I have no religion, and at times I wish all religions at the bottom of the sea. He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap. My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will; every man can follow his own conscience, provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him against the liberty of his fellow-men.

Quoted in Atatürk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey, by Andrew Mango; "In a book published in 1928, Grace Ellison quotes [Atatürk], presumably in 1926-27", Grace Ellison Turkey Today (London: Hutchinson, 1928)

However, according to Atatürk's notebooks, he states in his own handwriting that a British journalist (referring to Grace Ellison) wrote what he did not say and distorted what he said: "A British newspaper reporter interviewed me. She wrote things I didn't tell her and interpreted what I said against us. I forbade her. She had promised. I realized that she is a trained spy like the other people in Istanbul." As quoted in Atatürk'ün not defterleri (Atatürk's notebooks). Volume 12 (in Turkish) (1st ed.). Ankara: Genelkurmay Basımevi. 2009. p. 125. ISBN 978-975-409-246-2.