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Irreligion Quotes

Browse 22 quotes about Irreligion.

Irreligion Quotes

“And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away all this artificial scaffolding... {Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823}”

ReasonFatherUnited StatesMythFreedom Of ThoughtJupiterSupreme BeingVirginFableVirgin BirthMinervaIrreligion
Book:Letters of Thomas Jefferson
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“The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world... Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.”

HappinessPhilosophicalMetaphorSighIllusionsIrreligionReligious Criticism
Book:Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
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“I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same fifty percent rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don't...Same as the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe...same as the voodoo lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat's testicles. It's all the same...so just pick your superstition, sit back, make a wish, and enjoy yourself...”

ReligionAtheismAtheistIrreligion
Author:George Carlin
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“Does religious conviction provide a powerful reason for killing? Undeniably it often does. It also often provides the sole compelling reason for refusing to kill, or for being merciful, or for seeking peace; only the profoundest ignorance of history could prevent one from recognizing this. For the truth is that religion and irreligion are cultural variables, but killing is a human constant.”

HumansDoeReasonReligiousPowerfulIgnoranceTruth IsConstantKillingSeekingConvictionSoleCompellingRecognizingMercifulBeing MeVariablesCompelling ReasonIrreligion
Author:David Bentley
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“the usual attitude of Christians towards Jews is - I hardly know whether to say more impious or more stupid, when viewed in the light of their professed principles. ... They hardly know Christ was a Jew. And I find men, educated, supposing that Christ spoke Greek. To my feeling, this deadness to the history which has prepared half our world for us, this inability to find interest in any form of life that is not clad in the same coat-tails and flounces as our own, lies very close to the worst kind of irreligion.”

KnowsMenWorldKindFeelingsLightChristianFormLyingInterestChristHalfAttitudePrinciplesWorstStupidPrejudicePreparedJewEducatedGreekSpokesOur WorldUsualTailsCoatsInabilityFind MeSupposingSupposing ThatIrreligion
Author:George Eliot
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“I have so great a contempt and detestation for meanness, that I could sooner make a friend of one who had committed murder, than of a person who could be capable, in any instance, of the former vice. Under meanness, I comprehend dishonesty; under dishonesty, ingratitude; under ingratitude, irreligion; and under this latter, every species of vice and immorality in human nature.”

HumansPersonsHuman NatureCapableMurderSpeciesCommittedVicesInstanceFormerLatterContemptDishonestyImmoralityMeannessIngratitudeIrreligion
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne, A. M.: A sentimental journey through France and Italy. The Koran: or, The life, character and sentiments of Tria Juncta in Uno. A political romance
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“To me it seems that liberty and virtue were made for each other. If any man wish to enslave his country, nothing is a fitter preparative than vice; and nothing leads to vice so surely as irreligion.”

IfsMenMadeCountrySeemsWishLibertyVirtueVicesIrreligionMade For Each Other
Book:Works, Including His Letters to Thomas Prior, Dean Gervais, Mr. Pope, &c. to which is Prefixed an Account of His Life
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“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”

PeopleMayDoePainHurtPleasureCitiesReadyBalanceRoseParisJustificationCrownsMartyrThornsImmoralityFrivolityFiercenessCrown Of ThornsIrreligion
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“What man needs is not philosophy or religion in the academic or formalistic sense of the term, but ability to think rightly. The malady of the age is not absence of philosophy or even irreligion but wrong thinking and a vanity which passes for knowledge. Though it is difficult to define right thinking, it cannot be denied that it is the goal of the aspirations of everyone.”

ThinkingMenNeedsPhilosophyAgeDifficultGoalTermAbilityAbsenceVanityAspirationDeniedAcademicMaladyIrreligionWrong Thinking
Author:Krishnananda Saraswati
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“My parents gave me the gift of irreligion, of growing up without bothering to ask people what gods they held dear, assuming that in fact, like my parents, they weren't interested in gods, and that this uninterest was 'normal.' You may argue that the gift was a poisoned chalice, but even if so, that's a cup from which I'd happily drink again.”

PeopleIfsMayFactsAsksParentGrowing UpGrowingDrinkNormalAssumingDearArguingCupsBotherChaliceIrreligion
Author:Salman Rushdie
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