« All Atheism Quotes · Thomas Jefferson's Page
Atheism Quotes by Thomas Jefferson
- To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are…
- The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.
- Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General Government.
- Civil officials have no business meddling in private religious affairs.
- I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives... But this does not satisfy the priesthood. They must have a positive, a…
- The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth…
- No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may…
- Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the…
- Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself.
- What is it men cannot be made to believe!
- I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the…
- If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of…
- My opinion is that there would never have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest. The artificial structures they have built on…
- I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism.…
- But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who…
- 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…
- It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
- It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
- Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
- Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man…
- Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.
- 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…
- The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a…
- We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore…
- Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all…
More Atheism Quotes
- A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler… — Aristotle
- To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. — Isaac Asimov
- It is not the Head but the Heart that is the Seat of Atheism. — Mary Astell
- A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. — Francis Bacon
- Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God. — Francis Bacon
- I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is… — Francis Bacon
- Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales,… — Francis Bacon
- You can educate yourself right out of a relationship with God. — Tammy Faye Bakker
- People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine… — Mikhail Bakunin
- Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of… — Douglas Adams
- Women get more unhappy the more they try to liberate themselves. — Brigitte Bardot
- Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination. — Edward Abbey