Religion In Society Quotes

• We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

  Jonathan Swift

  Love, Religious, Hate

  'Thoughts on Various Subjects' (1706)

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• With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

  Steven Weinberg

  God, Religious, Atheist

  "Behaving Badly? Stop Using Religion as an Excuse!" by Roy Speckhardt, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 2, 2014.

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• Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Religious, Atheist, People

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• Religion is the opium of the masses.

  Karl Marx

  Weed, Atheist, Fear

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• I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.

  Susan B. Anthony

  Inspirational, God, Death

  Lynn Sherr, Susan B. Anthony (1995). “Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words”, Crown

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• I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.

  Galileo Galilei

  Spiritual, Atheist, Believe

  "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina". Essay by Galileo Galilei, 1615.

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• As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, - as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, - and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

  John Adams

  Christian, Religious, Atheist

  "Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Signed at Tripoli". The Barbary Treaties 1786-1816, avalon.law.yale.edu. November 04, 1796.

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• The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Life, Religious, Atheist

  George Bernard Shaw (1993). “The Complete Prefaces: 1914-1929”, Viking Adult

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• Prayer is of no avail. The lightning falls on the just and the unjust in accordance with natural laws.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Prayer, Fall, Law

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• Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Spiritual, Religious, Atheist

  James C. Humes, Benjamin Franklin (1995). “The wit and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin: a treasury of more than 900 quotations and anecdotes”, Harpercollins

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• But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?

  John Adams

  Christian, Religious, Faith Religion

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.235

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• To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.

  Isaac Asimov

  Religious, Atheist, Ignorance

  "The 'Threat' of Creationism". www.nytimes.com. June 14, 1981.

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• Men rarely if ever dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Dream, Atheist, Children

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.227, Penguin

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• I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.

  Douglas Adams

  Inspirational, Life, Atheist

  Douglas Adams, Stephen Fry (2012). “The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time”, p.87, Pan Macmillan

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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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• Gods are fragile things, they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.

  Chapman Cohen

  Spiritual, Religious, Atheist

  "An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism" by Gordon Stein, Prometheus Books, (p. 258), 1980.

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• Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Christian, Wisdom, Religious

  "Points of friction". Book by Agnes Repplier, "Consolations of the Conservative", 1920.

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• There is in every village a torch - the teacher; and an extinguisher - the priest.

  Victor Hugo

  Teacher, Atheist, Religion

  "The History of a Crime". Book by Victor Hugo, 1877.

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• A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.

  James Kern Feibleman

  Atheist, Believe, Cynical

  Understanding Philosophy ch. 3 (1973)

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• I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.

  Richard Dawkins

  Death, Atheist, Learning

  "The Two Types of Faith" by Greg Cootsona, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 17, 2016.

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• Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.

  Sigmund Freud

  Strength, Death, Spiritual

  Sigmund Freud (1952). “Major Works”

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• Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?

  Douglas Adams

  Beauty, Beautiful, Religious

  Douglas Adams (2009). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”, p.79, Pan Macmillan

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• It was the schoolboy who said, ""Faith is believing what you know ain't so.""

  Mark Twain

  Faith, Atheist, Believe

  Following the Equator ch. 12, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897)

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• Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

  Seneca the Younger

  Wise, Religious, Atheist

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• For good people to do evil things, it takes religion.

  Steven Weinberg

  Religious, Atheist, If There Is A God

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