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Atheists keep up their scoffing at the higher being, which was also honoured under the name of the 'highest' or être suprême, and trample in the dust one 'proof of his existence' after another, without noticing that they themselves, out of need for a higher being, only annihilate the old to make room for a new.

— Max Stirner The Ego and Its Own / The Unique and Its Property (1845)

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Atheism

More quotes by Max Stirner

You long for freedom? You fools! If you took might, freedom would come of itself.

The Ego and Its Own / The Unique and Its Property (1845)

The men of the future will yet fight their way to many a liberty that we do not even miss.

The Ego and Its Own / The Unique and Its Property (1845)

"Freedom" awakens your rage against everything that is not you; "egoism" calls you to joy over yourselves, to self-enjoyment.

The Ego and Its Own / The Unique and Its Property (1845)

People is the name of the body, State of the spirit, of that ruling person that has hitherto suppressed me.

The Ego and Its Own / The Unique and Its Property (1845)

Man with the great M is only an ideal, the species only something thought of.

The Ego and Its Own / The Unique and Its Property (1845)

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

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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.

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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: Max Stirner (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.