Random quotes

"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own" Letter to H. Spafford, 1814  (Thomas Jefferson)

"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own" Letter to H. Spafford, 1814 (Thomas Jefferson)

"Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together" Letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822 (James Madison)

"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Treaty of Tripoly, article 11 (John Adams)

"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, December 27, 1816 (John Adams)

"Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and the state forever separated." - Ulysses S. Grant

"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte

"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches." - Benjamin Franklin

"The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers."
-- Denis Diderot

"Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to drown His own?" - Robert G. Ingersoll

"The good part of Christmas is not always Christian -- it is generally Pagan; that is to say, human, natural." - Robert G. Ingersoll

"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand." - Mark Twain

"Only Sheep need a shepherd!"
-- unknown

"Of all religions the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men." - Voltaire

"In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Creationists make it sound like a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night." - Isaac Asamov

"Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense."
-- Chapman Cohen

"It is said that men may not be the dreams of the Gods, but rather that the Gods are the dreams of men." - Carl Sagan

"It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." - Arthur C. Clarke

"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

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
- Epicurus

"God is not dead. He is alive and working on a much less ambitious project."
-- graffito

"Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk."
-- Tom Waits

You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do. --[from Usenet]

"If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever." - Woody Allen

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, & the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." - Karl Marx

"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people" - Jesse Ventura

"Humanity without religion is like a serial killer without a chainsaw."
-- unknown

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
-- H. L. Mencken

"Men never commit evil so fully and joyfuly as when they do it for religious convictions"
-- Blaise Pascal

"Faith is believing something you know ain't true." - Mark Twain

"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." - Benjamin Franklin

"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church."
--Ferdinand Magellan

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

"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

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
-- Stephen Roberts