"Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats, then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure." - Fred Allen

"If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank." - Woody Allen

"A belief is not true because it is useful." - Henri-Frédéric Amiel

"Beware, the man of one book." - St. Thomas Aquinas

"Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence." - Aristotle

"All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation." - W. H. Auden, A Certain World

"No morality can be founded on authority, even if the authority were divine." - A. J. Ayer, Essay on Humanism

"The wish to pray is a prayer in itself." - Georges Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Bible, Hebrews 11:1

"'You of little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'" - Bible, Matthew 14:31

"Scriptures, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based." - Ambrose Bierce

"PRAY, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy." - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

"HEATHEN, n. A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something that he can see and feel." - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

"A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, No Rusty Swords

"We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount." - General Omar Bradley, speech (1948)

"If a man possesses a repentant spirit his sins will disappear, but if he has an unrepentant spirit his sins will continue and condemn him for their sake forever." - Buddha

"Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference, which is, at least, half infidelity." - Edmund Burke

"It is hard to say whether the doctors of law or divinity have made the greater advances in the lucrative business of mystery." - Edmund Burke

"Don't wait for the Last Judgement. It takes place every day." - Albert Camus, The Fall

"More and more people care about religious tolerance as fewer and fewer care about religion." - Alexander Chase, Perspectives

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried." - G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World

"Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it." - Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon

"I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure-that is all that agnosticism means." - Clarence S. Darrow, courtroom argument (at Scopes trial, 1925)

"I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means." - Clarence S. Darrow, courtroom argument (at Scopes trial, 1925)

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." - Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years

"The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum." - Havelock Ellis

"Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed." - Epicetus

"All religions must be tolerated...for...every man must get to heaven in his own way." - Frederick II

"The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy." - Giuseppe Garibaldi

"Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel." - Frederick Harrison

"In earlier religions the spirit of the time was expressed through the individual and confirmed by miracles. In modern religions the spirit is expressed through the many and confirmed by reason." - Heinrich Heine

"I do benefits for all religions - I'd hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality." - Bob Hope

"Hell is an outrage on humanity. When you tell me that your deity made you in his image, I reply that he must have been very ugly." - Victor Hugo

"The tyrant dies and his rule ends, the martyr dies and his rule begins." - Soren Aabye Kierkegaard

"No amount of manifest absurdity . . . could deter those who wanted to believe from believing." - Bernard Levin, The Pendulum Years

"There will be two kinds of people in the end: Those that will say to God 'Thy will be done' and those to whom God will say 'Thy will be done.'" - C. S. Lewis, paraphrased

"Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"It is a curious thing that God learned Greek when he wished to turn author - and that he did not learn it better." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"There cannot be a God because, if there were one, I would not believe that I was not He." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"Is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's blunders?" - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"The total absence of humour from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature." - Alfred North Whitehead

"The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank." - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

"Religions that teach brotherly love have been used as an excuse for persecution, and our profoundest scientific insight is made into a means of mass destruction." - Bertrand Russell

"Religion in its humility restores man to his only dignity, the courage to live by grace." - George Santayana

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." - Seneca

"Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it." - George Bernard Shaw

"Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation." - Sivananda

"No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man." - Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

"Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense." - Voltaire

"The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker." - Voltaire

"To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd." - Voltaire

"By night an atheist half believes in a God." - Edward Young, Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality

"This only is denied to God: the power to undo the past." - Agathon (c448-c400 B.C.) from 'Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics', book VI, ch. 2

"Watch?? I'm gonna pray, Man! Know any good religions?" - Beeblebrox, Zaphod [character in 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'] by Douglas Adams

"For certain is death for the born And certain is birth for the dead; Therefore over the inevitable Thou shouldst not grieve." - Bhagavad Gita ['The Lord's Song'], 2:27 (250 B.C.-A.D. 250) Krishna to Arjuna

"I am that I am. /" - Bible (Exodus 3:14) spoken by God to Moses in reply to the question: 'When I come unto the children

"Prayer - to ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy." - Bierce, Ambrose (1842-c1914)

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount." - Bradly, General Omar N.

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself." - Burton, Sir Richard F.

"God is Love--I dare say. But what a mischievous devil Love is!" - Butler, Samuel (1835-1902) in 'Notebooks'

"He no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules!" - Butz, Earl on the Pope and birth control

"[A computer is] like an Old Testament god; lots of rules and no mercy." - Campbell, Joseph

"Nature, the vicaire of the almyghty lorde." - Chaucer, Geoffrey (c1343-1400) in 'The Parliament of Fowls', line 379

"Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods. We have ours, they have theirs. That is what's known as infinity." - Cocteau, Jean

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." - Einstein, Albert

"Seek the company of those who are looking for the truth, but run from those who have found it." - Havel, Vaclav [president, Czech Republic] as quoted by Deepak Chopra

"God not only plays dice, he also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen." - Hawking, Stephen

"Love is a pure dew which drops from heaven into our heart, when God wills." - Houssaye, Arsene

"Love is my religion--I could die for that." - Keats, John (1795-1821) in a letter to Fanny Brawne 13 Oct 1819

"Fiat justitia, ruit coelum. T: 'Let justice be done, even if Heaven falls.'" - Legal saying

"Winning isn't everything--but wanting to win is. T: also seen as 'Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything.'^ History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion--i.e. none to speak of." - Long, Lazarus

"I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you an education." - Mizner, Wilson

"The last Christian died on the cross." - Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844-1900)

"Which is it, is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's?" - Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844-1900)

"All that is comes from the mind; it is based on the mind, it is fashioned by the mind." - Pali Canon [Sacred scriptures of Theravada Buddhists] in 'Suttapitaka', Dhammapada 1:1 c500-c250 B.C

"For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love - this is the eternal law." - Pali Canon [Sacred scriptures of Theravada Buddhists] in 'Suttapitaka', Dhammapada 1:5 c500-c250 B.C

"This noble eightfold path ... right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right contemplation." - Pali Canon [Sacred scriptures of Theravada Buddhists] in 'Suttapitaka', Dhammacakkappavattanasutta,

"All other goods by Fortune's hands are given; A wife is the peculiar gift of heaven." - Pope, Alexander

"Loud speech, profusion of words and possessing skillfulness in expounding scriptures are merely for the enjoyment of the learned. They do not lead to liberation." - Shankaracharya

"Jesus only told half the story. The truth 'will' set you free. But, first it's going to piss you off." - Short, Solomon

"If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia." - Szasz, Thomas from 'Schizophrenia' in 'The Second Sin' 1973

"Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundry condition." - Turing, Alan

"Baseball is like church: many people attend but few understand." - Unknown

"My young brother asked me what happens after we die. I told him we get buried under a bunch of dirt and worms eat our bodies. I guess I should have told him the truth--that most of us go to hell and burn eternally--but I didn't want to upset him." - Unknown 10-Year Old

"When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers." - Wilde, Oscar (1854-1900)

"Acceptance without proof is the fundamental characteristic of Western religion, Rejection without proof is the fundamental characteristic of Western science." - Zuka, Gary in 'The Dancing Wu Li Masters'