Quotes from Famous Freethinkers

[ChristineM]

With every passing hour our solar system comes forty-three thousand miles closer to globular cluster 13 in the constellation Hercules, and still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no such thing as progress.
- Ransom K. Ferm

 

[ChristineM]

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
- Douglas Adams

 

[ChristineM]

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

 

[ChristineM]

Religions are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies.
- Thomas Jefferson

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 240).

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Delusions are often functional. A mother’s opinions about her children’s beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 241). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (pp. 241-242). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Of all the strange “crimes” that human beings have legislated out of nothing, “blasphemy” is the most amazing—with “obscenity” and “indecent exposure” fighting it out for second and third place.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 242). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (pp. 243-244). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[ChristineM]

You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there are two things: You're getting off first, or I'm going to die. It's really that simple, right?
- Will Smith

 

[ChristineM]

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.
- Oscar Wilde

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something. Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let’s play that over again, too. Who decides?

Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let’s play that over again, too. Who decides?

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 246). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[ChristineM]

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, 'As pretty as an airport.'
- Douglas Adams

 

[ChristineM]

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something. Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let’s play that over again, too. Who decides?

Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let’s play that over again, too. Who decides?

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 246). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in it.
- Terry Pratchett

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

~ Terry Pratchett

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods. They have not forgotten this.

~ Terry Pratchett

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent—it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 247). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 248). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[ChristineM]

Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.
- Jim Carrey

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Nothing good ever happened after the phrase, "Here, hold my beer---"

~ anon