I’m an atheist and I thank God for it.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.
—Isaac Asimov (1920–92) Russian-born American Writer, Scientist
Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to drown His own?
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
The atheist is one of the most daring beings in creation—a contemner of God who explodes his laws by denying his existence.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
We shall say without hesitation that the atheist who is moved by love is moved by the Spirit of God; an atheist who lives by love is saved by his faith in the God whose existence (under that name) he denies.
—William Temple (1881–1944) English Theologian, Archbishop
I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.
—George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American Republican Statesman, 41st President
An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame—Southern Methodist University game and doesn’t care who wins.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
A little philosophy inclineth men’s minds to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further.—But when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Faith, and belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
The religion of the atheist has a God-shaped blank at it’s heart
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
Few men are so obstinate in their atheism, that a pressing danger will not compel them to the acknowledgment of a divine power.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him).
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
Atheism is rather in the life than in the heart of man.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960) Russian Lyric Poet, Novelist, Translator
I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious ourselves.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn’t.
—Jules Renard (1864–1910) French Writer, Diarist
If you don’t believe in God, all you have to believe in is decency. Decency is very good. Better decent than indecent. But I don’t think it’s enough.
—Harold Macmillan (1894–1986) British Head of State
Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist that there is no God.
—Heywood Hale Broun (1918–2001) American Journalist, Commentator, Actor
I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
If therefore my work is negative, irreligious, atheistic, let it be remembered that atheism—at least in the sense of this work—is the secret of religion itself; that religion itself, not indeed on the surface, but fundamentally, not in intention or according to its own supposition, but in its heart, in its essence, believes in nothing else than the truth and divinity of human nature.
—Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804–72) German Materialist Philosopher
If there is no God, everything is permitted.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–81) Russian Novelist, Essayist, Writer
And as for the unbelievers, their works are as a mirage in a spacious plain which the man athirst supposes to be water, till when he comes to it, he finds it is nothing; there indeed he finds God, and He pays him his account in full; (and God is swift at the reckoning).
—The Holy Quran Sacred Scripture of Islam
Virtue in distress, and vice in triumph, make atheists of mankind.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
I’m not an athiest. How can you not believe in something that doesn’t exist? That’s way too convoluted for me.
—A. Whitney Brown (b.1952) American Comedian, TV Personality
When ever a person talks loudly against religion, always suspect that it is not their reason, but their passions, which have got the better of their beliefs. A bad life and a good belief are disagreeable and troublesome neighbors; and when they separate, depend on it that it is for the sake of peace and quiet.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
To be an atheist requires an infinitely greater measure of faith than to receive all the great truths which atheism would deny.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
—Richard Dawkins (b.1941) British Evolutionary Biologist, Atheist
Forth from his dark and lonely hiding-place, (Portentous sight!) the owlet Atheism, sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon, drops his blue-fringed lids, and holds them close, and hooting at the glorious sun in Heaven, cries out, “Where is it?”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
An atheist may be simply one whose faith and love are concentrated on the impersonal aspects of God.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
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