best quotations about
Religion |
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Quotations
 | Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool. — Voltaire, 1694-1778, French philosopher & writer 130 likes |
 | Religious wars are basically people killing each other over who has the better imaginary friend. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 65 likes |
 | Crito, we owe a cock to Aesculapius. Pay it and do not neglect it. — Socrates, 469-399 BC, Ancient Geek Philosopher (his last words to his friend Crito) 59 likes |
 | Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful. — Seneca, 5 AD-65 AD, Roman philosopher 52 likes |
 | Religion is just mind control. — George Carlin, 1936-2008, American comedian 21 likes |
 | Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. — Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662, French thinker 18 likes |
 | The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion. — Arthur Clarke, 1917-2008, British Sci-Fi writer 16 likes |
 | Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand. — Karl Marx, 1818-1883, German philosopher 14 likes |
 | Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it. — Charles Caleb Colton, 1780-1832, English cleric & writer 13 likes |
| Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 11 likes |
| Religion is like a pair of shoes.....Find one that fits for you, but don't make me wear your shoes. — George Carlin, 1936-2008, American comedian 11 likes |
| Religion is the opium of the people. — Karl Marx, 1818-1883, German philosopher 10 likes |
 | The Greeks offered the East philosophy, the East offered Greece religion; religion won because philosophy was a luxury for the few, religion was a consolation for the many. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 9 likes |
 | Beware of the man whose god is in the skies. — George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish writer, Nobel 1925 9 likes |
 | For me the different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree. — Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948, Indian leader of independence 9 likes |
 | When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that's my religion. — Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, American President 9 likes |
| Religion is a byproduct of fear. — Arthur Clarke, 1917-2008, British Sci-Fi writer 8 likes |
 | Religious persecutors are not believers, they are rascals. — Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778, Swiss-French philosopher 8 likes |
| Kiss the feet of Popes provided their hands are tied. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 7 likes |
| There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it. — George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish writer, Nobel 1925 7 likes |
 | Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires. — Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939, Austrian psychologist, founder of psychoanalysis 7 likes |
 | Wherever an altar is found, there civilization exists. — Joseph De Maistre, 1753-1821, Savoyard diplomat & philosopher 7 likes |
 | Your religion is what you do when the sermon is over. — H. Jackson Brown, Jr., 1940-2021, American self-help writer 6 likes |
| I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay hands on everything they can get. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 6 likes |
 | If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it? — Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790, American politician & writer 6 likes |
 | There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious. — Niccolò Machiavelli, 1469-1527, Italian political philosopher 6 likes |
 | Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true. — Thomas Paine, 1737-1809, English-American writer 6 likes |
 | A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it. — H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American columnist & cultural critic 6 likes |
 | All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry. — Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849, American writer 6 likes |
 | People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them. — Dave Barry, 1947-, American journalist 6 likes |
 | Again and again our foe, religion, has given birth to deeds sinful and unholy. — Lucretius, 98-55 BC, Roman poet 6 likes |
| Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the non-existence of Zeus or Thor — but they have few followers now. — Arthur Clarke, 1917-2008, British Sci-Fi writer 6 likes |
 | The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. — Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794, English historian 5 likes |
| God has no religion. — Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948, Indian leader of independence 5 likes |
 | The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also. — Mark Twain, 1835-1910, American writer 5 likes |
| There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 5 likes |
 | If your religion does not change you, then you had better change your religion. — Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American writer 5 likes |
 | Superstition is a little more human than religion, because it lacks morals. — Remy de Gourmont, 1858-1915, French poet 5 likes |
| As soon as the nations took to making God speak, every one made him speak in his own fashion, and made him say what he himself wanted. Had they listened only to what God says in the heart of man, there would have been but one religion upon earth. — Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778, Swiss-French philosopher 5 likes |
| You don't govern men who don't have religion, you shoot them. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 4 likes |
 | Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen. — Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592, French thinker 4 likes |
| For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing. — H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American columnist & cultural critic 4 likes |
 | Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous. — David Hume, 1711-1776, Scottish philosopher 4 likes |
 | It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it. — G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, English writer & critic 4 likes |
| As long as there is poverty there will be gods. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 4 likes |
 | Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism. — William James, 1842-1910, American philosopher 4 likes |
| Until we get rid of religion, we won't be able to conduct the search for God. — Arthur Clarke, 1917-2008, British Sci-Fi writer 4 likes |
| Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses. — Arthur Clarke, 1917-2008, British Sci-Fi writer 4 likes |
| Fear is the mother of all gods. Nature does all things spontaneously, by herself, without the meddling of the gods. — Lucretius, 98-55 BC, Roman poet 4 likes |
| Philosophy is a bully that talks loud when the danger is at a distant; but, the moment she is pressed hard by an enemy, she is nowhere to be found and leaves the brunt of the battle to be fought by her steady, humble comrade, religion. — Charles Caleb Colton, 1780-1832, English cleric & writer 3 likes |
 | Each religion has got their own way of making you feel like a victim. — Timothy Leary, 1920-1996, American psychologist 3 likes |
| In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals. — Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948, Indian leader of independence 3 likes |
 | I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion. — Baruch Spinoza, 1632-1677, Dutch philosopher 3 likes |
 | Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived. — Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer 3 likes |
 | Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in a mixed company. — Lord Chesterfield, 1694-1773, English statesman & writer 3 likes |
| Cruelty and intolerance to those who do not belong to it are natural to every religion. — Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939, Austrian psychologist, founder of psychoanalysis 3 likes |
 | Religion is the last refuge of human savagery. — Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947, British philosopher & mathematician 3 likes |
 | Religions are not true or false, but better or worse. — George Santayana, 1863-1952, Spanish-American philosopher 3 likes |
 | That which we call the Hindu religion is really the Eternal religion because it embraces all others. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher 3 likes |
 | All religions are based on obsolete terminology. — Vladimir Nabokov, 1899-1977, Russian-American writer 2 likes |
 | Good health is the best weapon against religion. Healthy bodies and healthy minds have never been shaken by religious fears. — Emile M. Cioran, 1911-1995, French-Romanian philosopher 2 likes |
| Religion comforts us for the defeat of our will to power. It adds new worlds to ours, and thus brings us hope of new conquests and new victories. — Emile M. Cioran, 1911-1995, French-Romanian philosopher 2 likes |
 | I have described religion as the metaphysics of the people. — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher 2 likes |
| Philosophy of religion really amounts to philosophizing on certain favorite assumptions that are not confirmed at all. — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher 2 likes |
| Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think. — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher 2 likes |
| The bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it. — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher 2 likes |
| The chief contribution of Protestantism to human thought is its massive proof that God is a bore. — H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American columnist & cultural critic 2 likes |
| Religious ideas have sprung from the same need as all the other achievements of culture: from the necessity for defending itself against the crushing supremacy of nature. — Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939, Austrian psychologist, founder of psychoanalysis 2 likes |
| Where the questions of religion are concerned people are guilty of every possible kind of insincerity and intellectual misdemeanor. — Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939, Austrian psychologist, founder of psychoanalysis 2 likes |
 | When a culture feels that its end has come, it sends for a priest. — Karl Kraus, 1874-1936, Austrian writer 2 likes |
 | I say the whole earth and all the stars in the sky are for religion’s sake. — Walt Whitman, 1819-1892, American poet 2 likes |
 | The Papacy is not other than the Ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof. — Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679, English philosopher 2 likes |
 | God is for men, and religion for women. — Joseph Conrad, 1857-1924, British-Polish writer 2 likes |
| Religion is an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world, which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessities. — Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939, Austrian psychologist, founder of psychoanalysis 2 likes |
 | Angels transcend every religion, every philosophy, every creed. In fact Angels have no religion as we know it... Their existence precedes every religious system that has ever existed on Earth. — Saint Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274, Italian Dominican friar & philosopher 2 likes |
 | All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the intelligence of the few. — Stendhal, 1783-1842, French writer 1 likes |
 | A little philosophy takes away from religion and a lot leads back to it. |
 | The man who is always worrying about whether or not his soul would be damned, generally has a soul that isn’t worth a damn. |
 | The three great elements of modern civilization, gunpowder, printing, and the Protestant religion. |
 | Religion may in most of its forms be defined as the belief that the gods are on the side of the government. |
 | An irreligious society cannot endure the truth of the human condition. It prefers a lie, no matter how idiotic it may be. |
 | Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God. |
| Philosophy has answers only for individuals, but religion has answers for the masses. |
 | Superstition is the only religion of which base souls are capable of. |
| The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men – from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms. |
 | Every idol, however exalted, turns out, in the long run, to be a Moloch, hungry for human sacrifice. |
| Most kings and priests have been despotic, and all religions have been riddled with superstition. |
 | The next century’s task will be to rediscover its gods. |
 | Oh, come on. Revelation was a mushroom dream that belonged in the Apocrypha. The New Testament is basically about what happened when God got religion. |
 | The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history. — Noam Chomsky, 1928-, American linguist, philosopher, social activist |
 | Religion is misunderstood mythology. |
| If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion, a sectarian religion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher |
 | Religion is the venereal disease of mankind. Politics is the cancer. |
| The gospel outside the Church is poison. — Joseph De Maistre, 1753-1821, Savoyard diplomat & philosopher |
 | Religion: the last refuge of self-love. — Maurice Chapelan, 1906-1992, French author of maxims & journalist |
| Religion is the counterfeit currency of despair. — Maurice Chapelan, 1906-1992, French author of maxims & journalist |
 | What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and religion! |
 | One's religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is Success. |
 | Religion is not a popular error; it is a great instinctive truth, sensed by the people, expressed by the people. |
 | The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own. |
| Take the Kama Sutra. How many people died from the Kama Sutra as opposed to the Bible? Who wins? |
 | Deep down, the problem is not a God that does not exist, but the religion that proclaims Him. I denounce religions, all religions, as harmful to Humankind. These are harsh words, but one must say them. |
 | When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion. |
| Religious mysticism is intellectual garbage. It’s a vestige of the old superstitious Dark Ages when nobody knew anything. It is one of those delusions that isn’t called insane only because there are so many people involved. |
| It was morality that burned the books of the ancient sages, and morality that halted the free inquiry of the Golden Age and substituted for it the credulous imbecility of the Age of Faith. It was a fixed moral code and a fixed theology which robbed the human race of a thousand years by wasting them upon alchemy, heretic-burning, witchcraft and sacerdotalism. — H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American columnist & cultural critic |
| The pioneers and missionaries of religion have been the real cause of more trouble and war than all other classes of mankind. |
 | One man's theology is another man’s belly laugh. |
 | The minute you get a religion you stop thinking. Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas. |
 | The man with creative imagination, like a poet, must believe in God. Ab Jove principium Musis – the muses begin with Zeus. |
| 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. |
| Paganism is the other Old Testament of the Church. |
| The ineptitude and folly of the bishops’ and popes’ chatter would annoy us, if we old Catholics had not fortunately learned as little children to sleep during the sermon. |
| The original scriptures of most religions are poetical and unsystematic. Theology, which generally takes the form of a reasoned commentary on the parables and aphorisms of the scriptures, tends to make its appearance at a later stage of religious history. |
Personal Stories
 | Madam, I am the blank page between the Old Testament and the New. — Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881, British Prime Minister (answer to Queen Victoria’s question “what is your real religion?”) 4 likes |
Latin Quotes
| So potent was Religion in persuading to do wrong. Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum. — Lucretius, 98-55 BC, Roman poet 33 likes |
 | It is certainly no part of religion to compel religion. Nec religionis est cogere religionem. |
Funny Quotes
 | I found there a country with thirty-two religions and only one sauce. — Talleyrand, 1754-1838, French statesman & diplomat 43 likes |
| “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?” This title offends all three major religions, and even vegetarians! — George Carlin, 1936-2008, American comedian 14 likes |
| The only good thing ever to come out of religion was the music. — George Carlin, 1936-2008, American comedian 14 likes |
| I was thinking about how people seem to read the bible a lot more as they get older, and then it dawned on me—they’re cramming for their final exam. — George Carlin, 1936-2008, American comedian 13 likes |
| The problem with writing about religion is that you run the risk of offending sincerely religious people, and then they come after you with machetes. — Dave Barry, 1947-, American journalist 11 likes |
 | Religion, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable. — Ambrose Bierce, 1842–1914, American writer 9 likes |
 | If you value your safety, avoid holy places founded in the name of peace and brotherhood. — Ashleigh Brilliant, 1933-, British cartoonist & epigrammatist |
Ancient Greek
 | Religion and laws, if they are exercised well, are beneficial; if exercised badly, they do not benefit at all. Το θείον και οι νόμοι, ευ μεν αγόντων, εισίν ωφέλιμοι, κακώς δε αγόντων ουδέν ωφελούσιν. — Solon, 630-560 BC, Ancient Greek lawmaker & philosopher 18 likes |
Proverbs
 | The nearer to the synagogue, the farther from God. 7 likes |
