Agnosticism Quotes

• To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Faith, Powerful, Thoughtful

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• An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice. In that case, he is not far removed from atheism.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Atheist, Practice

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.557, Routledge

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• I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Inspirational, Life, Time

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

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• Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.

  H. L. Mencken

  Faith, Freedom, Believe

  Prejudices, Third Series ch. 14 (1922)

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• The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window.

  Stephen King

  Religious, Atheist, Religion

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• Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith. Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Religious, Philosophical, Hands

  Sydney J. Harris (1985). “Pieces of Eight Pa”, Mariner Books

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• I don't know whether God exists or not. ... Some forms of atheism are arrogant and ignorant and should be rejected, but agnosticism—to admit that we don't know and to search—is all right. ... When I look at what I call the gift of life, I feel a gratitude which is in tune with some religious ideas of God. However, the moment I even speak of it, I am embarrassed that I may do something wrong to God in talking about God.

  Karl Popper

  Gratitude, Religious, Talking

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• My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.

  George Santayana

  Atheist, Men, Insightful

  Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies "On My Friendly Critics" (1922)

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• Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.

  Isaac Asimov

  Atheist, Science, Religion

  Free Inquiry Journal, Spring 1982.

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• I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it.

  Isaac Asimov

  Atheist, Long, Atheism

  Free Inquiry Journal, Spring 1982.

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• Question with boldness even the existence of a god.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Faith Religion

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

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• Mario, what do you get when you cross an insomniac, an unwilling agnostic and a dyslexic?

  David Foster Wallace

  Pain, Agnostic, Infinite Jest

  David Foster Wallace (2011). “Infinite Jest”, p.39, Hachette UK

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• But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created that a cat should play with mice.

  Charles Darwin

  Cat, Play, Design

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.28, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-continued culture.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Ideas, Long

  Charles Darwin (1871). “The Descent of Man: And Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.395

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• I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, Believe, Religion

  "What I Believe" in The Forum 84 (p. 139), September 1930.

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• The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Death, Religious, Atheist

  "The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night". Book by John Payne, Terminal Essay: Social Conditions, fn. 13., 1885.

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• 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?

  Epicurus

  God, Spiritual, Religious

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• No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism.

  Annie Besant

  Religious, Atheist, Philosophy

  "Why God". Book by William J. Pardue, May 10, 2012.

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• I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, God, Spiritual

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.330, Princeton University Press

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• The Bible has noble poetry in it... and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Life, Atheist

  "Letters from the Earth" (1940)

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• Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.

  Oscar Wilde

  Records, Science And Religion, Being True

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.108, Courier Corporation

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• I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Atheist, Ignorance, Humility

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

  Epicurus

  Atheist, Omnipotence, If There Is A God

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• Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

  Epicurus

  Atheist, Faith Religion, Omnipotence

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• I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.

  Isaac

  Atheist, Atheism, Want

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