Quotes for Thought
Life
"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching."- Satchel Paige
"Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance."
- Dave Berry
"You don't stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing."
- Michael Pritchard
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana
"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for it to kill your enemy."
- Nelson Mandela
Liberty
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."- Benjamin Franklin
"A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins."
- Benjamin Franklin
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public office save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country."
- Theodore Roosevelt
"If the price I must pay for my freedom is to acknowledge that the government was granted the power to infringe on them, then I am not free."
- Pol Anderson
Religion
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
- Epicurus (ca. 341-270 B.C.E.) Greek philosopher
"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the world."
- Thomas Jefferson - Notes on the State of Virginia, 1787
"Religion has ever been anti-human, anti-woman, anti-life, anti-peace, anti-reason and anti-science. The god idea has been detrimental not only to humankind but to the earth. It is time now for reason, education and science to take over."
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair - Speech, 1990
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
- Stephen Roberts
"I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of His children for their numerous stupidities, for which only He Himself can be held responsible; in my opinion, only His nonexistence could excuse Him."
- Albert Einstein (Letter to Edgar Meyer, Jan. 2, 1915)
"As for souls entering hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to hell. Since, there are more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to hell."
- Author unknown. Excerpt from "Is hell exothermic or endothermic?"
"Philosophy is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat.
Metaphysics is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat that isn't there.
Theology is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat that isn't there and shouting 'I found it!'"
"Why would an all-powerful god become flesh in order to sacrifice himself to himself so that his creation might escape the wrath of himself. Couldn't god, in his infinite wisdom, come up with something a little more efficient?"
"What is the purpose of prayer? What can a finite being on Earth possibly tell an omnipotent, omniscient deity that he doesn't know already?"
Miscellaneous
"Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant."- Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
I will update this page periodically as I find more quotes.