Religion Quotes - Page 37

• If there is no God, who pops up the next Kleenex?

  Art Hoppe

  God, Humorous, Profound

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• Ah, reader, put thy trust in thy creator, and thou wilt be safe; but if thou trustest to the book called the scriptures thou trustest to the rotten staff of fable and falsehood.

  Thomas Paine

  Book, Rotten, Fables

  "The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies".

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• The God of the Bible is a moral monstrosity.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Bible, Religious, Moral

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• The endeavor to change universal power by selfish supplication I do not believe in.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Selfish, Believe, Endeavor

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• Because religious training means credulity training, churches should not be surprised to find that so many of their congregations accept astrology as readily as theology, or a channeled Atlantean priest as readily as a biblical prophet.

  Barbara G. Walker

  Religious, Mean, Biblical

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• The most pernicious of absurdities is that weak, blind, stupid faith is better than the constant practice of every human virtue.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Stupid, Practice, Atheism

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• It forms a strong presumption against all supernatural and miraculous relations, that they are observed chiefly to abound among ignorant and barbarous nations; or if a civilized people has ever given admission to any of them, that people will be found to have received them from ignorant and barbarous ancestors.

  David Hume

  Strong, People, Ignorant

  David Hume (1793). “Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects”, p.130

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• Every event, or appearance, or accident, which seems to deviate from the ordinary course of nature has been rashly ascribed to the immediate action of the Deity.

  Edward Gibbon

  Events, Ordinary, Deities

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, M. Guizot (François), Sir William Smith (1862). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.15

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• Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood.

  George Santayana

  Miracle, Causes, Complicated

  The Ethics of Spinoza introduction (1910)

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• The false notion of miracles comes of our vanity, which makes us believe we are important enough for the Supreme Being to upset nature on our behalf.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Believe, Vanity, Miracle

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• The old doctrine that God wanted man to do something for him, and that he kept a watchful eye upon all the children of men; that he rewarded the virtuous and punished the wicked, is gradually fading from the mind. We know that some of the worst men have what the world calls success. We know that some of the best men lie upon the straw of failure. We know that honesty goes hungry, while larceny sits at the banquet. We know that the vicious have every physical comfort, while the virtuous are often clad in rags.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Children, Honesty, Lying

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The Works of Robert G.Ingersoll. [Dresden Ed.]”

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• According to the celestial multiplication table, once one is three, and three times one is one, and according to heavenly subtraction if we take two from three, three are left. The addition is equally peculiar, if we add two to one we have but one. Each one is equal to himself and the other two.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Two, Peculiar, Add

  "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll: Lectures".

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• The contraction of theological influence has been at once the best measure, and the essential condition of intellectual advance.

  William Edward Hartpole Lecky

  Intellectual, Essentials, Influence

  "History of European morals from Augustus to Charlemagne".

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• Just to the extent that the Bible was appealed to in matters of science, science was retarded; and just to the extent that science has been appealed to in matters of religion, religion has advanced - so that now the object of intelligent religionists is to adopt a creed that will bear the test and criticism of science.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Intelligent, Criticism, Tests

  Robert Green Ingersoll (2004). “Superstition and Other Essays”

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• My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilisation. It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others.

  Bertrand Russell

  Race, Views, Two

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.214, Psychology Press

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• The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Pain, History, Atheism

  "History of England". Volume I, Chapter II, 1849-1861.

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• The impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for 
the existence of God.

  Charles Darwin

  Self, Atheism, Chance

  Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin (1958). “Autobiography and Selected Letters”, p.61, Courier Corporation

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• I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.

  Wernher von Braun

  Science, Origin Of Life, Design

  Wernher Von Braun (2007). “The Voice of Dr. Wernher Von Braun: An Anthology”, Collectors Guide Pub

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• Men have never fully used [their] powers to advance the good in life, because they have waited upon some power external to themselves and to nature to do the work they are responsible for doing.

  John Dewey

  Atheist, Men, Thinking

  William James, John Dewey, John M. Capps, Donald Capps (2005). “James and Dewey on Belief and Experience”, p.242, University of Illinois Press

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• Of all the tyrannies that effect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst; every other species of tyranny is limited to the world we live in; but this attempts to stride beyond the grave, and seeks to pursue us into eternity.

  Thomas Paine

  World, Christianity, Eternity

  Thomas Paine, Philip Sheldon Foner (1993). “The life and major writings of Thomas Paine”, Citadel Pr

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• From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.

  Albert Einstein

  Atheist, If There Is A God, Atheism

  Letter to Guy H. Raner Jr. (28 September 1949), from article by Michael R. Gilmore in Skeptic magazine, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1997.

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• Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Atheism, Christianity, Morris

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• Revealed religion has no weight with me.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Atheism, Weight

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• The things of this world take up too much of my time, of which indeed I have too little left, to undertake anything like a reformation in religion.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Atheism, World, Littles

  Benjamin Franklin, John Bigelow (2011). “The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Written by Himself”, p.398, Cambridge University Press

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• Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.

  Abraham Lincoln

  God, Men, Differences

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln(1832-1865) (EasyRead Super Large 20pt Edition)”, p.477, ReadHowYouWant.com

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