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.
I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.
Atheism is not the denial of the existence of God, but having doubts as to whether God is conscious.
I have heard of a man exclaiming "I am an atheist, thank God!"
Atheism is the vice of a few intelligent persons, and superstition is the vice of fools.
Belief is otiose; reality is sufficiently awesome as it stands.