Atheism Quotes

Carl Sagan has the most entries, then Thomas Henry Huxley, Simone Weil, Voltaire and Christopher Hitchens. Weil, a deeply religious writer, is on the list because she wrote about its edges. The sourced lines include Russell’s remark in Sceptical Essays (1928) that thought is not free if professing certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living, and Woody Allen’s in Stardust Memories (1980), “To you I’m an atheist; to God, I’m the Loyal Opposition.”

Three entries are flagged. The argument that God is either unwilling or unable to prevent evil is credited to Epicurus and disputed; the notes show it reaches us second-hand, in a later writer’s account of him. “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful” is credited to Seneca and disputed. A line about having too high an IQ to be anything but an atheist, credited to Donald Trump, is marked misattributed.

Random quote on Atheism

Most quoted on atheism:

To an atheist all writings tend to atheism: he corrupts the most innocent matter with his own venom.

Michel de Montaigne Essais (1571)

Atheists and the unchurched undervalue the extent to which they are getting a free ride on the social strength that religious-based virtue provides.

Dan Henninger

Only an atheist can be a good Christian.

Ernst Bloch

It is simply not true that atheists, because of their convictions and their worldview, are as a group more depressed than believers.

Eric Maisel The Atheist’s Way (2009)

Authors—essayist, atheist, novelist, realist, rhymester, play your part,
Paint the mortal shame of nature with the living hues of art.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886)