Quotes on Belief
“I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.
I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.
I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.
I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.
I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.
I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.
I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.
I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.
I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too.
I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.
I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods
Neil Gaiman, Belief
"People actually go out of their way and say a prayer for me to do this. That really means a lot. I put my heart and soul, and when they pray it makes me work even harder and harder and harder."
Ronnie Coleman, Goals, Belief
23. "Maybe I'm Wrong."
- John Wick in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
John Wick, Belief
"We’re on some path that’s set since we’re born, but I still believe we can change some things. So I believe in my faith but I still don’t believe in my fate."
BTS: RM, Belief
“Give thanks to the most high.”
DJ Khaled, Belief
“I’d rather not live like there isn’t a god, then die and find out there really is. Think about it.”
Kendrick Lamar, Belief
“I walk alone with a cross and a diamond stone. I’m a diamond inside the rough, that’s too mighty for maricons.”
Kendrick Lamar, Goals, Belief
“Life will put many red lights in front of you, but sometimes we must push on the gas and trust god.”
Kendrick Lamar, Goals, Life, Belief
“No peace and security among mankind—let alone common friendship—can ever exist as long as people think that governments get their authority from God and that religion is to be propagated by force of arms.”
― John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration
John Locke, Friendship, Government, Belief, Anger and Fighting
“But what if he neglect the care of his soul? I answer: What if he neglect the care of his health or of his estate, which things are nearlier related to the government of the magistrate than the other? Will the magistrate provide by an express law that such a one shall not become poor or sick? Laws provide, as much as is possible, that the goods and health of subjects be not injured by the fraud and violence of others; they do not guard them from the negligence or ill-husbandry of the possessors themselves. No man can be forced to be rich or healthful whether he will or no. Nay, God Himself will not save men against their wills.”
― John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration
John Locke, Belief
“Whosoever will list himself under the banner of Christ, must, in the first place and above all things, make war upon his own lusts and vices. It is in vain for any man to usurp the name of Christian, without holiness of life, purity of manners, benignity and meekness of spirit.”
― John Locke, Unknown Book 12380837
John Locke, Belief
“So that, in effect, religion, which should most distinguish us from beasts, and ought most peculiarly to elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than beasts themselves.”
John Locke, Belief
“For the civil government can give no new right to the church, nor the church to the civil government. So that, whether the magistrate join himself to any church, or separate from it, the church remains always as it was before — a free and voluntary society. It neither requires the power of the sword by the magistrate’s coming to it, nor does it lose the right of instruction and excommunication by his going from it. This is the fundamental and immutable right of a spontaneous society — that it has power to remove any of its members who transgress the rules of its institution; but it cannot, by the accession of any new members, acquire any right of jurisdiction over those that are not joined with it.”
― John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration
John Locke, Belief, Government
“Now, I appeal to the consciences of those who persecute, wound, torture, and kill other men on the excuse of ‘religion’, whether they do this in a spirit of friendship and kindness.”
― John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration
John Locke, Belief, Friendship, Kindness
“Just wakin’ up in the morning gotta thank god.”
Ice Cube, Belief
“Pray to god someone prays for me.”
Kevin Gates, Goals, Belief
“I love God, I love everybody else around me as myself, and I love my enemy.”
Kevin Gates, Love, Goals, Belief
“She thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness.”
― Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf, Belief
“When the Day of Judgment dawns and people, great and small, come marching in to receive their heavenly rewards, the Almighty will gaze upon the mere bookworms and say to Peter, “Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them. They have loved reading.”
Virginia Woolf, Art, Belief
“I can only say that I am nothing but a poor sinner, trusting in Christ alone for salvation.”
Robert E Lee, Belief
“Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.”
William James, Belief
“The result of my journey was to bring a certain mental peace. Where there had been chaos there was now order. My mind was at rest. I had a philosophy at last. The words of Christ "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," had a new meaning for me. Not in the past or in the future, but now and here is Heaven within us. All our duties lie in this world and in the present, and trying impatiently to peer into that which lies beyond is as vain as fruitless.”
― Andrew Carnegie, The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie, Belief
“Not only had I got rid of the theology and the supernatural, but I had found the truth of evolution.”
― Andrew Carnegie, The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie, Belief, Truth
“I don't believe in God. My God is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.”
Andrew Carnegie, Belief, Problems, Life
“Humanity is an organism, inherently rejecting all that is deleterious, that is, wrong, and absorbing after trial what is beneficial, that is, right. If so disposed, the Architect of the Universe, we must assume, might have made the world and man perfect, free from evil and from pain, as angels in heaven are thought to be; but although this was not done, man has been given the power of advancement rather than of retrogression. The Old and New Testaments remain, like other sacred writings of other lands, of value as records of the past and for such good lessons as they inculcate. Like the ancient writers of the Bible our thoughts should rest upon this life and our duties here. "To perform the duties of this world well, troubling not about another, is the prime wisdom," says Confucius, great sage and teacher. The next world and its duties we shall consider when we are placed in it.”
― Andrew Carnegie, The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and the Gospel of Wealth
Andrew Carnegie, Goals, Belief
“I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?”
John Lennon, Belief
“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.”
John Lennon, Belief
“God is a concept by which we measure our pain.”
John Lennon, Belief
“When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, There's just something about you that pisses me off.”
― Stephen King, Storm of the Century
Stephen King, Belief
“Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.”
― Stephen King , The Stand
Stephen King, Belief, Society
“That wasn't any act of God. That was an act of pure human fuckery.”
― Stephen King, The Stand
Stephen King, Life, Belief
“You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. ‘Have you found joy in your life?’ 'Has your life brought joy to others?”
Morgan Freeman, Belief, Death
“Seeing is believing, but is it truth? Depends on your point-of-view. Are you listening, horsemen? When you emerge, and you will, I will be there... waiting. Because mark my words, you will get what's coming to you... in ways you can't expect... but very much deserve. Because once thing I believe in is an eye for an eye.”
Morgan Freeman, Truth, Belief
“I was gonna rip his heart out. I’m the best ever. I’m the most brutal and vicious, the most ruthless champion there has ever been. No one can stop me. Lennox is a conqueror? No! He’s no Alexander! I’m Alexander! I’m the best ever. I’m Sonny Liston. I’m Jack Dempsey. There’s never been anyone like me. I’m from their cloth. There is no one who can match me. My style is impetuous, my defense is impregnable, and I’m just ferocious. I want his heart! I want to eat his children! Praise be to Allah!”
- Mike Tyson boasting controversially about his prowess and his faith, demonstrating that real actions and faith can be at odds at times.
Mike Tyson, Goals, Belief
“It was the popular theme for jests; it was the best cure for headache, it infallibly prevented the hair from turning grey, it imparted a particular delicacy to the complexion, it was the National Razor which shaved close: who kissed La Guillotine, looked through the little window and sneezed into the sack. It was the sign of the regeneration of the human race. It superseded the Cross. Models of it were worn on breasts from which the Cross was discarded, and it was bowed down to and believed in where the Cross was denied.”
A Tale of Two Cities, Belief
“Ann Druyan suggests an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn’t strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?”
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot, Belief, Life
“A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.” ― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot, Belief, Science
“What do we really want from religion? Palliatives? Therapy? Comfort? Do we want reassuring fables or an understanding of our actual circumstances? Dismay that the Universe does not conform to our preferences seems childish. You might think that grown-ups would be ashamed to put such thoughts into print. The fashionable way of doing this is not to blame the Universe -- which seems truly pointless -- but rather to blame the means by which we know the Universe, namely science.”
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot, Belief, Science
“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.”
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot, Belief, Science
“Or consider a story in the Jewish Talmud left out of the Book of Genesis. (It is in doubtful accord with the account of the apple, the Tree of Knowledge, the Fall, and the expulsion from Eden.) In The Garden, God tells Eve and Adam that He has intentionally left the Universe unfinished. It is the responsibility of humans, over countless generations, to participate with God in a "glorious" experiment - the "completing of the Creation." The burden of such a responsibility is heavy, especially on so weak and imperfect a species as ours, one with so unhappy a history. Nothing remotely like "completion" can be attempted without vastly more knowledge than we have today. But, perhaps, if our very existence is at stake, we will find ourselves able to rise to this supreme challenge.”
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot, Belief, Intelligence/Wisdom
“Cleanliness is not next to godliness. It isn't even in the same neighborhood. No one has ever gotten a religious experience out of removing burned-on cheese from the grill of the toaster oven.”
Erma Bombeck, Belief
“No gods, no masters.”
Margaret Sanger, Goals, Belief
“Against the State, against the Church, against the silence of the medical profession, against the whole machinery of dead institutions of the past, the woman of today arises.”
Margaret Sanger, Sex, Belief, Society
“Jesus' military career has never compelled my belief.”
Wendell Berry, Belief
“This religion that scorned the beauty and goodness of this world was a puzzle to me.”
Wendell Berry, Belief
“Some of the best things I have ever thought of I have thought of during bad sermons.”
Wendell Berry, Belief
“Some nights in the midst of this loneliness I swung among the scattered stars at the end of the thin thread of faith alone.”
Wendell Berry, Belief
“...And we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye clear. What we need is here.”
Wendell Berry, Belief
“Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn't burn up any fossil fuel, doesn't pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.”
Margaret Mead, Art, Belief, Music, Love
“Too many people, when they reject God, go on believing in the devil. Many intellectuals have a sense of evil without a confidence in good.”
Margaret Mead, Belief
“It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly.”
Margaret Mead, Belief
“It is easier to change a man's religion than to change his diet.”
Margaret Mead, Belief
“Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world.”
Joseph Campbell, Belief
“All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells, are within you.”
Joseph Campbell, Belief
“If I die in Atlanta my work shall then only begin, but I shall live, in the physical or spiritual to see the day of Africa’s glory.”
Marcus Garvey, Belief
“One God, One Aim, One Destiny. (Motto of the UNIA)”
Marcus Garvey, Belief, Goals
“Who to tell what tomorrow will bring forth? Did they not laugh at Moses, Christ and Mohammed? Was there not a Carthage, Greece and Rome? We see and have changes every day, so pray, work, be steadfast and be not dismayed.”
Marcus Garvey, Belief, Goals
“Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.”
Margaret Thatcher, Belief
“No-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.”
Margaret Thatcher, Belief, Wealth
“Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.”
Robert Frost, Belief
“Life is a salad and the Lord is my vinaigrette.”
Theo Von, Life, Belief
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
Will Rogers, Belief, Goals
“All the philosophy… in the world, and all the religion, which is nothing but a species of philosophy, will never be able to carry us beyond the usual course of experience.”
David Hume, Intelligence/Wisdom, Belief, Life
“No human testimony can have such force as to prove a miracle, and make it a just foundation for any such system of religion.”
David Hume, Belief
“Superstition is an enemy to civil liberty.”
David Hume, Belief, Freedom
“It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause.”
David Hume, Belief
“Heaven and Hell suppose two distinct species of men, the Good and the Bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.”
David Hume, Belief
“The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.”
David Hume, Belief
“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”
― ‘A Treatise Of Human Nature’.
David Hume, Intelligence/Wisdom, Belief
“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.”
― ‘A Treatise Of Human Nature’.
David Hume, Intelligence/Wisdom, Belief
"Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell."
Poem – My life closed twice before it closed
Emily Dickinson, Belief
"Earth is crammed with Heaven."
Poem – Earth is crammed with heaven
Emily Dickinson, Belief
"Some keep the Sabbath going to church;
I keep it staying at home,
With a bobolink for a chorister,
And an orchard for a dome."
Poem – Some keep the sabbath going to church
Emily Dickinson, Belief
"My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me"
Poem – My life closed twice before its close
Emily Dickinson, Belief
"Heaven is what I cannot reach!
The apple on the tree
Provided it do hopeless hang
That “heaven” is to me"
Poem – Heaven is what I cannot reach
Emily Dickinson, Belief
“I totally believe in magic. Because my life, I think, has been very magic, and magical things have come true for me time after time after time.”
Stevie Nicks, Belief
“To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open. It means deciding to voluntarily transform the chaos of potential into the realities of habitable order. It means adopting the burden of self-conscious vulnerability, and accepting the end of the unconscious paradise of childhood, where finitude and mortality are only dimly comprehended. It means willingly undertaking the sacrifices necessary to generate a productive and meaningful reality (it means acting to please God, in the ancient language).”
Jordan Peterson, Life, Belief
“I truly believe that people do the best they can.”
Katharine Hepburn, Belief
“Live dangerously. There's a lot to be said for sinning.”
Katharine Hepburn, Life, Goals, Belief
“I don't feel the slightest interest in the next world; I think it's here. And I think anything good that you&apps;re going to do, you should do for other people here and not so you can try to have a happy time in the next world.”
Katharine Hepburn, Belief, Goals
“Now how can anybody look at that and not believe in God? I mean, how can anybody look at this and not believe there is some higher power, some divine force at work in the universe greater than Man, some god that created it, that created all this, that created us?”
Katharine Hepburn, Belief
“I could peel you like a pear and god himself would see the justice in it.”
Katharine Hepburn, Belief, Justice
“I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for people.”
Katharine Hepburn, Belief, Goals
“Any little thing that brings us back into communion with the natural world and the spiritual power that permeates all life will help us to move a little further along the path of human moral and spiritual evolution.”
Jane Goodall, Nature, Belief
“That “of His own good pleasure” He has” predestined” any souls to eternal damnation.”
Florence Nightingale, Belief
“The martyr sacrifices themselves entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for they make the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, the narrow narrower.”
Florence Nightingale, Belief
“Asceticism is the trifling of an enthusiast with his power, a puerile coquetting with his selfishness or his vanity, in the absence of any sufficiently great object to employ the first or overcome the last.”
Florence Nightingale, Belief
“People talk about imitating Christ, and imitate Him in the little trifling formal things, such as washing the feet, saying His prayer, and so on; but if anyone attempts the real imitation of Him, there are no bounds to the outcry with which the presumption of that person is condemned.”
Florence Nightingale, Belief
“In it and in the other prayers of the Mystics there is scarcely a petition. There is never a word of the theory that God’s dealings with us are to show His “power”; still less of the theory.”
Florence Nightingale, Belief
“I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.”
Florence Nightingale, Belief
“Sometimes I believe that God wants to try me, both now and later on; I must become good through my own efforts, without examples and without good advice.”
Anne Frank, Belief, Goals
“I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion, I have a religion and love. Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage.”
Anne Frank, Goals, Belief, Love, Happiness, Strength, Courage
“I wish to go on living even after my death.”
Anne Frank, Belief
“I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death!”
Anne Frank, Goals, Belief
“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
Anne Frank, Belief
“I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the colour and fragrance of a flower - the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.”
Helen Keller, Belief
"In the faces of men and women, I see God."
Walt Whitman, Belief
"Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us."
Walt Whitman, Belief
"There is no God any more divine than yourself."
Walt Whitman, Belief
"Science is constantly proved all the time. If we take something like any fiction, any holy book, and destroyed it, in a thousand years’ time, that wouldn’t come back just as it was. Whereas if we took every science book and every fact and destroyed them all, in a thousand years they’d all be back because all the same tests would be the same result."
Ricky Gervais, Belief, Science
"Next time someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say ‘Oh which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…’ If they say ‘Just God. I only believe in the one God,’ I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"If there is a God, why did he make me an atheist?"
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"Dear Religion, This week I safely dropped a man from space while you shot a child in the head for wanting to go to school. Yours, Science."
Ricky Gervais, Belief, Science
"Same-sex marriage isn’t a gay privilege, it’s equal rights. Privilege would be something like gay people not paying taxes. Like churches don’t."
Ricky Gervais, Sex, Justice, Belief
"The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts."
Ricky Gervais, Belief, Truth
"It’s a privilege to be in such a great category of people and… I don’t believe in God, so I’d like to thank dogs. Dogs have given me everything."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"A Christian telling an atheist they’re going to hell is as scary as a child telling an adult they’re not getting any presents from Santa."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"Everything I do is somehow rooted in humanity. It’s always about people; it’s always about ego. It’s always about desperation. It’s quite existential. You know, ‘Am I leading a good life?’ That might be because I’m an atheist, and I think this is all we’ve got, so you better be nice. And have fun."
Ricky Gervais, Goals, Belief
"It’s a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It’s the opposite. We have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"Beliefs do not change facts. Facts, if one is rational, should change beliefs."
Ricky Gervais, Belief, Truth
"Remember, if you don’t sin, then Jesus died for nothing."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"Unlike religious people, I look at all religions equally."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway."
Ricky Gervais, Belief, Kindness
"Lieutenant Daniel Taylor: Have you found Jesus yet, Gump?
Forrest Gump: I didn’t know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir."
Forrest Gump, Belief
"If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him."
James Baldwin, Belief, Freedom, Love
"I am at peace with God and all mankind."
Harriet Tubman, Belief
"I ask of my Heavenly Father, that when the last trump sounds, and my name is called, I may stand close by your side, to answer to the call."
Harriet Tubman, Belief
"What did you say to me this morning? You said ‘We hadn’t got nothing to eat in the house and what did I say to you? I said ‘I’ve got a rich Father!’"
Harriet Tubman, Belief
"The white ladies and gentlemen gathered round him, till I couldn't see Joe for the crowd, only I heard his voice singing, 'Glory to God and Jesus too,' louder than ever."
Harriet Tubman, Belief
"I think there’s many a slaveholder’ll get to Heaven. They don’t know no better. They acts up to the light they have."
Harriet Tubman, Belief
"I prayed to God to make me strong and able to fight, and that's what I've always prayed for ever since."
Harriet Tubman, Belief
"I said to the Lord, I’m going to hold steady on to you, and I know you will see me through."
Harriet Tubman, Belief
"What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity."
Frederick Douglass, Belief
"I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject could do.
I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to those songs, even now, afflicts me; and while I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul, - and if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because "there is no flesh in his obdurate heart."
I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom, Justice, Happiness, Music, Belief
"I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes, - a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, - a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, - and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of the slaveholders find the strongest protection. Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others."
Frederick Douglass, Justice, Belief
"The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one sixth of the population of democratic America is denied it's privileges by the law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of it's humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?"
Frederick Douglass, Justice, Belief
"I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."
Frederick Douglass, Belief, Freedom
"I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of the land... I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of 'stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.' I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me. We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. . . . The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time. The dealers in the bodies of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other—devils dressed in angels’ robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise."
Frederick Douglass, Belief
"What you should do is to say to outsiders that a Christian has neither more nor less rights in our association than an atheist."
Susan B Anthony, Belief
"The worst enemy women have is in the pulpit."
Susan B Anthony, Belief
"I pray every single moment of my life; not on my knees but with my work. My prayer is to lift women to equality with men. Work and worship are one with me."
Susan B Anthony, Belief, Work
"I was born a heretic. I always distrusted people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows."
Susan B Anthony, Belief
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
Susan B Anthony, Belief
"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel."
Thomas Paine, Belief
"Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe."
Thomas Paine, Belief
"All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe."
Thomas Paine, Belief
"The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally payed to the sun."
Thomas Paine, Belief
"Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid or produces only atheists or fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism, and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests, but so far as respects the good of man in general it leads to nothing here or hereafter."
Thomas Paine, Belief
"Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law."
Thomas Paine, Belief, Government
"My own mind is my own church."
Thomas Paine, Belief
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."
Thomas Paine, Belief
"One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests."
Thomas Paine, Intelligence/Wisdom, Belief
"It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man."
Thomas Paine, Belief
"When it can be said by any country in the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them, my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars, the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive, the rational world is my friend because I am the friend of happiness. When these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and government. Independence is my happiness, the world is my country and my religion is to do good."
Thomas Paine, Freedom, Happiness, Belief
"Eternity is a long time, especially towards the end."
Stephen Hawking, Belief
"What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn't prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary."
Stephen Hawking, Belief, Science
"So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?"
Stephen Hawking, Belief
"I regard the afterlife to be a fairy story for people that are afraid of the dark."
Stephen Hawking, Belief
"We have finally found something that doesn’t have a cause, because there was no time for a cause to exist in. For me this means that there is no possibility of a creator, because there is no time for a creator to have existed in."
Stephen Hawking, Time, Belief
"So Einstein was wrong when he said, "God does not play dice." Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen."
Stephen Hawking, Belief
"I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space."
Stephen Hawking, Belief
"Not only does God play dice but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."
Stephen Hawking, Belief
"When people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them that the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the big bang, so there is no time for god to make the universe in. It’s like asking directions to the edge of the earth; The Earth is a sphere; it doesn’t have an edge; so looking for it is a futile exercise. We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is; there is no god. No one created our universe,and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization; There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful."
Stephen Hawking, Life, Time, Belief
"There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works."
Stephen Hawking, Belief, Science
"The role played by time at the beginning of the universe is, I believe, the final key to removing the need for a Grand Designer, and revealing how the universe created itself. … Time itself must come to a stop. You can’t get to a time before the big bang, because there was no time before the big bang. We have finally found something that does not have a cause because there was no time for a cause to exist in. For me this means there is no possibility of a creator because there is no time for a creator to have existed. Since time itself began at the moment of the Big Bang, it was an event that could not have been caused or created by anyone or anything. … So when people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the Big Bang, so there is no time for God to make the universe in. It’s like asking for directions to the edge of the Earth. The Earth is a sphere. It does not have an edge, so looking for it is a futile exercise."
Stephen Hawking, Life, Time, Belief
"I believe the simplest explanation is, there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization that there probably is no heaven and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that, I am extremely grateful."
Stephen Hawking, Belief, Life
"I have noticed that even those who assert that everything is predestined and that we can change nothing about it still look both ways before they cross the street."
Stephen Hawking, Belief
"Science is opposed to theological dogmas because science is founded on fact. To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine. Nothing enters our minds or determines our actions which is not directly or indirectly a response to stimuli beating upon our sense organs from without. Owing to the similarity of our construction and the sameness of our environment, we respond in like manner to similar stimuli, and from the concordance of our reactions, understanding is born. In the course of ages, mechanisms of infinite complexity are developed, but what we call 'soul' or 'spirit,' is nothing more than the sum of the functionings of the body. When this functioning ceases, the 'soul' or the 'spirit' ceases likewise."
Tesla, Belief, Science, Life
"My Mother had taught me to seek all truth in the Bible."
Tesla, Belief
"What one man calls God, another calls the laws of physics."
Tesla, Belief, Science
"When we speak of man, we have a conception of humanity as a whole, and before applying scientific methods to the investigation of his movement we must accept this as a physical fact. But can anyone doubt to-day that all the millions of individuals and all the innumerable types and characters constitute an entity, a unit? Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable. These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them. I cut myself in the finger, and it pains me: this finger is a part of me. I see a friend hurt, and it hurts me, too: my friend and I are one. And now I see stricken down an enemy, a lump of matter which, of all the lumps of matter in the universe, I care least for, and it still grieves me. Does this not prove that each of us is only part of a whole?
For ages this idea has been proclaimed in the consummately wise teachings of religion, probably not alone as a means of insuring peace and harmony among men, but as a deeply founded truth. The Buddhist expresses it in one way, the Christian in another, but both say the same: We are all one. Metaphysical proofs are, however, not the only ones which we are able to bring forth in support of this idea. Science, too, recognizes this connectedness of separate individuals, though not quite in the same sense as it admits that the suns, planets, and moons of a constellation are one body, and there can be no doubt that it will be experimentally confirmed in times to come, when our means and methods for investigating psychical and other states and phenomena shall have been brought to great perfection. Still more: this one human being lives on and on. The individual is ephemeral, races and nations come and pass away, but man remains. Therein lies the profound difference between the individual and the whole."
Tesla, Society, Friendship, Belief, Science
"I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery."
Steve Jobs, Belief
"Drop that or I'll blow ya straight to Jesus."
John Wayne, Belief
"We called it “making a way out of no way.” So when we were standing in protest facing police dogs and fire hoses, we knew without any doubt that somebody who was greater than us all would make a way out of no way and protect the defenders of the truth."
John Lewis, Belief, Truth
"The power of faith is transformative. It can be utilized in your own personal life to change your individual condition, and it can be used as a lifeline of spiritual strength to change a nation."
John Lewis, Belief
"All thinking men are atheists."
Ernest Hemingway, Belief
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful."
Seneca, Belief
"According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves."
Plato, Belief
"In Buddhism, there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when you're tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand."
Bruce Lee, Belief
"If there is a God, he is within. You don't ask God to give you things, you depend on God for your inner theme."
Bruce Lee, Belief
"Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."
Bruce Lee, Belief
"Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause. I had hoped that liberal and enlightened thought would have reconciled the Christians so that their religious fights would not endanger the peace of Society."
George Washington, Belief, Society
"I was sorry to see the gloomy picture which you drew of the affairs of your Country in your letter of December; but I hope events have not turned out so badly as you then apprehended. Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes, that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far, that we should never again see their religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of Society."
George Washington, Belief
"I regret exceedingly that the disputes between the protestants and Roman Catholics should be carried to the serious alarming height mentioned in your letters. Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause; and I was not without hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy of the present age would have put an effectual stop to contentions of this kind."
George Washington, Belief, Freedom
"We sainted St. Tammany (King Tamanend III) because he embodied moral perfection and every divine qualification that a deity could possess. I hold him in higher esteem than the saints of the Roman Catholic Church. He'll forever be the patron saint of America."
George Washington, Belief
"The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs... In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea? He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He proves, also, that man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without a rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"When once we quit the basis of sensation, all is in the wind. To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by Locke, Tracy, and Stewart."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"When we see religion split into so many thousand of sects, and I may say Christianity itself divided into its thousands also, who are disputing, anathematizing and where the laws permit burning and torturing one another for abstractions which no one of them understand, and which are indeed beyond the comprehension of the human mind, into which of the chambers of this Bedlam would a man wish to thrust himself."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"...it is not to be understood that I am with him [Jesus] in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist, he takes the side of spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance toward forgiveness of sin. I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it... Among the sayings & discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence: and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"When the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure from the government, it was observed in their consultation that he had never on any occasion said a word to the public which showed a belief in the Christian religion and they thought they should so pen their address as to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a Christian or not. They did so. However [Dr. Rush] observed the old fox was too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address particularly except that, which he passed over without notice... I know that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets & believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system than he himself did."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief, Government
"Altho' I rarely waste time in reading on theological subjects, as mangled by our Pseudo-Christians, yet I can readily suppose Basanistos may be amusing. Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus. If it could be understood it would not answer their purpose. Their security is in their faculty of shedding darkness, like the scuttlefish, thro' the element in which they move, and making it impenetrable to the eye of a pursuing enemy, and there they will skulk."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"I write nothing for publication, and last of all things should it be on the subject of religion. On the dogmas of religion as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarrelling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind. Were I to enter on that arena, I should only add an unit to the number of Bedlamites."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"I agree with yours of the 22d that a professorship of Theology should have no place in our institution. but we cannot always do what is absolutely best. those with whom we act, entertaining different views, have the power and the right of carrying them into practice. truth advances, & error recedes step by step only; and to do to our fellow-men the most good in our power, we must lead where we can, follow where we cannot, and still go with them, watching always the favorable moment for helping them to another step."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"We took the liberty to make some enquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation.
The Ambassador [of Tripoli] answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away all this artificial scaffolding..."
Thomas Jefferson, Freedom, Belief
"Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhabited by a thousand millions of people. That these profess probably a thousand different systems of religion. That ours is but one of that thousand. That if there be but one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the 999 wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. But against such a majority we cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"...legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties."
Thomas Jefferson, Government, Belief
"Religion. Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty & singularity of opinion... shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. You will naturally examine first, the religion of your own country. Read the Bible, then as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The facts which are within the ordinary course of nature, you will believe on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy and Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor, in one scale, and their not being against the laws of nature, does not weigh against them. But those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of faces. Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from God. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature, in the case he relates. For example in the book of Joshua we are told the sun stood still several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or Tacitus we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of statues, beasts, &c. But it is said that the writer of that book was inspired. Examine therefore candidly what evidence there is of his having been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, because millions believe it. On the other hand you are astronomer enough to know how contrary it is to the law of nature that a body revolving on its axis as the earth does, should have stopped, should not by that sudden stoppage have prostrated animals, trees, buildings, and should after a certain time have resumed its revolution, & that without a second general prostration. Is this arrest of the earth's motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most within the law of probabilities? You will next read the New Testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions: 1, of those who say he was begotten by God, born of a virgin, suspended & reversed the laws of nature at will, & ascended bodily into heaven; and 2, of those who say he was a man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind, who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, and was punished capitally for sedition, by being gibbeted, according to the Roman law, which punished the first commission of that offence by whipping, & the second by exile, or death in fureâ.
...Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you... In fine, I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject anything, because any other persons, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it... I forgot to observe, when speaking of the New Testament, that you should read all the histories of Christ, as well of those whom a council of ecclesiastics have decided for us, to be Pseudo-evangelists, as those they named Evangelists. Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended to inspiration, as much as the others, and you are to judge their pretensions by your own reason, and not by the reason of those ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost..."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"I have observed, indeed, generally, that while in protestant countries the defections from the Platonic Christianity of the priests is to Deism, in catholic countries they are to Atheism. Diderot, D'Alembert, D’Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God."
Thomas Jefferson, Belief
"Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry..."
Thomas Jefferson, Government, Belief
"For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew--or a Quaker--or a Unitarian--or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim- -but tomorrow it may be you--until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.
Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.
That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe--a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office. ...
This is the kind of America I believe in--and this is the kind I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe. No one suggested then that we may have a "divided loyalty," that we did "not believe in liberty," or that we belonged to a disloyal group that threatened the "freedoms for which our forefathers died."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Freedom, Belief
"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote - where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference - and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.
I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish - where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source - where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials - and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Belief, Government
"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Belief
"I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress."
Ronald Reagan, Belief, Government
"I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born."
Ronald Reagan, Belief
"I have frequently seen people become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life. They seek position, marriage, reputation, outward success of money, and remain unhappy and neurotic even when they have attained what they were seeking. Such people are usually confined within too narrow a spiritual horizon. Their life has not sufficient content, sufficient meaning. If they are enabled to develop into more spacious personalities, the neurosis generally disappears."
Carl Jung, Belief, Happiness
"The acceptance of oneself is the essence of the whole moral problem and the epitome of a whole outlook on life. That I feed the hungry, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ -- all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. But what if I should discover that the least among them all, the poorest of all the beggars, the most impudent of all the offenders, the very enemy himself -- that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness -- that I myself am the enemy who must be loved -- what then? As a rule, the Christian's attitude is then reversed; there is no longer any question of love or long-suffering; we say to the brother within us "Raca," and condemn and rage against ourselves. We hide it from the world; we refuse to admit ever having met this least among the lowly in ourselves."
Carl Jung, Belief
"The greatest blessing granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift."
Socrates, Belief
"I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within."
Socrates, Belief
"My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there."
Rumi, Belief
"I don't stand for black man's side, I don't stand for white man's side, I stand for God's side."
Bob Marley, Belief
"When I have a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion. Then I go out and paint the stars."
Van Gogh, Belief
"I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things."
Van Gogh, Belief
"The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But...the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"
Martin Luther King Jr., Belief
"Not only will we have to repent for the sins of bad people; but we also will have to repent for the appalling silence of good people."
Martin Luther King Jr., Belief
"Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies."
Martin Luther King Jr., Belief, Love, Anger and Fighting
"Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase."
Martin Luther King Jr., Belief
"It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him."
Abraham Lincoln, Happiness, Belief
"The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of them."
Abraham Lincoln, Belief
"I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."
Abraham Lincoln, Belief
"I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God."
Abraham Lincoln, Belief
"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."
Abraham Lincoln, Belief
"It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business."
Gandhi, Belief
"There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."
Gandhi, Belief
"To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer."
Gandhi, Kindness, Belief
"God has no religion."
Gandhi, Belief
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Gandhi, Belief
"Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart."
Gandhi, Belief
"You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say."
Marcus Aurelius, Belief
"But the Mahommedan religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and ever since, its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness. In a moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the fear of death itself, are flung aside. The more emotional Pathans are powerless to resist. All rational considerations are forgotten. Seizing their weapons, they become Ghazis—as dangerous and as sensible as mad dogs: fit only to be treated as such. While the more generous spirits among the tribesmen become convulsed in an ecstasy of religious bloodthirstiness, poorer and more material souls derive additional impulses from the influence of others, the hopes of plunder and the joy of fighting. Thus whole nations are roused to arms. Thus the Turks repel their enemies, the Arabs of the Soudan break the British squares, and the rising on the Indian frontier spreads far and wide. In each case civilisation is confronted with militant Mahommedanism. The forces of progress clash with those of reaction. The religion of blood and war is face to face with that of peace."
Winston Churchill, Belief
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."
Winston Churchill, Belief
"Sin is geographical."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately."
Bertrand Russell, Belief, Government
"So far as I can remember there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"That is the idea -- that we should all be wicked if we did not hold to the Christian religion. It seems to me that the people who have held to it have been for the most part extremely wicked. You find this curious fact, that the more intense has been the religion of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs. In the so-called ages of faith, when men really did believe the Christian religion in all its completeness, there was the Inquisition, with all its tortures; there were millions of unfortunate women burned as witches; and there was every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of religion."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."
Bertrand Russell, Belief, Intelligence/Wisdom
"I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
Bertrand Russell, Belief
"The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity."
Voltaire, Belief
"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."
Voltaire, Belief
"Faith consists in believing what reason cannot."
Voltaire, Belief
"God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere."
Voltaire, Belief
"Now, now my good man, this is no time to be making enemies." (Voltaire on his deathbed in response to a priest asking him that he renounce Satan.)"
Voltaire, Belief
"God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh."
Voltaire, Belief
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it."
Voltaire, Belief
"Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him."
Napoleon Bonaparte, Belief
"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."
Napoleon Bonaparte, Belief
"It is well known how the monks wrote silly lives of Catholic Saints over the manuscripts on which the classical works of ancient heathendom had been written."
Karl Marx, Belief
"Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand."
Karl Marx, Belief
"Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck."
George Carlin, Belief
"Atheism is a non-prophet organization."
George Carlin, Belief
"Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure."
George Carlin, Belief
"I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a man nailed to two pieces of wood."
George Carlin, Belief
"I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a lot more as they get older, and then it dawned on me — they’re cramming for their final exam."
George Carlin, Belief
"I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. These two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death."
George Carlin, Government, Belief
"The Christians gave Him Sunday, the Jews gave Him Saturday, and the Muslims gave Him Friday. God has a three-day weekend."
George Carlin, Belief
"How can [God] be perfect? Everything He ever makes dies."
George Carlin, Belief
"He — and if there is a God, I am convinced he is a he, because no woman could or would ever f**k things up this badly."
George Carlin, Belief
"I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don’t have as many people who believe it."
George Carlin, Belief
"Religion is like a pair of shoes: Find one that fits for you, but don't make me wear your shoes."
George Carlin, Belief
"Don't give your money to the church. They should be giving their money to you."
George Carlin, Belief
"Religion is just mind control."
George Carlin, Belief
"How come when it’s us, it’s an abortion, and when it’s a chicken, it’s an omelette?"