The Last Word

By A.S. Erikson | Saturday, October 4, 2008

The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Whoever obeys the gods, to him they particularly listen.
—Homer

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

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
—Bertrand Russell

God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through.
—Paul Valery

Unless you believe, you will not understand.
—Saint Augustine

It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to mankind.
—Jonathan Swift

Only the educated are free.
—Epictetus

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
—Joseph Conrad

They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.
—Emily Dickinson

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.
—Blaise Pascal

I say to mankind, Be not curious about God. For I, who am curious about each, am not curious about God—I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least.
—Walt Whitman

He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.
—William Shakespeare

Before God we are all equally wise—and equally foolish.
—Albert Einstein

For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the not-worth-knowing.
—H. L. Mencken

I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me.
—William Blake

The true meaning of religion is thus not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion.
—Matthew Arnold

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
—St. John

Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.
—Petrarch

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts, therefore guard accordingly; and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue, and reasonable nature.
—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

We should believe that God has dealt more bountifully with the sons of men than to give them a strong desire for that knowledge which he had placed quite out of their reach.
—George Berkeley

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
—C. S. Lewis

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.
—Edmund Burke

The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
—Friedrich Nietzsche

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.
—Soren Kierkegaard

The Last Word

Article Tools

Related Articles