P-S Quotes

Thomas Paine
(1737-1809) Political theorist and writer

"The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authority; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion."

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

"Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true." The Age of Reason

"Science is the true theology" quoted in Emerson, "The Mind on Fire" pg.153

"...to argue with a man who has renouced his reason is like giving medicine to the dead." "The Crisis", quoted in Ingersoll's Works, Vol. 1, p.127

Blaise Pascal
(1623-1662) French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." Pensees (1670)

"The heart has its reasons, which reason knows nothing of."

Bertrand Russell
(1872-1970) English philosopher/considered the founder of analytic philosophy

"Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so."

"The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge." What I Believe

"If you think your belief is based upon reason, you will support it by argument rather than by persecution, and will abandon it if the argument goes against you. But if your belief is based upon faith, you will realize that argument is useless, and will therefore resort to force either in the form of persecution or by stunting or distorting the minds of the young in what is called 'education'."

"I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world." Why I Am Not a Christian, 1957

"There is something feeble and a little contemptable about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not real, he becomes furious when they are disputed." Human Society in Ethics and Politics

"So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence."

"Religion prevents our children from having a rational education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific cooperation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, If so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion." Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?, 1930

William Shakespeare
(1564-1616) the greatest writer from the Elizabethan Age

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds." Sonnet 116

"To be, or not to be,--that is the question:-- Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?" Hamlet (III, i, 56-61)
To read the full quote in the play Click Here

"Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never taste of death but once." Julius Caesar (II, ii, 32-37)

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

"This above all; to thine own self be true."

George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950) Showman, controversialist, satirist, critic, intellectual buffoon and dramatist

"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means."

"I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no 'brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

"Patriotism is the conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it."

"All great truths begin as blasphemies." Annajanska (1919)