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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• A heretic, my dear sir, is a fellow who disagrees with you regarding something neither of you knows anything about.

  William Cowper

  Atheism, Dear, Heretic

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• Wherever God erects a house of prayer
  the Devil always builds a chapel there;
  And 't will be found, upon examination,
  the latter has the largest congregation.

  Daniel Defoe

  Prayer, House, Atheism

  'The True-Born Englishman' (1701) pt. 1, l. 1.

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• The true ideal is not opposed to the real but lies in it; and blessed are the eyes that find it.

  James Russell Lowell

  Real, Lying, Blessed

  James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1199, Delphi Classics

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• You keep accusing me of blasphemy all of the time, but I cannot be convicted of a victimless crime.

  Dan Barker

  Accusing Me, Doubt, Atheism

  Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• All religions have based morality on obedience, that is to say, on voluntary slavery. That is why they have always been more pernicious than any political organization. For the latter makes use of violence, the former - of the corruption of the will.

  Alexander Herzen

  Organization, Political, Atheism

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• Will any one, save the most bigoted, contend, that it is not certain gain to humanity to spread unbelief in the terrible doctrine that eternal torment is the probable fate of the great majority of the human family?

  Charles Bradlaugh

  Fate, Humanity, Atheism

  Charles Bradlaugh (1889). “Theological Essays”, p.135, Library of Alexandria

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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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• The belief in supernatural forces remains to this day a yoke on the neck of humanity, but at least Thales made it possible, for those of us who wish it, to be free of that yoke.

  Victor J. Stenger

  Supernatural Forces, Humanity, Wish

  Victor J. Stenger (1990). “Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses”

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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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• Is it not gain to have diminished the faith that it was the duty of the wretched and the miserable to be content with the lot in life which providence had awarded them?

  Charles Bradlaugh

  Atheism, Gains, Miserable

  Charles Bradlaugh (1889). “Humanity's Gain from Unbelief”, p.15, Library of Alexandria

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