Favorite quotes..

[Nardone]

Commanding General of the Northern Army in the Civil War and US President.
"Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and the state forever separated."
-Ulysses S. Grant

"As people become more intelligent they care less for preaches and more for teachers."
– Robert G. Ingersoll


"I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God."
-Thomas Edison  

[MyBrotherJake]

I think I heard Bob Geldof once say "Mortality was a small price to pay for life' but he may have been quoting someone else.  

[Tranzendental Trumpet Man]

I have three pages worth of quotes of this type that I have collected, in addition to a book of atheistic quotes that I found at a book store (The Atheist's Bible), but I chose some of my favorites from the word document (due to the very expedient "Copy and paste" function that came very handily installed on my computer when I bought it) for inclusion in this post:


"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business."
- Jesse Ventura

"Only the fool says in his heart: There is no god - The wise say it to the world."
- Unknown author

"So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence."
- Bertrand Russell

"Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to drown His own?"
- Bertrand Russell

"I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion is anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds."
- Bertrand Russell

"One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it."
- Bertrand Russell

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic."
- Bertrand Russell

"You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the coloured races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."
- Bertrand Russell

"Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions."
- Frater Ravus

"What is it about faith that makes people eager to commit suicide so long as it enables them to commit mass murder while they're at it?"
- Larry Beinhart

"Most people can’t bear to sit in church for an hour on Sundays. How are they supposed to live somewhere very similar to it for eternity?"
- Mark Twain

(Religion) "With or without it 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

"Deaths in the Bible. God - 2,270,365 not including the victims of Noah’s flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc because no specific numbers were given. Satan - 10."
- Unknown

"Religion. It’s given people hope in a world torn apart by religion."
- Charlie Chaplin

"To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy."
- David Brooks

"If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your s**t, then YOU DESERVE IT."
- Frank Zappa


[note] - If you would like to find many more great quotes, please look up Mark Twain and Bertrand Russell. They have some wonderful material.  

[Inquisitor_Bane]

"(The people of the middle east) are basically killing each other to see who has the better imaginary friend."
- paraphrase of Richard Jeni  

[Le Pere Duchesne]

Engles, in 'Dialectics of Nature'

God is nowhere treated worse than by the natural scientists who believe in him. Materialists simply explain the facts, without making use of such phrases, they do this first when importunate pious believers try to force God upon them, and then they answer curtly, either like Laplace: Sire, je n’avais pas, etc., or more rudely in the manner of the Dutch merchants who, when German commercial travellers press their shoddy goods on them, are accustomed to turn them away with the words: Ik kan die zaken niet gebruiken [I have no use for the things] and that is the end of the matter: But what God has had to suffer at the hands of his defenders! In the history of modern natural science, God is treated by his defenders as Frederick William III was treated by his generals and officials in the Jena campaign. One division of the army after another lays down its arms, one fortress after another capitulates before the march of science, until at last the whole infinite realm of nature is conquered by science, and there is no place left in it for the Creator. Newton still allowed Him the “first impulse” but forbade Him any further interference in his solar system. Father Secchi bows Him out of the solar system altogether, with all canonical honours it is true, but none the less categorically for all that, and he only allows Him a creative act as regards the primordial nebula. And so in all spheres. In biology, his last great Don Quixote, Agassiz, even ascribes positive nonsense to Him; He is supposed to have created not only the actual animals but also abstract animals, the fish as such! And finally Tyndall totally forbids Him any entry into nature and relegates Him to the world of emotional processes, only admitting Him because, after all, there must be somebody who knows more about all these things (nature) than John Tyndall! What a distance from the old God – the Creator of heaven and earth, the maintainer of all things – without whom not a hair can fall from the head!

Tyndall’s emotional need proves nothing. The Chevalier des Grieux also had an emotional need to love and possess Marion Lescaut, who sold herself and him over and over again; for her sake he became a cardsharper and pimp, and if Tyndall wants to reproach him, he would reply with his “emotional need"!

God=nescio; but ignorantia non est argumentum (Spinoza).

 

[Colm-kun]

A little book by Friedrich Nietzsche: "God is Dead"  

[The Random Rapist]

atheists.org

"Nowhere in atheism is there a text that must be obeyed, or a preacher that knows the "one true way". In atheism, "god did it" is not acceptable, but "I don't know" is just fine -- because it's the truth."

 

[B1g_crunch]

 

[Raticiel]

Colm-kun

A little book by Friedrich Nietzsche: "God is Dead"

I heard that after Nietzsche died, some of his students wrote "Nietzsche is dead. God" whee

My favourite quote comes from Jean Jacques Rousseau, I never read him in english, so I'll translate from polish:
"Remove all the people. Then it will be good at last."
Another one comes from "Clockwork orange" (I'm also translating it):
"If they are supposed good, then I'm freakin' happy I'm on the other side!"  

[Le Pere Duchesne]

Enlightenment Rationalism and the Origins of Marxism

Voltaire, who was quite a competent historian by the standards of the day, estimated that since the time of Jesus Christ almost 10 million Christians had been massacred by other Christians in the name of Christianity. Small wonder he declared: "Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror."
Incidentally, there's a nice anecdote about Voltaire as he lay dying. A Catholic priest thought that at last the world-famous heretic would repent of his sins and embrace the true faith. He came up to Voltaire's deathbed and said, "Will you finally renounce the devil?" Voltaire looked up at him and replied: "Father, now is not the time to make new enemies."

 

[Atheist Guy]

"The bible! i like it, its a good fictional book like the cat in the hat!"
-Marilyn Manson (Brian Warner Real name)  

[In Search of a Dream]

"I think, therefore I am an atheist."-A friend of mine.  

[Le Pere Duchesne]

Labyrinthknight7

This is epic. Consider it bookmarked.  

[Piroki-chan23]

My favorite quote is from one of the greatest Atheists of all time, Carl Sagan.
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."