If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

About Voltaire

Portrait of Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet (French: [fʁɑ̃swa maʁi aʁwɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his pen name Voltaire (, US also ; French: [vɔltɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher (philosophe), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity (especially of the Catholic Church) and...

More quotations from Voltaire

History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up.

history change class

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

More quotations tagged with “atheism”

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for 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.

—Thomas Jefferson

Ask a deeply religious Christian if he'd rather live next to a bearded Muslim that may or may not be plotting a terror attack, or an atheist that may or may not show him how to set up a wireless network in his house. On the scale of prejudice, atheists don't seem so bad lately.

fear prejudice Christianity atheism

You've got your phenomenon on one hand. Concrete and knowable. On the other hand you've got the incomprehensible. You call it God, but to me, God or no, it remains just that, the unknowable.

—Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess

We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

—Richard Dawkins

Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakeable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.

—Richard Dawkins

History

11 Jul 2015 Added