert Einstein

  God, Religious, Atheist

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.328, Princeton University Press

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• To die for an idea is to set a rather high price upon conjecture.

  Anatole France

  Funny, Ideas, Atheism

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

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• The preponderance of pain over pleasure is the cause of our fictitious morality and religion.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Pain, Cynical, Causes

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• Religion is probably, after sex, the second oldest resource which human beings have available to them for blowing their minds.

  Susan Sontag

  Sex, Mind, Atheism

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• We have fools in all sects, and impostors in most; why should I believe mysteries no one can understand, because written by men who chose to mistake madness for inspiration and style themselves Evangelicals?

  Lord Byron

  Mistake, Inspiration, Believe

  Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.2723, Delphi Classics

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• Marx was wrong. Religion is not the opiate of the people. Opium suggests something soporific, numbing, dulling. Too often religion has been an aphrodisiac for horror, a Benzedrine for bestiality. At its best it has lifted spirits and raised spires. At its worst it has turned entire civilizations into cemeteries.

  Phillip Adams

  Civilization, People, Atheism

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• Many argue that Christianity is "different" from other religions - that it is primarily about love of one's fellow man. The Crusades, The Inquisition, Calvin's Geneva all prove that this is not the case. These events were pre-eminently about obedience to authority.

  Andrew Bernstein

  Men, Atheism, Fellow Man

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• The basis of your religion is injustice. The Son of God the pure, the immaculate, the innocent, is sacrificed for the guilty. This proves his heroism, but no more does away with man's sin than a school boy's volunteering to be flogged for another would exculpate a dunce from negligence.

  Lord Byron

  School, Son, Boys

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• Is there an intelligent man or woman now in the world who believes in the Garden of Eden story? If you find any man who believes it, strike his forehead and you will hear an echo. Something is for rent.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Believe, Men, Garden

  Joseph Lewis, Robert Green Ingersoll (1957). “Ingersoll the Magnificent: To which Has Been Added a Special Arrangement of Some Gems from Ingersoll for Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage”

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• Mine was a trained Presbyterian conscience and knew but the one duty - to hunt and harry its slave upon all pretexts and on all occasions, particularly when there was no sense nor reason in it.

  Mark Twain

  Atheism, Slave, Reason

  Mark Twain (2010). “Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1: The Complete and Authoritative Edition”, p.158, Univ of California Press

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• Presbyterianism without infant damnation would be like the dog on the train that couldn't be identified because it had lost its tag.

  Mark Twain

  Dog, Atheism, Damnation

  Mark Twain, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger (2009). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.371, Courier Corporation

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• It is easy to see that the inventor of the heaven did not originate the idea, but copied it from the show-ceremonies of some sorry little sovereign State up in the back settlements of the Orient somewhere.

  Mark Twain

  Sorry, Ideas, Heaven

  Mark Twain, Howard G. Baetzhold, Joseph B. Mccullough (1996). “The Bible According to Mark Twain”, p.225, Simon and Schuster

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• I am not afraid of the priests. They have tried upon me all their various batteries, of pious whining, hypocritical canting, lying and slandering, without being able to give me one moment of pain.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Pain, Lying, Giving

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1808-1816”, p.507, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Terror is everywhere the beginning of religion.

  William Edward Hartpole Lecky

  Atheism, Terror

  William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1865). “History of the rise and influence of the spirit of rationalism in Europe”, p.444

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• God is a sound people make when they're too tired to think anymore.

  Edward Abbey

  Positive, Tired, Thinking

  "A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto): Notes from a Secret Journal". Book by Edward Abbey, 1989.

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• Like heterosexuality, faith in immaterial realities is popularly considered essential to individual morality.

  Wendy Kaminer

  Faith, Reality, Essentials

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• What God lacks is convictions- stability of character. He ought to be a Presbyterian or a Catholic or something- not try to be everything.

  Mark Twain

  God, Atheist, Character

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.69, Courier Corporation

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• God, so atrocious in the Old Testament, so attractive in the New--the Jekyl and Hyde of sacred romance.

  Mark Twain

  God, Romance, Sacred

  Mark Twain, Albert Bigelow Paine (1971). “Mark Twain's notebook”, Scholarly Pr

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• It may be that religion is dead, and if it is, we had better know it and set ourselves to try to discover other sources of moral strength before it is too late.

  Pearl S. Buck

  Discovery, Religion, Atheism

  "What America Means to Me". Book by Pearl S. Buck, 1943.

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• What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, I bet that my Redeemer liveth.

  Samuel Butler

  Atheism, Kind, Should

  Samuel Butler, Hans-Peter Breuer (1984). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: 1874-1883”, Univ Pr of Amer

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• God: a disease we imagine we are cured of because no one dies of it nowadays.

  Emile M. Cioran

  God, Atheism, Disease

  "The Trouble with Being Born". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1973.

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• The fanatic is incorruptible: if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Tyrants, Ideas, Atheism

  Emile M. Cioran (1975). “A short history of decay”, Viking Books

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• Those of us who were brought up as Christians and have lost our faith have retained the sense of sin without the saving belief in redemption. This poisons our thought and so paralyses us in action.

  Cyril Connolly

  Christian, Atheism, Poison

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• When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.

  Denis Diderot

  Birthday, Goodbye, Farewell

  Denis Diderot (1966). “Selected Writings”, New York : Macmillan

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• It is only the great men who are truly obscene. If they had not dared to be obscene, they could never have dared to be great.

  Havelock Ellis

  Men, Atheism, Dignity

  HAVELOCK ELLIS (1930). “IMPRESSIONS & COMMENTS”

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