Philosophy Of Religion Quotes

• Believe nothing,
  No matter where you read it,
  Or who has said it,
  Not even if I have said it,
  Unless it agrees with your own reason
  And your own common sense.

  Gautama Buddha

  Inspirational, Success, Atheist

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• Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.

  James Madison

  Religious, Atheist, Ignorance

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• I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Philosophy, Party, Men

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.410, Cambridge University Press

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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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• The Bible is not my book and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Bible, Christian, Book

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• The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  Richard Dawkins

  Funny, Sarcastic, Atheist

  River Out of Eden ch. 4 (1995)

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• Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion--several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven....The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste.

  Mark Twain

  Religious, Brother, Cutting

  "Man's Place in the Animal World" (ca. 1896)

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• No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: he is always convinced that it says what he means.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  "Our Theatres In The Nineties". Book by George Bernard Shaw, 1932.

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• Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.

  Madalyn Murray O'Hair

  Atheist, Prayer, Hands

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• Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Secular Society

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• The hands that help are better far than lips that pray.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Atheist, Hands, Religion

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.886, Library of Alexandria

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• Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Faith, Religious, Atheist

  Friedrich Nietzsche (1977). “The Portable Nietzsche”, p.383, Penguin

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• A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Funny, Faith, Witty

  "The Antichrist". Book by Friedrich Nietzsche, 1888.

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• 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.

  H. L. Mencken

  Beautiful, Respect, Religious

  Minority Report: H. L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)

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• Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

  James Madison

  Religious, Atheist, Secular Society

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Badass, Philosophy

  Bertrand Russell (1995). “My Philosophical Development”, p.204, Psychology Press

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• There seems to be a terrible misunderstanding on the part of a great many people to the effect that when you cease to believe you may cease to behave.

  Louis Kronenberger

  Faith, Believe, People

  "Company Manners: A Cultural Inquiry into American Life". Book by Louis Kronenberger. Chapter: "The Spirit of the Age", p. 14, 1954.

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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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• If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Bible, Atheist, Teaching

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1279, Library of Alexandria

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• No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.

  David Hume

  Religious, Reality, Miracle

  An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding "Of Miracles" (1748)

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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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• Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

  Denis Diderot

  Atheist, Kings, Men

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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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• Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.

  Lenny Bruce

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  The Essential Lenny Bruce, ed. John Cohen (1967)

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• 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.

  Gene Roddenberry

  Motivational, Death, Spiritual

  "Can A Smart Person Believe in God?". Book by Michael Guillen, Chapter 7: "Hope Springs Eternal," p. 90, 2004.

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