Atheism Quotes - Page 36

• The so-called religious organizations which now lead the war against the teaching of evolution are nothing more, at bottom, than conspiracies of the inferior man against his betters.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, War, Teaching

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• When I was quite a boy I had a spasm of religion which lasted six weeks... But I never since have swallowed the Christian fable.

  George Meredith

  Christian, Boys, Fables

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• The man who has no mind of his own lends it to the priests.

  George Meredith

  Men, Mind, He Man

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• In my own experience, I have been amazed to see how unrealistic are the bases for political opinion in general. Only rarely have I found a person who has chosen any particular political party - democratic or totalitarian - through study and comparison of principles.

  Joost Meerloo

  Party, Political Opinions, Principles

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• The bulk of the totalitarian-minded in the democratic societies are men and women who are attracted to this destructive way of life for inner emotional reasons unknown to themselves.

  Joost Meerloo

  Men, Emotional, Way

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• The danger of education, I have found, is that it so easily confuses means with ends. Worse than that, it quite easily forgets both and devotes itself merely to the mass production of uneducated gradtuates - people literaly unfit for anything except to take part in an elaborate and completely artificial charade which they and their contemporaries have conspired to call "life".

  Thomas Merton

  Mean, People, Forget

  Thomas Merton (1979). “Love and Living”, p.14, Macmillan

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• ... inventions and purely human institutions.

  Jean Meslier

  Invention, Institutions, Humans

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• To discover the true principles of morality, men have no need of theology, of revelation, or of gods. They need but common sense. They have only to look within themselves, to reflect upon their own nature, to consult their obvious interests, to consider the object of society and of each of the members who compose it, and they will easily understand that virtue is an advantage, and that vice is an injury to beings of the species.

  Jean Meslier

  Men, Common Sense, Vices

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• The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain like a watch. (You perceive I employ a capital initial in the pronoun referring to the Deity; don't you think there is a slight dash of flunkeyism in that usage?).

  Herman Melville

  Heart, Men, Thinking

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.4894, Delphi Classics

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• I kept careful record of the impact of religion on the election in my county. The religious issue permeated every meeting I conducted. It influenced Republicans and Democrats alike. Ministers preached politics publicly and churches distributed the most vicious electioneering materials. Practically no one I met escaped the pressure of this overriding problem and both parties were ultimately forced to make their major calculations with the religious question a foremost consideration.

  James A. Michener

  Religious, Party, Impact

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• Religious hatreds ought not to be propagated at all, but certainly not on a tax-exempt basis.

  James A. Michener

  Religious, Hatred, Taxes

  James A. Michener (2014). “Report of the County Chairman”, p.64, Dial Press Trade Paperback

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• Every established fact which is too bad to admit of any other defence is always presented to us as an injunction of religion.

  John Stuart Mill

  Religion, Facts, Defence

  John Stuart Mill (2015). “On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays”, p.452, OUP Oxford

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• It is conceivable that religion may be morally useful without being intellectually sustainable.

  John Stuart Mill

  May, Positive Atheism

  John Stuart Mill (1874). “Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism”, p.73

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• Jerusalem is ... the fabled city which for the Western mind is as much dream as stone ... a compressed symbol of our most sublime aspirations along with our most disgusting, hatefully brainless excursions into religious bigotry and fratricide.

  Arthur Miller

  Dream, Religious, Cities

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• The liberty of conscience, which above all other things ought to be to all men dearest and most precious.

  John Milton

  Men, Liberty, Ought

  John Milton (2012). “John Milton Prose: Major Writings on Liberty, Politics, Religion, and Education”, p.680, John Wiley & Sons

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• Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.

  John Milton

  Men, Good Man, Opinion

  'Areopagitica' (1644) p. 31

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• It is criminal negligence to leave suckers lying around to tempt honest men.

  Wilson Mizner

  Lying, Men, Criminals

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• Today, the religion clauses of the First Amendment do not need to be fixed; they need to be followed.

  Walter F. Mondale

  Today, Firsts, Needs

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• Men of simple understanding, little inquisitive and little instructed, make good Christians.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Christian, Simple, Men

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• It is far more probable that our senses should deceive us, than that an old woman should be carried up a chimney on a broom stick; and that it is far less astonishing that witnesses should lie, than that witches should perform the acts that were alleged.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Lying, Sticks, Witch

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• Religion is the venereal disease of mankind.

  Henry de Montherlant

  Disease, Mankind, Positive Atheism

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• Science remains the author of our major problem, in its gift of tremendous power that has been terribly abused; but for the wise use of this power we need more, not less, of the objective dispassionate scientific spirit. For our philosophical purposes we need more of its integrity and its basic humility, its respect at once for the fact and the mystery.

  Herbert J. Muller

  Wise, Integrity, Philosophical

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• We wish our Christian brothers would be honest and permit us our heroes. We do not deny them theirs.

  Madalyn Murray O'Hair

  Christian, Brother, Hero

  Madalyn Murray O'Hair (1972). “What on Earth Is an Atheist!”, Arno Press

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• Actually, I don't like Atheists very much - at least most of them ~ because they are not motivated to move into the community and attempt to correct the injustices which are everywhere apparent against them.

  Madalyn Murray O'Hair

  Atheist, Moving, Community

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• Religion, society and state - from none of these do women get their proper honor. It is religion, which has created an unparalleled disparity between men and women.

  Taslima Nasrin

  Men, Honor, Religion

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