110 Atheist Quotes for Asking Valuable Questions

These Atheist quotes will open your mind to possibilities you may not have considered before.

The idea of Atheism is that there is no God, no religion, and no questioning—that would be Agnosticism.

The idea of Atheism is only growing as more and more people begin to question the beliefs that they were brought up with.

We are fed certain supposed truths as children, and it’s up to us as adults to decide whether we still believe them to be true.

What can the idea of Atheism say about belief?

The truth is, belief is often learned, not discovered for one’s self.

When it comes to belief, the important thing is to recognize that you do not have to believe things you are unsure of, simply because someone told you they were true.

It is okay to question everything.

Also, check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily wisdom. 

See the rest of our quote database for even more inspirational ideas and thoughts.

Atheist Quotes About God and Religion

1. “After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

2. “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” – Christopher Hitchens

3. “To you, I’m an atheist. To God, I’m the loyal opposition.” – Woody Allen

4. “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.” – Epicurus

5. “All thinking men are atheists.” – Ernest Hemingway

6. “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire

7. “Atheism is a non-prophet organization.” – George Carlin

8. “I’d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.” – Douglas Adams

9. “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.” – Isaac Asimov

10. “God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

Atheist Quotes About Finding Meaning in Life

11. “We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has every believed in. Some of us just go one god further.” – Richard Dawkins

12. “Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?” – Douglas Adams

13. “Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.” – C.S. Lewis

14. “Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively, fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.” – Emmett F. Fields

15. “Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

16. “Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.” – Christopher Hitchens

17. “I finally decided that I’m a creature of emotion as well as reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.” – Isaac Asimov

18. “We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.” – Christopher Hitchens

19. “Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.” – Christopher Hitchens

20. “The more I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there’s any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson

21. “I don’t profess any religion; I don’t think it’s possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words ‘spiritual’ or ‘spirituality.’” – Philip Pullman

22. “We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That’s it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.” – Sam Harris

23. “A preoccupation with the next world clearly shows an inability to cope credibly with this one.” – Richard K Morgan

24. “A true friend is a gift from God. Since God doesn’t exist, guess what? Neither do true friends.” – Scott Dikkers

Atheist Quotes to Reason Through Belief

25. “The Bible has noble poetry in it… and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies.” – Mark Twain

26. “Is man merely a mistake of God’s? Or God merely a mistake of man?” – Friedrich Nietzsche

27. “If it turns out there is a God… the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever.” – Woody Allen

28. “One would go mad if one took the Bible seriously; but to take it seriously one must be already mad.” – Aleister Crowley

29. “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion.” – Seven Weinber

30. “Scientists do not join hands every Sunday and sing ‘Yes gravity is real! I know gravity is real! I will have faith! I believe in my heart that what goes up, up, up must come down, down, down. Amen!’ If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure about the concept.” – Dan Barker

31. “To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation—is that good for the world?” – Christopher Hitchens

32. “I don’t want to believe. I want to know.” – Carl Sagan

33. “She believed in nothing. Only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist.” – Jean-Paul Sartre

34. “Just keep asking yourself: What would Jesus not do?” – Chuck Palahniuk 

35. “Be sure to lie to your kids about the benevolent, all-seeing Santa Claus. It will prepare them for an adulthood or believing in God.” – Scott Dikkers

36. “I tried to believe that there is a God, who created each of us in His own image and likeness, loves us very much, and keeps a close eye on things. I really tried to believe that, but I gotta tell you, the longer you live, the more you look around, the more you realize, something is fucked up.” – George Carlin

37. “Agnostics are just atheists without balls.” – Stephen Colbert

38. “Belief is the death of intelligence.” – Robert Anton Wilson

39. “I am an atheist out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I’ve been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn’t have.” – Isaac Asimov

Atheist Quotes for Not Questioning Belief 

40. “I believe the simplest explanation is, there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization that there probably is no heaven and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that, I am extremely grateful.” – Stephen Hawking

41. “The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God’s infinite love. That’s the message we’re brought up with isn’t it? Believe or die! Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.” – Bill Hicks

42. “Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.” – Emile Zola

43. “Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason.” – Christopher Hitchens

44. “We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing-all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames then for his own mistakes.” – Gene Roddenberry

45. “If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion.” – Edmond de Goncourt

46. “The reason people use a crucifix against vampires is because vampires are allergic to bullshit.” – Richard Pryor

47. “I die as I have lived, a free spirit, an Anarchist, owing no allegiance to rulers, heavenly or earthly.” – Voltairine de Cleyre

48. “Almighty God, I am sorry I am now an atheist, but have You read Nietzche?” – John Fante

49. “When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a religion.” – Robert M. Pirsig

50. “I have a great mind to believe in Christianity for the mere pleasure of fancying I may be damned.” – Lord Byron

More atheist quotes that will make you think

51. “All this twaddle, the existence of God, atheism, determinism, liberation, societies, death, etc., are pieces of a chess game called language, and they are amusing only if one does not preoccupy oneself with ‘winning or losing this game of chess.” ― Marcel Duchamp

52. “My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.” ― George Santayana

53. “I could not believe in a God that would challenge faith like this.” ― Jonathan Safran Foer

54. “The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains.” ― Al-Maʿarri

55. “It’s a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It’s the opposite. We have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for.” ― Ricky Gervais

56. “I studied every page of this book, and I didn’t find enough love to fill a salt shaker. God is not love in the Bible; God is vengeance, from Alpha to Omega.” ― Ruth Hurmence Green

57. “If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.” ― Haruki Murakami

58. “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” ― St. Thomas Aquinas

59. “I suppose that one reason I have always detested religion is its sly tendency to insinuate the idea that the universe is designed with ‘you’ in mind or, even worse, that there is a divine plan into which one fits whether one knows it or not. This kind of modesty is too arrogant for me.” ― Christopher Hitchens

60. “A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.” ― C.S. Lewis

Atheist quotes that are filled with wisdom

61. “God was always invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand. Now when you finally discover how something works, you get some laws which you’re taking away from God; you don’t need him anymore. But you need him for the other mysteries.” ― Richard Feynman

62. “All children are atheists; they have no idea of God.” ― Paul-Henri Holbach

63. “The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.” ― Albert Einstein

64. “Imagine that the brain is a computer and that religion is a virus. Atheism is the wiping of that virus.” ― Nick Harding

65. “The most dangerous type of atheism is not theoretical atheism, but practical atheism — that’s the most dangerous type. And the world, even the church, is filled up with people who pay lip service to God and not life service.” ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

66. “It is not hardness of heart or evil passions that drive certain individuals to atheism, but rather a scrupulous intellectual honesty.” ― Steve Allen

67. “Since ancient times, the philosophers’ secret has always been this: we know that God does not exist, or, at least, if he does, he’s utterly indifferent to our individual affairs–but we can’t let the rabble know that; it’s the fear of God, the threat of divine punishment and the promise of divine reward, that keeps in line those too unsophisticated to work out questions of morality on their own.” ― Robert J. Sawyer

68. “An atheist doesn’t have to be someone who thinks he has a proof that there can’t be a god. He only has to be someone who believes that the evidence on the God question is at a similar level to the evidence on the werewolf question.” ― John Mccarthy

69. “Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do.” ― George Carlin

70. “Though I dislike to differ with such a great man, Voltaire was simply ludicrous when he said that if god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. The human invention of god is the problem to begin with.” ― Christopher Hitchens

Atheist Quotes About Their Character

71. “Atheists express their rage against God although in their view He does not exist.” — C. S. Lewis

72. “Therefore, as atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this, that it deprived human nature of the means to exalt itself, above human frailty.” — Francis Bacon

73. “If there were not God, there would be no atheists.” — G. K. Chesterton

74. “If this is not atheism, to acknowledge no other deity besides dead and senseless matter, then the word has no significance.” — Ralph Cudworth

75. “A man who parades his piety is one who, under an atheist king, would be an atheist.” — Jean De La Bruyere

76. “There are no atheists in foxholes.” — William Thomas Cummings

77. “By night an atheist half believes in God.” — Edward Young

78. “A society of atheists would immediately invent a religion.” — Honore De Balzac

79. “If you have a sloppy religion you get a sloppy atheism.” — Ronald Knox

80. “Atheism is a disease of the mind caused by eating underdone philosophy.” — Austin O’Malley

Thought Provoking Atheist Quotes About Their Beliefs

81. “It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. . . . We need to feel that behind us is intelligence and love.” — Calvin Coolidge

82. “The making of an Atheist implies a mental stimulation and training which brings into play the primary factors of social progress.” — Joseph McCabe

83. “It’s not so much that I’m an atheist so much as the sneaking suspicion that I myself may be god.” — Thom Yorke

84.  “People think that atheists have nothing to live for, but that’s not true – it’s that we have nothing to die for.” — Matthew Healy

85. “I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.” — Henny Youngman

86. “An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident.” — Francis Thompson

87. “I do not feel any contempt for an atheist, who is often a man limited and constrained by his own logic to a very sad simplification.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton

88. I am a daylight atheist.” — Brendan Behan

89. “You happen to be talking to an agnostic. You know what an agnostic is? A cowardly atheist.” — Studs Terkel

90. “The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.” — Eric Hoffer

Atheist Quotes on Living Without Belief in a Deity

91. “To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to receive all the great truths which atheism would deny.” ― G.K. Chesterton

92. “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.” ― Brennan Manning

93. “I am an atheist because I believe in a scientific explanation for the universe, not a religious one.” ― Richard Dawkins

94. “Atheism is not a lack of morality, but a recognition that morality doesn’t come from a deity.” ― Michael Shermer

95. “Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma.” ― Sam Harris

96. “The truth is that the most practical, rational, and dispassionate mindset is not religious, but atheist.” ― Neil deGrasse Tyson

97. “Atheism is the rejection of false ideas, not a lack of spiritual awe.” ― Matt Dillahunty

98. “Atheism is simply the lack of belief in a deity. It is not a negative or hostile stance towards religion, but simply a recognition that there is no compelling evidence for the existence of a higher power.” ― Rebecca Goldstein

99. “Atheism is the absence of belief in a god or gods. It is not a lack of morals or values, nor is it a negative worldview. It simply means you don’t believe in a higher power.” ― Penn Jillette

100. “Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious.” ― Sam Harris

101. “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

102. “I do not believe in God, but I am not an atheist. My religion is humanity.” ― Robert G. Ingersoll

103. “The atheist does not say ‘there is no God,’ but he says ‘I know not what you mean by God; the word is without a meaning.” ― Charles Bradlaugh

104. “I’m an atheist, and that’s it. I believe there’s nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.” ― Katharine Hepburn

105. “An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.” ― John Buchan

106. “If there were no God, there would be no atheists.” ― Gilbert K. Chesterton

107. “I’m a very hard-line, angry atheist. Yet I am fascinated by the concept of devotion.” ― Joss Whedon

108. “Unhappy, let alone angry, religious people provide more persuasive arguments for atheism and secularism than do all the arguments of atheists.” ― Dennis Prager

109. “Atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of understanding.” ― Plato

110. He was an embittered atheist, the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him.” ― George Orwell

What did you learn from these atheist quotes?

Atheism is not just about denouncing God.

These Atheist quotes show that Atheism is more than simply a lack of belief—it is a mode of questioning.

When it comes to learned beliefs, there should come a time in your life where those beliefs come up in question.

Whether the questioning is called upon from the death of a loved one, a new scientific discovery, or a simple examination of this modern world, it is important to listen, and accept the fact that not everything you learned in your youth is necessarily true.

What can be learned from the concept of Atheism?

Atheism exists, whether you’re religious or not, and it’s important to recognize that the root of it is not an insult to religion, but rather, it is a mode of questioning.

It isn’t necessary to believe everything you were taught as a child as fact, and questioning those beliefs is simply part of the path to self-discovery.

What’s your biggest takeaway from these Atheism quotes and sayings?

Do you have any other quotes to add?

Let us know in the comment section below.