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The Gods exist but they are not what the hoi polloi [the multitude] suppose them to be. He is not an infidel or atheist who denies the existence of Gods whom the multitude worship, but he is such who fastens on the Gods the opinions of the multitude.

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Atheism

More quotes by Epicurus

Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship. (28)

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.

Necessity is an evil; but there is no necessity for continuing to live subject to necessity.

Philosophy instructs us to pay homage to the gods, not through hope or fear, but from veneration of Their superior nature.

He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing.

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Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Religion in so far as it is a source of consolation is a hindrance to true faith; and in this sense atheism is a purification.

Simone Weil

One of the most exquisite pleasures of human love — to serve the loved one without his knowing it — is only possible, as regards the love of God, through atheism.

Simone Weil Last Notebook (1942)

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Epicurus (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.