Don't Take My Word For It: Quotes

"History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose."-Thomas Jefferson to Baron von Humboldt, 1813

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it."-Benjamin Franklin, from "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion", Nov. 20, 1728

"The more you increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people."-Noam Chomsky

"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable."-H.L.Mencken

"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"Truth in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived."-Oscar Wilde

"He who casts the votes decides nothing.  He who counts the votes decides everything."-Josef Stalin

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."   -John Kenneth Galbraith

"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not."-James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785

"The idea of a good society is something you do not need a religion and eternal punishment to buttress; you need a religion if you are terrified of death."-Gore Vidal

in referencing a patriot  "The person who can holler loudest without knowing what he is hollering about."-Mark Twain

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!"-John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson

"Faith is the commitment of one's consciousness to beliefs for which one has no sensory evidence or rational proof."-Ayn Rand

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."-Napoleon

"Anyone who believes that God is watching us from beyond the stars will feel that punishing peaceful men and women for their private pleasure is perfectly reasonable.  Perhaps we should have better reasons for depriving our neighbors of their liberty at gunpoint."-Sam Harris The End of Faith