Quotessence
Home / Topics / Atheism Quotes

Atheism Quotes

Browse 5132 quotes about Atheism.

Related topics

Positive AtheismReligionMenIfsBelievePeopleReligiousFearWorldThinkingRageBeliefHumansKnowsReasonChristianChurchMindShouldHas BeensMayDoeAgnosticFactsWayStatesMadeIdeasChristianityNeedsUniverseWantDoubtExistenceFirstsLawSeemsAgnosticismWould BeAtheisticGivingMeanEvidenceLittlesThere Is No GodGodPersonsTryingMatterChildrenGovernmentKindWellsHeavenLongYearsMoralPoliticalEvolutionChristOpinionSoulLyingViewsScienceFormHeartPrayerTwoArgumentEarthI BelieveDiesLibertyMankindOrderSaidEvilInspirationalPhilosophyLiteratureNaturalSuperstitionsForceIgnoranceJesusRealSelfWholeWishCountryPurposeAgeBookCertainHandsUseCausesDivineLastsmore

Atheism Quotes

“It has long been observed, that an atheist has no just reason for endeavouring conversions; and yet none harass those minds which they can influence, with more importunity of solicitation to adopt their opinions. In proportion as they doubt the truth of their own doctrines, they are desirous to gain the attestation of another understanding: and industriously labour to win a proselyte, and eagerly catch at the slightest pretense to dignify their sect with a distinguished name.”

MindLongReasonWinningNamesUnderstandingOpinionDoubtAtheismInfluenceGainsAtheistConversionDoctrineProportionLabourDistinguishedPretenseSectsSolicitation
Book:The Beauties of Samuel Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous
Create image

“If you suspect that my interest in the Bible is going to inspire me with sudden enthusiasm for Judaism and make me a convert of mountain-moving fervor and that I shall suddenly grow long earlocks and learn Hebrew and go about denouncing the heathen - you little know the effect of the Bible on me. Properly read, it is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.”

IfsKnowsLittlesLongMovingForceGrowsInterestAtheismEffectsInspireMountainEnthusiasmSuspectsJudaismHebrewHeathenFervor
Author:Isaac Asimov
Create image

“So my life and the life of my family has been completely disrupted in absolutely every way. But it's been worth it. It's uncovered a vast cesspool of illegitimate economic and political power in which the Church is immersed right up to its ears, and I intend to dive in headfirst and pull it out of there dripping wet for all the world to see -- no matter how long it takes, no matter whose feet get stepped on in the process, no matter how much it costs, no matter how great the personal sacrifice.”

WorldWayLongHas BeensMatterPoliticalProcessChurchSacrificeFeetAtheismEconomicCostMy FamilyEarsPositive AtheismWetWorth ItPolitical PowerDrippingPersonal Sacrifice
Author:Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Create image

“Darwin seems to lose out with the public primarily when his supporters force him into a mano-a-mano Thunderdome death match against the Almighty. Most people seem willing to accept Darwinism as long as they don't have to believe in nothing but Darwinism. Thus, the strident tub-thumping for absolute atheism by evolutionary biologists like Richard Dawkins, whom the new issue of Discover Magazine rightly criticizes as "Darwin's Rottweiler," is self-defeating.”

PeopleBelieveLongSelfSeemsForceLosesAcceptingIssuesAtheismWillingAbsolutesMagazinesCriticizeAlmightySupporterDarwinismBiologistTubsRottweilers
Author:Steve Sailer
Create image

“All things considered, I can see no reason to adopt the afterlife hypothesis. I am sure I shall remain in a minority for a long time to come, especially among experiencers, but for me the evidence and the arguments are overwhelming ... We are biological organisms, evolved in fascinating ways for no purpose at all and with no end in mind. We are simply here and this is how it is. I have no self and "I" own nothing. There is no one to die. There is just this moment, and now this, and now this.”

WayMindLongI CanEndsSelfReasonMomentsPurposeDiesAtheismLong TimeEvidenceArgumentAll ThingsPositive AtheismMinoritiesFascinatingNo ReasonOverwhelmingAfterlifeOrganismsHypothesis
Author:Susan Blackmore
Create image

“No religion is suddenly rejected by any people; it is rather gradually outgrown. None sees a religion die; dead religions are like dead languages and obsolete customs: the decay is long and - like the glacier march - is perceptible only to the careful watcher by comparisons extending over long periods.”

PeopleLongDiesLanguageAtheismPeriodsCarefulPositive AtheismComparisonMarchCustomsDecayRejectedObsoleteExtendingWatchersGlaciers
Book:Has Humanity Gained from Unbelief?: Two Nights Debate Between Marsden Gibson and Charles Bradlaugh at Newcastle-on-Tyne
Create image

“The plain message conveyed by the new administration is that George W Bush's America is a Christian nation, and that non-Christians are welcome into the tent so long as they agree to accept their status as a tolerated minority rather than as fully equal citizens. In effect, Bush is saying: "This is our home, and in our home we pray to Jesus as our savior. If you want to be a guest in our home, you must accept the way we pray."”

IfsWayWantLongHomeChristianAmericaJesusNationsAcceptingAtheismEffectsPrayingCitizensEqualMessagesAgreePositive AtheismWelcomeAdministrationMinoritiesSaviorGuestsTentsChristian Nation
Author:Alan Dershowitz
Create image

“Science may have come a long way, but as far as religion is concerned, we are first cousins to the !Kung tribesmen of the Kalahari Desert. Except for the garments, their deep religious trances might just as well be happening at a revival meeting or in the congregation of a fundamentalist TV preacher.... As we move further from the life of ignorance and superstition in which religion has its roots, we seem to need it more and more.... Why has religion become a force just when we'd have thought it would be losing ground to secularism?”

WayNeedsFirstsWellsMayLongSeemsMightWould BeMovingForceReligiousAtheismIgnoranceTvsLosingHappeningsConcernedRootsMeetingsPositive AtheismDesertSuperstitionsPreacherCousinLong WayRevivalSecularismGarmentsFundamentalistCongregationTrance
Author:Phil Donahue
Create image

“Christians would show sense if they dispatched these argumentative Scotists and pigheaded Ockhamists and undefeated Albertists along with the whole regiment of Sophists to fight the Turks and Saracens instead of sending those armies of dull-witted soldiers with whom they've long been carrying on war with no result.”

IfsLongWarWholeShowsChristianFightingResultsAtheismArmySoldierPositive AtheismDullCarrying OnUndefeated
Book:The Erasmus Reader
Create image

“Why get excited over this latest episode in the long, sad history of American anti-intellectualism? Let me suggest that, as patriotic Americans, we should cringe in embarrassment that, at the dawn of a new, technological millennium, a jurisdiction in our heartland has opted to suppress one of the greatest triumphs of human discovery.”

ShouldHumansLongAtheismDiscoveryLet MeExcitedPositive AtheismTriumphDawnPatrioticEpisodesTechnologicalEmbarrassmentMillenniumIntellectualismCringeAmerican PatrioticJurisdictionLong Sad
Book:I Have Landed
Create image

“The plan was for Jesus to come to Earth two thousand years ago with a pocketful of miracles and souls for the people who were then alive. After his return to heaven from Earth he is going to build those mansions, come back before his generation dies out, finally put an end to the world which has been such a rotten disappointment, and deposit most of these souls in hell. No wonder heaven is only 12,000 furlongs wide, long, and high.”

PeopleWorldYearsLongHas BeensTwoSoulEndsEarthDiesJesusHeavenWonderHellAlivePlansGenerationsAtheismReturnThousandYears AgoMiracleDisappointmentWideThousand YearsRottenMansionsDeposits
Author:Ruth Hurmence Green
Create image

“The church has contributed nothing to civilization. It has progressed somewhat, and it has become a little more decent, in reflection of the movements of civilization that have taken place outside of the church and usually in the face of the strong opposition of the church. But the church has always resisted the process of civilization. It has struggled to the last ditch, by fair means and foul, to preserve as long as it could the vestiges of ancient and medieval theology, with all the puerile moralities and harsh customs and medieval styles of belief.”

MeanLittlesLongLastsFacesBeliefStrongProcessChurchTakenAtheismStyleMovementMoralityCivilizationReflectionFairsAncientTheologyPreservesDecentOppositionCustomsHarshMedievalFoul
Author:E. Haldeman-Julius
Create image

“Nothing is so convenient as a decisive argument ... which must at least silence the most arrogant bigotry and superstition, and free us from their impertinent solicitations. I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument ... which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures. For so long, I presume, will the accounts of miracles and prodigies be found in all history, sacred and profane.”

IfsWorldKindLongFoundSilenceWiseAtheismArgumentAccountsMiracleSacredEndurePositive AtheismChecksAll KindsDelusionBigotryArrogantSuperstitionsEverlastingConvenientSuperstitiousProfaneProdigiesMost ArrogantSolicitation
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature
Create image

“I believe strongly in the Constitutional principle of separating church and state. Our founders were right in fearing that religious freedom would be threatened in the long run by a departure from governmental neutrality in spiritual matters.”

BelieveLongMatterStatesWould BeRunningSpiritualI BelieveChurchReligiousPrinciplesAtheismPositive AtheismLong RunsFoundersThreatenedChurch And StateDepartureReligious FreedomNeutralitySeparating
Author:Sargent Shriver
Create image

“Man stands alone in the universe, a unique product of a long, unconscious, impersonal, material process with unique understanding and potentialities. These he owes to no one but himself, and it is to himself that he is responsible. He is not the creature of uncontrollable and undeterminable forces, but is his own master. He can and must decide and manage his own destiny.”

MenLongUniverseForceProcessUnderstandingDestinyAtheismMaterialsMastersProductsCreaturesUniqueResponsiblePositive AtheismManageUnconsciousStand AloneUncontrollable
Book:Life of the past: an introduction to paleontology
Create image

“The leap of faith is a strategic impasse that confronts every Christian in search of converts; and, as he sees the matter, there is no wrong way to become a Christian. It is the end that is importnat, not the means; it does not matter why you believe, so long as you believe. For the philosopher, in contrast, the paramount issue is the justification of belief, not the fact of belief itself.”

WayBelieveMeanLongDoeEndsMatterFactsChristianBeliefIssuesAtheismPhilosopherPositive AtheismLeapContrastJustificationStrategicWrong WayParamountLeap Of FaithImpasse
Author:George H. Smith
Create image

“What chiefly concerns and alarms many of us are the problems arising from religious fanaticism. As long as large numbers of militant enthusiasts are persuaded that they alone have access to the truth, and that the rest of us are infidels, we remain under threat. Lord Acton's famous phrase about power can be used of another danger. Dogma tends to corrupt, and absolute dogma corrupts absolutely.”

LongProblemUsedReligiousNumbersLordAtheismDangerConcernAbsolutesThreatPositive AtheismAccessPhrasesDogmaFanaticismAlarmsLarge NumbersMilitantInfidel
Author:Anthony Storr
Create image

“Man preys on man; and you mourn for the idle tapestry that decorated a gothic pillar, and the dronish bell that summoned the fat priest to prayer. You mourn for the empty pageant of a name, when slavery flaps her wing, ... Why is our fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the grave? - Hell stalks abroad; - the lash resounds on the slave's naked sides; and the sick wretch, who can no longer earn the sour bread of unremitting labour, steals to a ditch to bid the world a long good night.”

MenWorldLongNightNamesSidesPrayerHellAtheismPerspectiveEmptySickSlaveryWingsSlavePositive AtheismGravesStealingBreadNakedFatsFancyLabourPriestsBellsIdlePreyTerrificGothicMournPillarsStalkingSourGood NightLashesTapestryPageant
Author:Mary Wollstonecraft
Create image

“Incrementalism: In the first generation, the goal of the movement was wholesale social and cultural transformation. Small, incremental victories were too little given the magnitude of America's moral decay. Since 1988, the new leaders have recognized that incrementalism is the surest path to success in political competition. The current movement is committed to securing small victories now, postponing for the long-term more fundamental changes in society and politics.”

FirstsLittlesLongAmericaPoliticalGivenSocialGoalTermLeaderMoralPathGenerationsAtheismMovementVictoryTransformationFundamentalsCompetitionCurrentsCommittedPositive AtheismLong TermDecayMagnitudeWholesalePostponingPath To SuccessSmall VictoriesChanges In SocietyMoral DecayIncrementalism
Author:Kenneth D. Wald
Create image

“[If] the nature of ... government [were] a subordination of the civil to the ecclesiastical power, I [would] consider it as desperate for long years to come. Their steady habits [will] exclude the advances of information, and they [will] seem exactly where they [have always been]. And there [the] clergy will always keep them if they can. [They] will follow the bark of liberty only by the help of a tow-rope.”

IfsYearsLongHelpingSeemsGovernmentLibertyAtheismInformationHabitPositive AtheismDesperateSteadyRopeBarkClergySubordinationTow
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“Civilization is perhaps approaching one of those long winters that overtake it from time to time. Romantic Christendom - picturesque, passionate, unhappy episode - may be coming to an end. Such a catastrophe would be no reason for despair.”

MayLongEndsReasonWould BeAtheismCivilizationDespairWinterPassionatePositive AtheismUnhappyNo ReasonEpisodesCatastropheChristendomPicturesqueComing To An End
Book:The Works of George Santayana: Character and opinion in the United States. The genteel tradition at bay. Dewey's naturalistic metaphysics. Philosophical heresy
Create image

“That there is a continuous link from humans to gorillas, with the intermediate species merely long dead, is beyond the understanding of speciesists. Tie the label Homo sapiens even to a tiny piece of insensible embryonic tissue, and its life suddenly leaps to infinite, incomputable value.... Self-styled pro-lifers, and others that indulge in footling debates about exactly when in its development a foetus becomes human, exhibit the same discontinuous mentality. Human, to the discontinuous mind, is an absolutist concept. There can be no half measures. And from this flows much evil.”

MindHumansLongSelfValuesEvilUnderstandingHalfPiecesAtheismDevelopmentConceptsFlowInfiniteSpeciesPositive AtheismTinyDebateLabelsTiesLeapLinksMentalityIndulgeExhibitsHomo SapiensTissuesIndulge InGorillasInsensibleHalf Measures
Author:Richard Dawkins
Create image

“The two big mistakes were the belief in a sky god - that there's a man in the sky with 10 things he doesn't want you to do and you'll burn for a long time if you do them - and private property, which I think is at the core of our failure as a species. That's the source of my indignations, my dissatisfactions, however it comes out on the stage. I feel betrayed by the people I'm part of, these creatures, these magnificent creatures.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMenWantFeelsLongTwoBigsBeliefMistakeSkyAtheismStageSourceCreaturesLong TimePropertySpeciesPositive AtheismCoreMagnificentBetrayedDissatisfactionPrivate PropertyIndignationBig Mistake
Author:George Carlin
Create image

“If we pursue this way, if we are decent, industrious, and honest, if we so loyally and truly fulfill our duty, then it is my conviction that in the future as in the past the Lord God will always help us. In the long run He never leaves decent folk in the lurch. Often He may test them, He may send trials upon them, but in the long run He always lets His sun shine upon them once more and at the end He gives them His blessing.”

IfsWayGivingMayLongEndsHelpingRunningPastLordSunAtheismHonestDutyBlessingTestsShiningFolksConvictionTrialsGods WillPursueDecentLong RunsIndustriousSun ShinesLord God
Book:The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939: An English Translation of Representative Passages Arranged Under Subjects and Edited by Norman H. Baynes
Create image

“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.”

PeopleMenLongCarePoliticsNamesWishFearReligiousSleepNumbersAtheismExerciseEmpathyActiveLibertarianRageTyrannyTyrantsApathyLimited GovernmentArdentShacklesLibertarian PartyDemocracy Freedom
Author:Voltaire
Create image

“Indeed, Mr. Jefferson, what could be invented to debase the ancient Christianism, which Greeks, Romans, Hebrews and Christian factions, above all the Catholics, have not fraudulently imposed upon the public? Miracles after miracles have rolled down in torrents, wave succeeding wave in the Catholic church, from the Council of Nicea, and long before, to this day.”

LongChristianReligionChurchAtheismSucceedMiracleCatholicAncientWaveGreekThis DayCouncilCatholic ChurchHebrewAtheisticFactions
Book:Ye Will Say I Am No Christian
Create image

“I believe in a wall between church and state so high that no one can climb over it. When religion controls government, political liberty dies; and when government controls religion, religious liberty perishes. Every American has the constitutional right not to be taxed or have his tax money expended for the establishment of religion. For too long the issue of government aid to church related organizations has been a divisive force in our society and in the Congress. It has erected communication barriers among our religions and fostered intolerance.”

BelieveLongHas BeensStatesGovernmentPoliticalDiesForceI BelieveChurchReligiousLibertyIssuesAtheismCommunicationWallTaxesOrganizationCongressI Believe InAidsRelatedClimbsOur SocietyBarriersOver ItEstablishmentIntoleranceChurch And StateReligious LibertyGovernment Aid
Author:Sam Ervin
Create image