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It is easier for a Russian to become an Atheist, than for any other nationality in the world. And not only does a Russian 'become an Atheist,' but he actually BELIEVES IN Atheism, just as though he had found a new faith, not perceiving that he has pinned his faith in a negation. Such is our anguish of thirst!

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Idiot (1869)

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Atheism

More quotes by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.

How it could come to pass I do not know, but I remember it clearly. The dream embraced thousands of years and left in me only a sense of the whole.

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877)

Inventors and geniuses have almost always been looked on as no better than fools at the beginning of their career, and very frequently at the end of it also.

The Idiot (1868)

Every man has some reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends.

Notes from Underground (1864)

If you are penitent, you love. And if you love you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love.

The Brothers Karamazov (1879)

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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)

Attribution

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